'Incredible' Nando's-style chicken and halloumi air fryer fakeaway cooks in 15 minutes

Who could say no to a Nando’s-style chicken and halloumi roll rustled up in their own kitchen?

Global sensation Nando’s is famed for its unique and flavoursome approach to grilled chicken.

The restaurant has thrived by catering to a wide spectrum of palates, offering a range of spice levels from mild to extra hot. Regular visitors know all about the chain’s distinctive open-flame grilling, which gives the meat a smoky char that works so well with any of its signature sauces. The result is chicken that is juicy on the inside and crisped to perfection on the outside.

Established in 1987 in Rosettenville, Johannesburg, Nando’s was the brainchild of Portuguese-born Fernando Duarte and South African-born Robert Brozin. Their journey began after a visit to a Portuguese-Mozambican takeaway called Chickenland, where they sampled the peri peri chicken.

Impressed by the flavours, they decided to buy the establishment and rebranded it as Nando’s, inspired by Fernando’s eldest son. By 1989, the restaurant’s burgeoning success saw the establishment of three outlets in Johannesburg and one in Portugal. The rest, as they say, is history, with the chain now boasting some 898 restaurants worldwide.

And TikToker Bored Of Lunch says he could ‘quite happily eat Nando’s every day’ – so much so that he’s concocted an incredible fakeaway chicken and halloumi roll that you simply must try for yourself:

Ingredients

Two flattened chicken breasts

Bottle of Nando’s sauce (whichever flavour you prefer),

Block of halloumi

Lettuce

Sweet mayo

Ciabatta

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped,

1 stick of unsalted butter (around 113g)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1/2 tsp salt

Method

First up, make your own garlic butter by simply mixing the garlic, butter, parsley and salt until well combined.

Then coat two flattened chicken breasts in 3 tbsp of your favourite Nando’s sauce, before coating four to five slices of halloumi in one tbsp of the sauce. Next, add the garlic butter to your ciabatta rolls. Now add the chicken to the airfryer heated to 200c for ten minutes.

Once the ten minutes is up, add the halloumi to the fryer (keeping the chicken in) for three minutes. Once the three minutes is up, add the ciabatta for two minutes, again keeping everything in. Finally, top the ciabatta with lettuce, sweet mayo, chicken and halloumi. Then savour!

‘Made these for dinner last night! Incredible’

Inspired TikTokers were bowled over after following the recipe:

Ciara Redmond “Looks unreal”

Dani: “This is so good”

LadyTrouse: “This is definitely on the list for this week”

Hannah Burke: “Made these for dinner last night. Incredible”

Classykko: “Just made this tonight it was so good.”