Making Nandos Peri-Peri Chicken At Home | But Better 

As a former Nandos employee, I can safely say you smashed it. The chicken preparation was almost the same as the way they prepare it in the restaurant. The sides were not as accurate but they looked slightly better than some of the sides they have at Nandos. Well done

Not gonna lie, it's actually nice to see the tie. Not because I'm a Nandos stan (mostly) but because it shows that Josh really is still always ready to learn and grow. Mark of a great chef. What I want to know now is how wildly different the store bought Nandos sauces are from the homemade.

Nandos is probably one of the best chains in the world food quality-wise.

Nandos is almost on every street corner here in South Africa. It's the one flavour I NEVER get sick of. Even on the odd occasion when the chicken itself isn't great, the flavour is still there. I now want Nandos. So....thanks. And this on a day when I have some really great steak and jacket potatoes. Unreal how good Nandos is.

I love the format of josh and vikram just casually eating lunch together

As a South African who eats Nandos every single month it is as good as people say their peri peri chips hits different

josh is the only one i would trust if he would say "we have food at home"

My dad grew up in Botswana and his parents are South African. He always has Nando's XX Hot Peri Peri in the fridge, adds it to everything. So good!

Nandos is big here in South Africa. Its one of the few places where you will see the cooks eating their own food during lunch breaks. Love ya Nandos🇿🇦

How do you make Nando's better when it's already perfection.

I am a Muslim who lived in Canada and the only popular place near me that served halal chicken was nandos and I remember so fondly me and my family always sitting a corner table eating the chicken and fries there and it was one of my fav restaurants. Nowadays that nandos is closed due to covid but nandos will always hold a special place in my heart.

There was no way he was going to make a better source than the Nandos marinade. I'm from South Africa and I have been trying for 15 years to make that marinade. I've even tried to get a job at nandos so that I can steal the recipe. It is just something that you have to accept. You can buy Pepsi, but it will never be Coke.

Always the South African restaurant that surprises people! 🇿🇦

As a former Nando’s griller (2008-10, to be exact), I can confirm you’ve got the chicken prep spot on - pretty much exactly how it’s prepared in the restaurant. If I had to guess where you went wrong with the marinade, could be that Nando’s use lime instead of lemon to give it that extra sharp tang!? That’s a guess though. Delighted that you enjoyed it, as Nando’s gets a lot of hate for being overhyped here in the UK, but it gets hype because it’s fucking great. As you said: well-cooked, spicy grilled chicken with beautifully seasoned CHIPS and other solid sides, at a relatively low price. ¡Viva Nando’s! 😋🤤🌶🐓

I can tell how hard it was for you to accept the loss but love your transparency and honesty Josh! You either WIN or you LEARN 💪🏽🔥

I’m shocked I never thought that Joshua would lose after 80+ episodes of perfection 😮🤯

The inner Brit in me has been waiting for this moment

Proudly South African at watching the end result. Nando’s is our go to here in Malaysia as well whenever we feel home sick. Great job Josh

Who would have thought Nando’s a South African fast food restaurant would be so well received in the UK and US? It’s popular in SA for a good reason 😊 Don’t think I ever had a grilled mealie. I wonder if they sell pap overseas?

I would love to see you do this again as like a redo to see how you can elevate it now that you've actually tasted their food! :)

They sell the Nandos sauce in most grocery stores but I appreciate your commitment to trying it at the restaurant. 😆👌

Joshua: “I’m going to make Nando’s taste better!” British people: You’re meddling with forces you can’t understand.” 😮

In South Africa right now and Nando's is massive here, it cost only 35 bucks to feed 11 people with far more food than we could eat. It’s a staple for sure! 🇺🇸🇿🇦

It was really fun to watch! Thanks josh for your great content!

I did not expect this 😂 who else is surprised to see an American mention Nando’s?

the fact that he made his own sauce is so foreign to me as a south african. if we were making it from “scratch” we would still use the nando’s peri peri sauce from the store cause it’s just so dang good

Won't be long before there are Nando's everywhere! They're an absolute winning formula and are smashing it in the UK. Love the vid, great effort to do this one!

That was a sick vid Josh and team! That chicken sound effect at 5:20 was hilarious and that shot of Vikram mouthing "they're popping in Chicago" as Josh was saying that was sooo good!

