Combine two of your favourite takeaways in one with this Peri Peri Chicken Pizza! Simply top a homemade pizza base with tomato, mozzarella, red onions, peppers, and strips of chicken, coated in a delicious Nando’s-style peri peri marinade, before baking in a hot oven for a fakeaway treat that’s ready in less than 30 minutes – what’s not to love?
Two takeaway favourites in one!
As you know, if you’ve been following me for a while, I love Nando’s. (In fact, you’ll find homemade versions of over a dozen of your Nando’s favourites on this website!)
But I also really, really love pizza!
So what could be better than to combine the two in this delicious Peri Peri Chicken Pizza? The perfect fakeaway treat!
How to make Peri Peri Chicken Pizza
And this Peri Peri Chicken Pizza could not be easier to make!
All you need to do is make a simple Nando’s style Peri Peri marinade, then add the chicken strips and mix thoroughly. Next, fry the chicken for 2 minutes on high. (See below for why this is necessary.) Then, make the bases, as per my Quick and Easy Pizza Crust recipe.
To assemble your pizzas, spread the passata all over the base, scatter over the thinly sliced onions and peppers, the cooked peri peri chicken, and the torn mozzarella, so each pizza is evenly covered. Top with oregano and black pepper, then cook your pizzas in your pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes. Easy Peasy!
(See below for the full recipe card.)
How long should you marinate the chicken?
Ideally you should leave the chicken in the peri peri marinade for 1 hour – simply cover the bowl and place the chicken in the fridge to marinate for an hour or so.
But if you don’t have the time, you can absolutely just skip that step and continue straight on with the recipe – it will still taste delicious!
Why do you need to cook the chicken?
You need to pre-cook the peri peri chicken strips for 2 minutes before you put the chicken on the pizza.
You know me, I like to skip steps wherever possible. But this is one you just can’t skip!
You need to pre-cook the chicken to ensure it cooks properly all the way through (no one wants to eat raw chicken!) and to ensure it gets those Nando’s style slightly charred bits.
Pre-cooking also gets rid of a lot of the water content – meaning your pizza won’t be soggy!
How do you get the pizza bases so thin and crispy?
Aha! That’s down to my not-so-secret Short Knead, No Prove Method!
This massively cuts down on the time it takes to make homemade pizza… but it also means the pizza bases don’t rise very much in the oven… resulting in a super thin pizza crust – RESULT!
Find out more here >>> Quick and Easy Pizza Dough (Super Thin Crust!)
Best cheese for peri peri chicken pizza
To bring you the perfect recipe for peri peri chicken pizza, I have experimented with several cheese options:
- Fresh mozzarella
- Grated mozzarella
- Grated cheddar
- 50/50 grated mozzarella and grated cheddar
I found the best option for this peri peri chicken pizza was fresh mozzarella. But grated mozzarella was a close second. I found that, whereas I love cheddar on some pizzas, it just didn’t work with the peri peri and chicken flavours
But ultimately it’s up to you and your tastebuds. I recommend you experiment a little and see what you like the most!
What to serve with peri peri chicken pizza
You can totally just eat this homemade peri peri chicken pizza on its own!
Or, if you want to add some extras, I recommend serving the pizzas with garlic bread and/or a simple salad.
Alternatively, you can serve it as part of a giant Nando’s-inspired feast with all your favourite homemade Nando’s dishes, such as:
- Homemade Nando’s Coleslaw
- Homemade Nando’s Rainbow Slaw
- Easy Roasted Corn On The Cob
- Homemade Nando’s Spicy Rice
- Easy Peri Peri Chicken Wings (Nando’s Copycat)
What to drink with peri peri chicken pizza
This peri peri chicken pizza goes very well with simple, uncomplicated Italian reds like Chianti, Valpolicella, Primitivo and Montepulciano d‘Abbruzzo.
It also works will with Sangiovese (the main grape variety in Chianti) or Primitivo / Zinfandel from other parts of the world. (Primitivo is known as Zinfandel in the USA.)
Moving away from Italy, this pizza also goes well with Chilean Merlot and Joven or Crianza style Riojas.
If you prefer white, this Nando’s inspired pizza works surprisingly well with Sauvignon Blanc – go for gutsy Sauvignon Blanc with big, bold flavours – from somewhere like New Zealand, Chile or South Africa. (The more delicate style French Sauvignon Blancs tend to get overwhelmed by the peri peri flavours.)
