Portuguese Pica-Pau (with chicken)

Ler em português

When you don’t know what to cook or don’t have the mood to do it there is nothing better than this chicken ‘pica-pau’. ‘Pica-pau’ is a Portuguese recipe and people usually eat it with toothpicks and bread because of the amazing sauce. Nevertheless, this recipe is very versatile, because you can change the chicken for other type of meat or for a vegetables mix, like courgette and carrot and you can even add some mushrooms. So, I hope you like it. Here it is.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large chicken breast
• ½ lemon (juice)
• 3 drops of piri-piri sauce (or 1 large red dried chilli)
• 1 garlic clove finely diced
• 1 coffee spoon of ginger
• 1 coffee spoon of paprika
• 3 tablespoons of oil
• unsalted butter
• pickles
• salt
• black pepper

METHOD:

1. Cut the chicken into small cubes. Season with the garlic, lemon juice, salt, black pepper and paprika. Mix very well.
2. In a frying pan add approximately 3-4 tablespoons of unsalted butter and the oil. When hot, add the chicken, the ginger and the piri-piri drops. Mix and let it cook for 7-8 minutes or until the chicken is golden. At the end the chicken must have sauce, so add more unsalted butter if necessary. Taste it and adjust. Finally, add some pickles roughly cut and olives. Serve it with bread.

Enjoy!