Nandos is really amazing. For a fast food spot they really have their recipe and cooking method down. It's always great when I'm sitting in the lobby waiting for my order and I see the cook basting and glazing the chicken; the smell is unbelievable. Thank you for this ep, I'm gonna use your recipe when I try making it at home from now on. I'll still be a regular Nandos customer though. + Their South African tv ADs are always great social commentary parody.

I’ve also replicated the hot sauce without sugar. That helps when you’re grilling the chicken - it doesn’t burn. The other thing Nandos do is marinate the chicken for 24 hours which is quite a game changer.

As a nandos aficionado this made my heart so happy. Luv u Josh

As a South African this videos makes me so happy. I love the effort and the dish you made. I also love that the he taste impressed you 😊😅

Never knew you guys called it Peri-Peri and not Piri Piri (feels weird). My hope to see Papa cook a "Francesinha" one of these days, is one step closer !!

Man you visiting the restaurant and possibly traveling is an improvement to the format, I wish I can see more like this in the future

Nando's is pure perfection , it doesn't need to be made better. Proudly South African xoxo🇿🇦✌️💋

Josh is the best in comparing, making adjustments to meals and teaching us to save... Nandoz is a classic and hard to perfect even in south africa or portugal

One of the things I love about you josh that no other youtube chefs do is when you add a bunch of spices into a single bowl you organize them into nice little piles so when we try to recreate the recipe we can visual exactly how much spice we should be using.

South Africans stand proud of your Nando's! History has just been made 😂

Joshua as a South African we need you to recreate their basting sauce cause that just hits different. The nando's sauces that you can buy ia no less but their basting sauce is the sauce we all need

To those who don't want to make their own chips/fries, used McCain's straight cut chips, they are the same that Nando's uses. Source: Ex-employee, literally said McCain's on the box

I love this channel, one of the only channels i would watch during lockdown on a daily basis

Now this is something I wasn’t expecting to see lol love it

I love how you guys made this video so entertaining 🍗

I just really appreciate the honesty, you got damn close which is impressive because Nandos is one of the few places that have genuinely perfected the formula they're aiming for. Even on a massive scale, because it's a relatively simple recipe it's difficult for different restaurants to fuck it up like a lot of other franchises struggle with. Some places taste totally different from eachother even if it's the same brand, Nandos is just Nandos.

As a South African, I'm HAPPY about this episode!!

Thank you Joshua Weissman. I've been commenting that Peri Peri Chicken to your RU-vid videos for a long time, and now you have made it, and better 🤩🤩🤩

I used to work for nandos and the way we used to prep our garlic bread was almost the same way except we would use Serrano pepper’s in our garlic butter seeds and all. Love your videos

As an Englishman I would strongly say the easiest way to copy the garlic bread is some Portuguese rolls cut in half with some siracha Mayo spread ontop, then fried in a pan using some lurpak garlic butter. The frying process will soften the crust side so make sure to leave them garlic side down in the oven whilst you’re frying the other parts. It’s my recipe if I want to impress my friends and I am sharing it with you

I asked for this a long time ago! Thanks Joshua! 😊 😁

So happy to see Joshua doing this! I am from South Africa where Nandos come from. I will definitely be trying this at home to taste his version.

hahah this episode is my fav, josh's expressions omgg.. I slightly had a feeling Nando's will be better but omg this is too cute and funny and seeing josh accept it is the highlight of my day... however I will be making this as a substitute bec there's no Nando's where I live as well ... thanks josh for all the amazing recipes you share with us, much love

Not just the food that's ace - also their TV ads are a national treasure

Josh is the man still killing it

My inner South African is so happy about this episode!!!

I love watching these as if I’m not gonna just go buy myself the nandos sauce and hellmans mayo

Fantastic video mate as a Brit we love nandoes and there’s no such thing as over spicy peri peri sauce it’s so well balanced that you can pack in super amounts of chilli and you’ll get a more spicy version of it but still have the sweet and the tang

Really nice to see a South African brand on your channel. The best peri-peri chicken in the country, although, I've heard that the Nando's in Chicago produces an even better meal at a better price than the local restaurants.