What to do with leftover peri peri chicken pizza
If you end up with leftovers, this homemade pizza keeps very well in the fridge. Simply place the cooked and cooled pizza in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep for up to 3 days.
This pizza is delicious cold, straight from the fridge, but can also be reheated. To reheat, set your oven to 200C (180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F) and place the cold pizza on a pizza tray / baking tray. Put it straight in the oven (don’t wait for the oven to warm up!) and cook for 5-10 minutes, or until it’s piping hot and the base has crisped up again.
I don’t recommend reheating pizza in the microwave (soggy base issues!)
Can you freeze peri peri chicken pizza?
You can – I’ll be honest, it’s not as good after freezing, but it’ll work! Simply place the cooked and cooled pizza in an airtight container in the freezer, where it will keep for up to 1 month. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
Peri Peri Chicken Pizza (Nando’s Inspired)
Ingredients
Peri Peri Chicken
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes or to taste – see Note 1
- 2 cloves garlic crushed or grated
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoons oregano
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- 300 g chicken breast roughly 2 medium chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
Pizzas
- 500 g strong white bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 7 g fast action yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 350 ml lukewarm water you may not need all of this, see below
- 350 g passata I use Cirio Passata Rustica
- 1 red onion very thinly sliced
- 1 red pepper very thinly sliced
- 1 green pepper very thinly sliced
- 250 g drained weight fresh mozzarella torn (or grated mozzarella or grated cheddar – see Note 1)
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- Black pepper to taste
Instructions
Peri Peri Chicken
- Place all the Peri Peri Chicken ingredients EXCEPT the chicken in a bowl and mix to combine thoroughly.
- Add the chicken strips and mix thoroughly to ensure the chicken is evenly coated in the marinade.
- Ideally, cover and place in the fridge to marinate for 1h, but if you don’t have the time just continue straight on with this recipe.
- Place a large non stick frying pan or wok over a high heat for 1 minute. Tip in the chicken and all the marinade and stir fry for 2 minutes. Then turn off the heat and tip the cooked chicken onto a plate. Then continue immediately with the rest of the recipe.
Pizzas
- Preheat your oven to 230C / 210C fan / gas mark 8 / 450F. Grease 4 large (12inch / 30cm) pizza trays with a little olive oil. (Or 8 smaller ones – See Note 2.)
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast and salt, then add the olive oil and stir. Slowly add the water until the mixture comes together to form a dough – the dough should just come together and should not be too wet/sticky. (You may not need all the water. Start with 300ml and see how it goes, add it in little bits after that.)
- Knead the pizza dough for 5 minutes on a floured surface.
- Divide the dough up into 4 equal sized pieces (or 8 if you are making small ones) – I use my scales to make this easier and more accurate.
- Roll out each piece out to roughly the size of the pizza tray. Put the rolled out dough in the pizza tray and stretch out gently to the full size of the pizza tray (this is because it will shrink slightly when you pick it up).
- Top each pizza with 4 tablespoons passata. Spread the passata all over the base using the back of a spoon, leaving a thin border all around the pizza. (Don’t use too much passata or it will make your pizzas soggy.)
- Scatter over the thinly sliced onions and peppers, so each pizza is covered evenly with the veggies.
- Next, scatter over the cooked chicken, so each pizza is covered evenly with the peri peri chicken.
- Finally, scatter over the torn mozzarella, so each pizza is covered evenly with the cheese.
- Top with oregano and black pepper.
- Cook your pizzas in your pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes. You may find you need to move the pizzas around in your oven so they cook evenly.
- The pizzas are ready when the cheese is bubbling and the base is a light golden brown and crispy, not soggy. (If you discover as you are cutting the pizza that the base is still a bit soggy, just pop it back in the pizza tray and back in the oven for a couple more minutes.)
Notes
- What cheese you use is up to you. You can use grated mozzarella, grated cheddar or torn fresh mozzarella. My personal preference here is torn fresh mozzarella. Please note 250g drained weight = 400g undrained.
- This recipe can also be used to make 8 smaller 7inch (18cm) pizzas. If you don’t have a pizza tray, use a baking tray or cake tin of a similar size instead.
- The trick to getting a super thin crust is to only knead for 5 minutes and not prove the dough, so be careful not to leave the pizza dough to rest to long at any point or you will find the dough rises and you’ll have thick crust pizzas!
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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