On January 22, 2023, Nando’s PERi-PERi is putting the hot back into National Hot Sauce Day. Bring an empty bottle of Nando’s sauce to any Nando’s restaurant in the US on the 22nd and trade it in for a free flamed-grilled quarter chicken.
“There’s never been a swap this hot,” says Paulo Oliveira, Nando’s Vice President of Grocery. “Just bring an empty Nando’s sauce bottle to Nando’s on National Hot Sauce Day and enjoy a free quarter chicken on us.”
Nando’s PERi-PERi, already the most popular sauce from England to Australia, has shown explosive growth in the U.S. and is now widely available in more than 12,000 of the nation’s biggest retailers. “Customers who love Nando’s restaurants now can indulge their healthy PERi-PERi addiction at home,” Oliveira says.
Nando’s PERi-PERi sauce is packed with flavor because it is made with sun-ripened lemons, onion, a dash of garlic, and blended with our special ingredient – the African Bird’s Eye Chilli pepper. PERi-PERi (Swahili for ‘pepper pepper’) is the heart and soul of Nando’s PERi-PERi and the secret ingredient behind Nando’s 1,200 restaurants worldwide. U.S. retailers sell Nando’s sauces in five succulent flavors, including Lemon and Herb, Medium, Garlic, Hot, and XX Hot. With a range of flavors, you can choose your heat before you eat!
Our Restaurant Roots
Back in 1987, friends Fernando Duarte and Robbie Brozin visited a humble Portuguese eatery in South Africa to try some mouth-watering PERi-PERi-marinated chicken. They loved their lunch so much they bought the restaurant.
Decades later, there are Nando’s PERi-PERi restaurants spread across five continents—including nearly 50 U.S. locations in and around Washington, DC, Chicago, and—soon—Texas, too.
PERi-PERi is the hero in each of our restaurants, where millions of Nando’s fans feast on our PERi-PERi chicken, marinated for 24 hours and grilled over an open flame. But now you can take the flavor, fire and passion of PERi-PERi wherever you go.
Flavor and Fire in a Bottle
All of Nando’s PERi-PERi chilli peppers come from southern Africa. No place on earth has more perfect soil and sunshine to grow the African Bird’s Eye Chilli. At the PERi-farm, we wait till these chillies are at their reddest, fiery best. Then we handpick them, dry them and crush them. We’ve just turned chillies into PERi-PERi. Nando’s sources its PERi-PERi through 1,400 local farmers in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and South Africa who are empowered with upfront access to funds, equipment, and seedlings as well as a guaranteed commitment by the company to buy the farmers’ crops at a fair price determined before the growing season even starts.
Today, Nando’s PERi-PERi is the biggest ‘hot sauce’ from Britain to Australia to South Africa. Not that we’re a ‘hot sauce’. A hot sauce burns and nothing else. Nando’s range of PERi-PERi sauces combine flavor with varying degrees of heat that will satisfy everyone from the most timid PERi-PERi beginner to fiery heat seekers.
Made from fresh ingredients, our PERi-PERi sauces contain no artificial preservatives, no artificial colors and no artificial flavors. They’re also gluten-free, kosher and suitable for vegetarians.