Restaurants / Openings

South African Chicken Sensation Picks Houston For Its First Texas Restaurants — Nando’s Peri-Peri Is Coming

Everything You Need to Know About a Spicy Global Cult Favorite

BY // 10.10.22
photography Ricardo Franco

Thanks to lots of devoted fans who staged a fierce write-in campaign, Nando’s Peri-Peri, the South African-born “fine” fast-casual chicken restaurant, is making its way to Texas. Nando’s first Peri-Peri restaurant in Texas is slated to open in early 2023 in Houston’s Uptown area in the Post Oak Plaza at the corner of Post Oak Boulevard and San Felipe. It will be followed shortly after by a Cinco Ranch Nando’s restaurant.

The global, full-flavored fast-casual power looks poised to build a more significant presence throughout America in the coming year and beyond. Presently, Nando’s Peri-Peri has 50 restaurants outside Washington D.C., in Virginia, Maryland and Chicago.

Nando’s Flame-grilled chicken dishes (Photo by Ricardo Franco)
Nando’s famed chicken dishes from left to right: flame-grilled peri-peri double chicken leg, wings, skewers and ¼ chicken breast. (Photo by Ricardo Franco)

Born 35 years ago with just one restaurant in Johannesburg, Nando’s now counts restaurants in 24 nations from Australia to Zimbabwe, finally landing in the United States in 2008. It is named for the small fiery red African bird’s-eye chili pepper (nicknamed peri-peri) grown in Nando’s native South Africa and the surrounding regions. The famed pepper was introduced by Portuguese explorers in the former Portugal territories of South Africa and Mozambique.

Nando’s sources all its per-peri peppers through its network of 1,400 local farms in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and South Africa. The company empowers farmers with upfront access to funds, equipment and seedlings, as well as a guaranteed commitment to buy the crops at a fair price determined before the growing season even begins.

Curious about how spicy a peri-peri pepper can be? Apparently, its Scoville units (the measurement in which a chile pepper’s heat is determined) can range from 50,000 to 175,00 Scoville heat units (SHU). For some context, that’s somewhere between the heat of a cayenne pepper (30,000 to 50,000 SHU) and a hot, hot, hot habanero that starts at 100,000 SHU and can reach a whopping 500,000 SHU.

Nando’s is beloved by its fans for its chicken dishes, which are prepared to your preferred heat level. Infusing natural chicken pieces with layers of flavor, each chicken part is first marinated for a minimum of 24 hours to ensure the flavor permeates the meat right to the bone. Later, the chicken’s grilled over an open flame called a braai, and as the chicken cooks, it’s basted with a peri-peri sauce of your choosing.

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In case you haven’t guessed, the star of the show is peri-peri flavored chicken, and the preparations can vary wildly. The menu includes dishes such as a chicken burger topped with pineapple and cheddar cheese, chicken thigh skewers threaded with onions and red bell peppers, a chicken tender bowl over a bed of Portuguese rice, arugula and roasted red peppers, and any chicken part from drumstick to thigh to breast served with fries.

Nando’s location in Gaithersburg, MD. (Photo by Ricardo Franco)
The inside of the Nando’s Peri-Peri in Gaithersburg, Maryland. (Photo by Ricardo Franco)

The build-out of the 3,200 square foot 80-seat Uptown restaurant space is being orchestrated by none other than the acclaimed Austin-based firm Michael Hsu Office of Architecture. And like the other Nando’s restaurants, it will be boosted by one of the largest selections of original South African art, with contemporary pieces from artists often commissioned by the company.

Chicken may be the star, but it’s not just about the chicken.

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