Homemade Nando’s Fino Pitta

5 from 2 votes

A toasted pitta filled with 2 peri peri chicken thighs, griddled halloumi cheese, caramelised red onion chutney, mayo and lettuce, this Peri Peri Chicken Pitta is a deliciously easy peasy homemade version of the much-loved Nando’s Fino Pitta!

Course Main Course, Sandwich

Cuisine Fusion, Portuguese, South African

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Total Time 20

Servings people

Calories 788kcal

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

Peri Peri Chicken Marinade

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons chilli flakes or to taste (See Note 1)
4 cloves garlic crushed or grated
Juice of 2 limes
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
2 teaspoons oregano
½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Black pepper to taste

Homemade Nando’s Fino Pittas

8 small chicken thigh fillets bone out & skin off (See Note 2)
225 g halloumi sliced into 8 slices
4 white pittas
4 tablespoons good quality mayonnaise (I use Hellmann’s)
4 tablespoons red onion chutney (I use Tesco Finest Red Onion Chutney)
4 large lettuce leaves

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Mix together all of the Peri Peri Chicken Marinade ingredients. Place the chicken thigh fillets in the bowl of marinade, turning to coat each piece of chicken with marinade.
Marinate the chicken for 1 hour in the fridge, if you have the time. Alternatively, if you don’t have the time, simply continue with the recipe.
When you are ready to start cooking, heat a griddle pan over a high heat for 1 minute until smoking hot. Next, place the chicken thigh fillets on the griddle and cook for 4 minutes on each side, or until fully cooked all the way through. (No griddle pan? Prefer to oven cook? See Note 3.)
Remove the chicken from the pan and place on a plate or board while you cook the halloumi. Place the halloumi on the griddle pan and cook for 30 seconds on each side.
While the halloumi is cooking, lightly toast your pittas in the toaster. (When the halloumi has finished cooking, remove to the same board / plate as the chicken, so it doesn’t cook too much!)
You can now begin assembling your fino pittas. Start by slicing open your pittas. Next, place two blobs of mayonnaise on the bottom of each pitta (roughly half a tablespoon each). Top with two chicken thigh fillets and two halloumi slices.
Finally, put a small blob of red onion chutney on top of each halloumi slice and top with a slice of lettuce.
Serve with all your Nando’s favourites!

Notes

Adjust the heat by using more or less chilli flakes. Exact ‘hotness’ will depend on the brand of chilli flakes, but as a rough guide go for 1 teaspoon = mild, 2 teaspoons = medium, 3 teaspoons = hot, 4 teaspoons = extra hot.
In Nando’s these are bone out, but skin left on. However, in British supermarkets it is hard to find boneless chicken thigh fillets with the skin left on. Personally, I prefer to buy chicken thigh fillets which are bone out and skin off – for convenience and because I tend to find that the skin does not stay crispy inside the pitta. But if the skin is important to you, you could buy skin on, bone in chicken thighs and remove the bones yourself.
If you do not own a griddle pan (or if you prefer to oven cook your chicken), you can cook the peri peri chicken thighs and halloumi slices in your oven instead. Simply put the marinated chicken on a large baking tray and place in an oven preheated to 220C / 200C / gas mark 7 / 425F. Cook for 10 minutes, then turn over and cook for a further 10 minutes. 5 minutes before the end of cooking time, add the halloumi slices.
Suitable for freezing. (Peri Peri Chicken only.)
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition