As the name might suggest, piri piri hellfire brandy is not for the faint-hearted. Picture standing at the gates of hell and sucking up the fire through a straw. Now, this isn’t a cocktail. It’s actually a traditional Portuguese condiment enjoyed drizzled over BBQ chicken. While it’s tasty for summer BBQ, it’s also popular in winter. No wonder, since it warms you right through to the bones.
🌶️ Quick recipe snapshot
| Flavor profile | Brandy first, then the fire. Caramel and dried fruit off the spirit, with a clean fruity burn behind it. No salt, no sugar, no vinegar |
| Primary heat source | Fifteen whole piri piri chilies, split at the stem, steeped in ten ounces of brandy |
| Heat level | Hot. Piri piri runs 50,000 to 100,000 SHU, about fifteen times a jalapeño, and fifteen of them go into one small bottle |
| How it’s made | No cooking at all. Sterilize a bottle, split the chilies, pour the brandy over and leave it on a dark shelf |
| Best uses | Drizzled over BBQ chicken, the way it’s done in Portugal. Good in a marinade too, or splashed into a stew |
| How long it takes | Five minutes of work, then three days before you open it. Five or more if you’ve got the patience |
Flavor notes
Brandy first, then the fire. You’ll get the caramel and dried fruit off the spirit before the piri piri lands, and then it just keeps going. There’s no salt in here, no sugar, no vinegar. Two ingredients, and one of them’s the chili.
Fifteen chilies in ten ounces of brandy. Piri piri runs 50,000 to 100,000 SHU, about fifteen times a jalapeño, and there are fifteen of them going into a bottle you can hold in one hand. Half an ounce is a serving, which sounds stingy until you’ve tried it. Treat it like hot sauce and you’ll be fine.
Capsaicin dissolves in alcohol, and hardly at all in water. Three days in the bottle and the heat’s out of the peppers and into the brandy. Leave it a month and it’s still going.
Don’t reach for the good bottle. Anything mid-shelf does the trick, since fifteen chilies will bury the subtleties anyway. But do use brandy. That caramel underneath is half of what you’re tasting, and vodka just gets you a burn.
Cut the stem off and the pepper’s open, which is all the brandy needs. And while we’re here, the heat isn’t in the seeds. It’s in the pale membrane they hang off, which we get into over on eating pepper seeds. Leave the lot in and let the brandy find it.
Adaptation ideas
Our recipe is actually quite a tame version of piri piri hellfire brandy. Portuguese people have been known to add up to 50 piri piri chilies (also known as malagueta peppers). Which is quite odd since they rarely like much spice at all. As always, you can change things up to suit your own taste buds and add more or less accordingly.
If you are the adventurous type, try some other hot peppers, too. Birdseye or cayenne peppers both work well. And if you really want to surprise your friends, add one whole bhut jolokia (ghost pepper).
- Fewer chilies: Drop to eight or ten and it’s still plenty hot, just friendlier.
- Strain it early: Fish the chilies out around day five and that’s where it stays. Leave them in and it climbs for weeks.
- Two bottles: Split the batch. Open the first at three days, let the second sit a month, and next time you’ll know which one you wanted.
- Swap the spirit: White rum works the same way and it’s a little sweeter with it. Vodka gets you the heat and not much else.
- Make more: Fifteen chilies to ten ounces. Hold that and scale up to whatever bottles you’ve got.
Serving ideas
BBQ chicken is what we made this for. Drizzle it over once the chicken’s off the grill, since putting it on early just cooks off the brandy.
- Straight over the chicken: A few drops at a time, and taste before you add more. It creeps up on you.
- In a marinade: A tablespoon with oil, garlic and lemon. It’s the same flavors as our homemade piri-piri seasoning, just wet.
- In the pan: Splash it in once the chicken’s out, scrape the bottom, reduce it down. Two minutes.
- On pork: If it’s sweet and fatty, this works on it. Our piri piri candied bacon runs on the same pairing.
Storage notes
Piri piri hellfire brandy needs a few days to combine and strengthen. The recommended minimum would be three days, but five days or more will leave you with a much better result. It will keep in a dark cupboard for six months or more.
Sterilize the bottle properly or six months won’t happen. Boiling water, three minutes, tip it out, let it dry.
Keep it dark and keep the seal tight. Six months is a long time, and that’s a long time for a loose cork.
Leave the chilies in and it carries on getting hotter. Once it’s where you want it, strain it into a clean bottle and it’ll hold there.
Like this recipe? You’ll love these too:
- Homemade Hoisin Sauce: Another delicious DIY condiment, perfect with Asian cuisine, but also a delicious sauce for BBQ.
- Spicy Coconut Salsa: Creamy and sweet, with a touch of heat. This salsa is tasty as a side with most any grilled meat.
- Habanero Relish: A real bold take on relish that’ll spice up your hot dogs and more.
A globe-spanning collection of 100 bold, fiery recipes — soups, fiery mains, curries, handhelds, snacks, sauces, even brunch — drawn from over a decade of PepperScale favorites.
Wicked Wednesday subscribers save 15% — join free.
Piri Piri Hellfire Brandy
Ingredients
- 15 piri piri peppers
- 10 ounces brandy
Instructions
- Sterilize the bottle or jar. Pour boiling water into it and leave it for 3 minutes. Then pour out the water.
- Take the piri piri chili peppers and cut away the stem so the seeds are showing inside. This is where the hellfire heat will come from.
- Place the chilies into your prepared bottle or jar.
- Pour the brandy over the chilies and cover/seal with a lid.
- Leave on a cool dark shelf for at least three days before you consume.
