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Posted June 19, 2010 by Jennifer Lam (Jenius) in European
 
 

Petersham Charcoal Chicken – Portuguese Cuisine Restaurant

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Not every suburb can be characterised by the restaurants within it, but Petersham’s saturation of Portuguese restaurants has foodies queuing for a taste of Portugal.
Today, I’m at Petersham Charcoal Chicken. While the name may suggest that you’ll just find another Oporto style restaurant, they do offer much more than that.

Petersham Charcoal Chicken - Portuguese Cuisine Restaurant -

However, we’ve noticed that the char-grilled chicken and house-made piri piri sauce is all the takeaway queue wants.

Petersham Charcoal Chicken - Portuguese Cuisine Restaurant - long queues

The restaurant is deceptively big with tables huddled closely together. They’re simply dressed with just a paper placemat, unaligned forks and knives and a single napkin – it’s a casual fare with no tablecloth.
Zen and I share the bacalhau no tachinho ($23), which is oven cooked cod fish in a tomato sauce served in a terracotta dish. The texture of the cod is divine, and the sauce has a rustic appeal to it.

Petersham Charcoal Chicken - Portuguese Cuisine Restaurant - bacalhau no tachinho, oven cooked cod fish in a home made tomato sauce served in a terracotta dish with home style sliced potatoes, $23

I won’t deny that I’m a carb queen nor the fact that we order an additional side ($8) of these home-style sliced potato chips (even though they were already an accompaniment on the cod dish!).
The crispy deep-fried exterior of these thick cut slices hold together the thinnest layer of creamy potato on the inside. They’re absolutely scrumptious.

Petersham Charcoal Chicken - Portuguese Cuisine Restaurant - side dish of home-style sliced chips, $8

The amêijoas à bulhão pato ($18) is another classic Portuguese dish, consisting of clams in a white wine sauce. The clams are full of flavour, accentuated with the addition of garlic and coriander.

Petersham Charcoal Chicken - Portuguese Cuisine Restaurant - ameijoas a bulhao pato - clams in coriander, white wine and garlic, $18

And lastly we share the house specialty – the charcoal chicken ($9 for half or $18, whole). The chicken has been butterfly-cut and chargrilled in an iron cage over hot coals. The skin is beautifully charred and the meat is moist and tender. The piri piri sauce is both fragrant and punchy and is a worthy condiment for almost everything on the menu.

Petersham Charcoal Chicken - Portuguese Cuisine Restaurant - house specials - famous portuguese charcoal chicken with sauce, $9 half, $18 whole

For a hearty fuss-free feast, a stop by this Portuguese culinary institution is a must.
Petersham Charcoal Chicken
98 New Canterbury Rd, Petersham NSW
Phone: (02) 9560 2369

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Petersham Charcoal Chicken on Urbanspoon


charcoal chicken chilli chips petersham pipis portuguese potatoes rustic shellfish SYD

Jennifer Lam (Jenius)

 
Jennifer is the founding blogger of I Ate My Way Through (originally, Jenius.com.au). Growing up in the multicultural melting pot of Sydney’s West as a second generation Australian (of Vietnamese refugee parents of Teochew Chinese ancestry), Jen has always had a deep curiosity about global cuisines, culinary heritage and the cultural assimilation of immigrants. For Jen and her family, food is always at the centre of all celebrations, life events and milestones. A lover of the finer things in life, as well as cheap eats, her blogging ethos is all about empowering people to have good food and invigorating adventures - because life is too short for mediocre meals or dull travel. When not running her two companies (she is also the Managing Director of The Bamboo Garden online marketing agency), Jen can be found exploring vintage markets and local eats around the world. She has a weakness for fried chicken.


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