Officially 7 Million Sons from our papaaa! Just Incredible. Love ur vids and keep up that good work. I started cooking cuz of your vids and recipes (no joke) so little kiss from son jonas :)

Love this episode!

OMG, Josh you made Nando's, that's the spot! Piri Piri is the best, my sauce is similar to yours, I marinate the chicken pieces in half of it overnight, wipe it dry then start the cook. The marinade I use is the uncooked version of sauce while the other half of the cooked sauce chills in the fridge with the chicken. This chicken slaps! Can't wait to try your compound butter, that looks amazing!

Would love to try a better version of this. Also yet to try it from the source, but I have tried the bottled sauce and the garlic sauce that is in HEB. So good! Great flavor, and it doesn't shy away from the heat.

I work at nandos myself so I appreciate your best efforts but it’s just too good 😊😂😂

I love nandos! Their isn’t one where I live in the U.S but we ate the heck out of it when we were in London. I would say your chicken is missing some type of dry rub/ seasoning before grilling. I know that they brush the chicken with the sauce when they’re grilling it but a nandos employee told me that they have a seasoning rub they put on the chicken that’s a blend of Portuguese and Ethiopian inspired spices.

Beautiful work as always

I'd like to see you do a "But Better" for the Jucy Lucy. I know it's a relatively simple burger idea, but I bet your take on it will be amazing!

I wasn't keeping track, so I looked it up and discovered that Nandos finally made it to the US in 2008. Thankfully, up here in Canada we've had it (at least in the Vancouver area) since 1994. I remember back in the 90s and 2000s, people coming up from Seattle for concerts, skiing, or whatever, would make a point of going to Nandos up here, 'cuz they didn't have it anywhere in the US. Glad to see they're in 30 countries now.

The moment I saw the sugar and honey go in, I knew it wouldn't be the same. I am very keen on trying Josh's sauce though

Nandos is extremely big in the UK, there's a very popular saying here about getting a "cheeky nandos" which I cringe at but shows how popular the chain is here, to the point it's almost part of modern british culture the way chicken tikka masala and Indian food is here. It's always recommended that people from the States try the chain when they visit here. Definitely a great rep for South African and Portuguese food!

Milk Street had a recipe for Peri Peri sauce a few years back and it's pretty good. It used red wine vinegar for the tang. I only have Nandos when I go to the old country so it's kind of hard to compare. Recently made it with habeneros from my garden and it was really good, I backed off on volume of chilis to make it not so insanely hot. Gonna try to make Peri-naise! That sounds awesome.

Lekker Nandos en Joshua!!! Greetings from South Africa. Nandos is an amazing brand. Go watch how they spoofed one of SA biggest insurance companies' ads (Santam) which turned into one of SA's funniest advertising show downs ever. Be sure to watch the original Santam ad first and then the rest. Love your channel Joshua

Happy 7 Million Josh!

I love Nandos, i was thinking this is gona be real hard to do but better. Im very happy with this episode. Well done and fun

I am so pleased to see a but better for Nando’s but I am slightly shocked because I didn’t know the states had Nando’s

That looks DELICIOUS!!!! I’ve never had Nando’s because there’s not a location nearby.

Hey Josh! Really love your videos, do you have specific recipes or a playlist that could be for 'weekday dinners'? As I don't have much time after work but would like a quick dinner to make for one person

Bro you cook everything. I learn’d how to make popcorn end haven’t look’d back

Great episode, love the extra effort to try the food and love that it surprised Josh! The look on his face at that first bite was perfect lol. You can almost see the "oh dang.... uh oh" on his face 😂 Nando's sauce is deceptively acid-forward for how good it tastes. Costco in Canada sells the medium heat version by the litre, and it's a great go-to wing sauce as well.

I'm SO PROUD to be South African right now!!! GO NANDOS!!!!!!!

as a nandos front griller who makes a million wings a day, we grill the chicken to get a criss cross, then baste it and let it caramelise, but other than that you smashed it! it looks great joshua :)

If it's a tie for the American restaurants then it's a clear win for the South African ones - the American Nando's is toned down in flavour for local pallets in my opinion. They did Australia the worst, it just tastes like salt there😅

I have had a really bad track record of not taking care of myself very well. I would go days with just eating a piece of toast and some grapes. ever since finding this channel, I have tried to make several recipes, and they worked out really well, and it has always encouraged me to keep eating properly. The cooking, the jokes, the entertainment, is all amazing. Thank you Josh

Best vid so far! With an unexpected result at the end!

