from the braai: peri peri chicken

I love cooking outdoors when the weather allows. I'm limited to a wee Weber kettle at the moment but I'd like to upgrade once I move--I'm thinking of trying to find an old 44 gallon drum and getting it cut in half, just like we used to have in scouts, or maybe just making a decent pit. A larger fire would allow me to cook larger animals. It'd be cool to have an outdoor oven, too: wood-fired pizza, bread, roasts.

Still. The kettle works fine, just fine, for the sort of cooking I do now. On tonight's menu is peri peri chicken. I took a chicken--went for a 1.4 kilo bird, but you could use whatever--and butterflied it. Removed the wing tips (they scorch), the spine and the small bones. Kept the leg, thigh and wing bones because I'm feeling lazy, but if you really wanted to go all out you could bone the whole thing out without too much trouble. Use a small, sharp knife--you can buy boning knives for fuck all, but a decent paring knife will do, even--to follow the length the leg bones and then use your fingers, gently now, to tease the flesh away from the bones. Trim away the excess skin and fat around the neck. Score the really fleshy parts of the bird.

You have a couple options with marinade. The stuff put out by Nando's is pretty good. A bottle of it will set you back all of $2.50 and will marinade a couple of whole chickens or a lot of individual portions, so you may question the value of fucking around. If you do insist on fucking around, you can make an okay marinade in a food processor using fresh chillies, chilli powder, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. I think Nando's put some sort of tomato concentrate or semi-dried tomatoes in their sauces, so I guess you could add that too. Yet to bother doing that.

The key to cooking anything on the fire, but especially something as prone to drying out as chicken, is to be gentle. Set the fire a good hour before you want to cook. You shouldn't be flame grilling anything. A lot of marinades--including this one--burn easily and can lead to sudden flare ups if placed over a fire too soon, so be sure to keep an eye on the chicken and turn it frequently.

You can, of course, marinate the chicken in whatever you want. Lemon, garlic and thyme are a nice combination. Variations on the classic of Australian barbecues--honey-soy--are nice if done right, but be super careful when cooking as honey burns like a motherfucker.