Whenever I go to Portugal my first pit stop is the same: a chicken piri piri restaurant that is little more than a shack (there are no real walls, just bits of matting hung on a frame) at the side of a dusty road. The place is full of Portuguese families noisily shouting for more piri piri sauce. Nothing else is served. Just frango piri piri, salad and chips or bread. The chicken is cooked on huge braziers and it’s difficult to replicate the special smokiness when you cook it at home, but you can almost get it. The Portuguese piri piri I’ve eaten always has a great red colour and is slightly sweet. I’ve tried to replicate this here by adding roast pepper. It’s hard to be prescriptive about cooking times as it depends on your grill (and some domestic grills are very poor), so these instructions are guidelines only. If you prefer to roast your joints, put them on a rack set in a roasting tin and cook for 40 minutes in an oven preheated to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7. In Portugal, whole small chickens or poussins – spatchcocked – are cooked this way, so use those if you prefer (get your butcher to do the spatchcocking). There is enough piri piri here for four poussins. Roast them just as you would joints.