My Peri Peri Chicken and Peppers

Hello, world! We hit up Austin recently on a short road trip to Texas, and of course I had to stop at Tears of Joy -- the best hot sauce shop ever!

Mike laughs at me about the hot sauce thing and frequently blames any ailment I might complain about on my penchant for eating spicy food. Since I couldn't go crazy, though, I limited myself to five bottles (plus Mike's bottle of Susie's, which was at one point too hot for even me).

One of my haul was a Peri Peri sauce made by Zulu Zulu. The shop usually has a handful of sauces out to try, and they had a similar Peri Peri out, but Zulu Zulu's bottle was larger and my idea was to make something in the sauce rather than using it as a condiment. Plus the guy in the store said the two brands tasted pretty similar.

Using a Jamie Oliver recipe as inspiration, I seasoned two chicken breasts with salt and pepper and sliced them into thin, two-inch long strips and sauteed them in some oil until they were cooked through. I then removed the chicken breasts and tossed some sliced onion and bell pepper in the skillet, cooking them through.

Meanwhile, I poured a layer of the Peri Peri sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish. Once the onions and peppers were done, I threw all of it (cooked chicken strips, onions, and peppers) into the casserole with the sauce and tossed it together. Then I baked it the oven (preheated) at 400 for about twenty minutes so that the chicken and peppers could really absorb the flavors of the sauce.

Jamie's recipe has a homemade piri piri -- and is from his 30-Minute Meals show in the UK, so I like the way the recipe is laid out telling you exactly what to do when for the time conscious cook. Also keeping his recipe in mind, I roasted off some potatoes (sweet and red) and tossed them with some olive oil, Mexican cheese and red chilies.

The sauce had a bit of a kick, but not too much. Probably a bit hot for mom, but I thought it made a great summer-time meal. It wasn't terribly heavy and the heat was enough to cool me off (funny how that works, right?). I found some coconut soda water and mixed a bit with some mango nectar (thicker than a standard juice) to go alongside. Yum!