HARTSDALE The kick comes from African peppers and the recipe is from Portugal. It's really quite traditional, and it's served up at a restaurant called Oporto, which is the name of a Portuguese town. Oporto is located at 191 East Hartsdale Avenue in Hartsdale.
We talked to Rui Correia about Frango, the Portuguese name for a young chicken. And in Portugal, the bird is cooked over charcoal...
"The charcoal is key," he said. "It's the biggest part of this cooking."
But the flavors are also important. Rui combines a lot of garlic roasted peppers, African peppers, salt, vinegar and lemon juice.
That's blended and olive oil is added to emulsify the sauce.
That is used to baste the chicken several times as it spins and cooks. The end result is chicken you can't stop eating.
It's the biggest seller at Oporto. The homemade sangria is also pretty big. The restaurant opened four and a half years ago in Hartsdale.
The setting is warm, the food, hot, and the portions, filling.
By the way, the chef's name is Rui, the owner's name is Rui and one of the main servers is Rui. So if you go there, ask for Rui!
Recipe for Frango Chicken from Oporto
Ingredients:
2 full heads of garlic
5-6 Malagueta dried peppers or dried chilis (increase if you want it spicy)
2 red peppers
1 lemon
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp rock salt
1 whole chicken, (innards removed, entire chicken split open)
Preparation:
Puree garlic
Puree red peppers
Juice the lemon
Then, in blender, combine the pureed garlic, roast peppers, dried peppers, lemon juice and vinegar. Continue blending as you slowly add olive oil. This emulsifies the sauce. The sauce will be used to baste the chicken.
Salt the chicken.
The best way to cook the chicken is over charcoal, over an open pit or on the bbq. The heat should be high. Baste the chicken with the sauce as it's cooking. You'll have enough sauce to baste several times.
If you don't have a bbq, you can make this recipe in the oven. Since the chicken is split open, it will cook quickly, so you must continually baste to keep it juicy.
Serves 2.
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STORY BY: Eyewitness News reporter Lauren Glassberg
WEB PRODUCED BY: Bill King
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