Congrats on 7 million papa!! Here’s to 7 million more🎉

Thanks Joshua, I'm always craving a bit of Nando's at home, shame yours didn't beat it! Any tips on how to adjust yours to get it to be closer to the Nando's one? Is it just a bit more lemon/vinegar? Also, kind of a bit late for you, but the spicy rice they have is one of my favourite things on the menu. If you ever try Nando's again, definitely give it a try!

1:00 In Britain, French fries are a type of chip - thin and deep fried, like you get in McDonalds. The chips in this video look thin enough to be fries, and would probably be called fries by most brits, most of the time.

I live 2 minute's walk away from a Nandos, its dangerous.

Perrinaise is one of my favourite condiments ever. Soo glad they sell it in stores in Canada

Here is an idea for "But Better" episode: BAKERS® Original Strawberry Whirls® 🍓 These are biscuits from South Africa. I fondly remember having these as a treat when I was little. Decades later, I am saddened with the teeny bit of strawberry filling that my son now gets in his biscuits. Please help us to make them better at home. PS: My husband adores your channel too!

i love nandos and this was such a nice surprise. can’t wait to try the peri sauce, butter and salt!

"Now you have a beautiful, roasty toasty compound butter garlic bread that makes the angels sing..." [ *The ace community liked that* ]

Ahhhhh sobering that Josh couldn’t beat….. I love our Nando’s even more now. ENGLAAAAAND!!!…. Even though it’s Portuguese and African cuisine

What would happen if you marinated the chicken in the sauce instead of brushing it on?

I was getting ready to be offended Joshua! I grew up on Nandos in Zimbabwe and its delicious. Thanks for your honest review and I am happy to say that nandos took the cake on this one 😅 I was nervous

7 million!! Congrats!!

i honestly dont know what i'd do without nandos, best quick n cheap chicken meal on the market

Joshua doesn’t disappoint us with his cooking skills. He can transform a mundane meal into something completely extraordinary.

I know nothing about this dish but I'm still going to lecture you on how to make it!

Nandos really is excellent. I knew you couldn't beat it. Well done.

Honestly, considering you were going of internet pictures and a basic idea of a peri peri sauce, I’m very impressed. I don’t have Nando’s here in Minnesota, so I could only try making your recipe, perhaps with more vinegar. My mom was married to a South African (by way of Kenya) Brit after I graduated from university and was introduced to peri peri seasoning by his sister when they were still long distance dating. She tried it at P’s house before they were married, loved it, and gleefully brought home a jar of it for us to try here (Minnesota). Now our understanding was that peri peri blends are not exactly all the same because, depending on the brand, everyone puts their spin on it. Now she was anxious to try using it herself and Mom was an excellent cook. But this was more than 10 years before the advent of Netscape. We had her taste buds and no other reference. She hadn’t even been there when her future SIL was preparing the chicken she served and hadn’t asked her how it was used. So we got a cut up chicken and Mom proceeded to season the pieces before we roasted it. I asked if it looked right. She wasn’t sure, but surely a bit more couldn’t hurt. “It looks like Lawry’s seasoned salt and shakes like Lawry’s seasoned salt…” Yeah, that bird could have cooked itself it was so spicy! Delicious, yes, but whoa Nelly, that was not the Scandinavian American fare she’d grown up with! Then again, she was a spice rebel where Scandinavians were concerned. The real test was when my younger sister got home. She didn’t say anything, didn’t ask what dinner was, we just heard the plate pulled from the cupboard, the pan rattle, and PL pad to her room. I asked Mom if we should warn her, but Mom’s reply was “She could have asked.” Then we heard the shout from her room and PL stormed into the living room. “What did you do to that chicken?!” “Baked it.” How Mom said that with a straight face, I still don’t know. P was *so* mad at us! After that, she always asked what dinner was and if we’d gone on a spicy adventure, she’d make something else.

I do enjoy nandos, but if you want the real deal you have to go to a Portuguese restaurant or actually go to Portugal. I was recently in Alvor and had the peri peri chicken in a local restaurant. It was next level!