The Piri piri, of African Bird’s Eye chili, is a small, fiery hot chili that is popular in Africa and Portugal, and is used to make maddeningly hot salsas that are bottled and put on all kinds of food. Here is given a hot sauce made with piri piri, the kind you might find in Africa and Portugal. Africans got the idea of sauces made with this little chili pepper from the Portuguese, who are said to be responsible for introducing the chili there.
Piri Piri Chile Overview
The Piri piri, also called the African Bird’s Eye chili, the African Devil, or peri peri, with an “e,” or pili pili, is a favorite chili in East Africa, and is also grown in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and other parts of Africa. They use this pepper to make super hot sauces that are bottled and used on all sorts of foods. It’s a cousin of the tabasco chili, and the Thai peppers, and came from the American continent, and must have been transported from America to Africa. It is also found in Portugal, and is a favorite there, and the Portuguese may have been responsible for bringing it to Africa, to Mozambique and Angola. The name piri piri is Swahili for “pepper pepper.” In Portugal, the name Piri Piri also refers to a sauce that is made from the peppers.
Piri Piri Scoville Heat Rating
This small pepper and its cousins are members of a group of peppers called frutescens, but that are commonly called “bird peppers” or “wild bird peppers.” These peppers are very hot, but various ratings have been given. Many sources report 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville Heat Units, which makes sense given that’s about the same as a tabasco chile. However, more commonly, a range of 50,000 to 175,000 is given. Being that the sauces made from it are sometimes called “Hell Sauce,” the latter rating is likely to be correct. It is possible that many other similar peppers could be confused with this pepper, however, since some of its relatives are also called bird’s eye peppers.
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