[7] Like all chili peppers, peri-peri is descended from plants from the Americas, but it has grown in the wild in Africa for centuries and is now cultivated commercially in Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe[8] and Rwanda.

It grows mainly in Malawi, Ethiopia, Zambia, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Portugal.

[8] Piri-piri sauce was produced by mixing pepper with condiments the Portuguese traded with their other territories in Asia and India.

The first sauce may have been produced in any part of Portugal's empire, given the lack of reliable sources that it was specifically mixed right there in Mozambique, it seems impossible to say more than the sauce was originally produced within the Portuguese Empire, either in their territories in Southern Africa or elsewhere.

[13][14][15] Other common ingredients are salt, lemon, spirits (namely whisky), citrus peel, onion, pepper, bay leaves, paprika, pimiento, basil, oregano and tarragon.