Chicken Mozambique

Chicken Mozambique is a dish with a passport: born of Portugal’s long culinary conversation with Mozambique, it truly flourished in the Portuguese communities of New England, where it is a menu staple from New Bedford to Fall River. Tender chicken in a garlicky, lemony, saffron-tinted sauce with a piri-piri kick — it tastes like both my worlds at once.

The sauce is the whole point: butter, wine, lemon and broth reduced into something you will want to mop up with everything in reach. Rice, crusty bread and fries are all traditional vehicles, and none of them is wrong.

Adjust the heat to your table — the piri-piri can whisper or shout — and dinner is done in under an hour.

Chicken Mozambique Recipe

Prep time: 20 minutes · Cook time: 30 minutes · Total: 50 minutes · Servings: 4 · Calories: ~354 per serving

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon turmeric, or a pinch of saffron threads
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons piri-piri sauce or hot sauce, to taste
• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Sear it in 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat until golden on all sides, 5 to 6 minutes. Set aside.
2. Melt the remaining butter in the same skillet and sauté the onion until translucent, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Stir in the garlic, paprika, turmeric and red pepper flakes; cook 1 minute, until fragrant.
4. Pour in the wine, scraping up the browned bits, and simmer 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Add the broth, lemon juice and piri-piri, then return the chicken and submerge it in the sauce.
6. Simmer over medium-low 10 to 12 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the sauce slightly thickened.
7. Shower with parsley and serve over rice, with bread or fries for the sauce.

Recipe Notes

• Saffron instead of turmeric is the luxurious, most traditional choice.
• Shrimp Mozambique is the famous sibling — same sauce, shrimp instead of chicken, 5 minutes of cooking.
• The sauce is the treasure: do not reduce it too far.