🌭 Alheira
Alheira is a smoked Portuguese sausage with a soft, almost creamy filling of bread and shredded poultry, seasoned with garlic, paprika and olive oil. It is usually grilled or fried until the skin crackles, then served with chips, rice or sautéed greens. The texture is closer to a savoury bread stuffing than to a firm meat sausage.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 600 g chicken thighs, skinless
- 250 g day-old country bread, crusts removed
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
- 1 tsp hot paprika
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and black pepper
- Cling film for shaping
Method
- Simmer the chicken in salted water with 2 garlic cloves for 30 minutes. Keep the broth.
- Shred the chicken finely. Tear the bread into a bowl and soak it with 300–400 ml of hot broth until soft.
- Mash the bread, add the chicken, remaining garlic, both paprikas, 3 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, and stir into a thick paste.
- Divide into four, roll each tightly in cling film into a sausage shape and chill for at least 2 hours to set.
- Unwrap, brush with the remaining oil and grill or pan-fry for 8–10 minutes, turning, until crisp and browned.
How to make it lighter
- Grill rather than deep-fry: the filling soaks up fat quickly.
- Serve with a large salad or steamed greens instead of chips.
- Use one tablespoon of olive oil in the filling instead of three — each tablespoon is about 120 kcal.
History
Alheira is linked to Trás-os-Montes in northern Portugal, especially the town of Mirandela. The story goes that Jews forced to convert in the 16th century made sausages of poultry and bread so they would appear to eat pork like their neighbours; historians treat this as a popular tradition rather than proven fact. Today many commercial alheiras also contain pork, while poultry-and-bread versions are still made.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →