Recipe of the Quarter

4/13/2016

A few years ago the "Potjie" craze took off in South Africa as an alternative to the traditional Barbecue (or "braii"). A "Potjie" is a 3 legged round bottomed cast iron pot into which ingredients are put to merrily simmer over the coals of a campfire. You can buy a traditional potjie here, but any large pot with a thick base and a lid should do.....

Chicken Potjie

• ¼ cup cooking oil
• 2 ¼ lbs. chicken thighs
• 2 tsp. salt
• 4 bay leaves
• pinch dried thyme
• 4 black pepper corns
• pinch ground allspice 
• ¼ cup chutney
• 2 cups carrots, peeled and sliced
• 6 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 2 cups whole button mushrooms
• ½ cup boiling water
• 1 chicken stock cube

Heat the oil in the pot. Sprinkle the thighs with salt and fry the chicken, a few pieces at a time, until golden brown. Add the herbs, spices and chutney. Arrange the carrots, potatoes and mushrooms in layers on top of the chicken. Dissolve the stock cube in the water and add it to the potjie. Replace the lid and simmer for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes. Add water if the potjie becomes too dry. 

Serve with potjie bread. A favorite recipe is attributed to Nomsa Maliwa, a Xhosa woman who grew up in the Transkei in the eastern Cape, South Africa. 

You will need a "bake potjie," a flat bottom pot, for this recipe.

• Butter
• 1 tbsp. dry yeast
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 tbsp. sugar
• 6 cups cake flour
• 3-4 cups warm water

Good to know:

Mix flour, dry yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add warm water (max.113 degrees F.) a little at a time while stirring, until you have a dough that can be kneaded. Knead with floury fingers until dough is no longer sticky. Butter the potjie and the lid well on the inside. Place the dough in the potjie with the lid on. Set it to rise where it is warm, for example, in the sun. Let the bread rise for about 1 hour. When the bread has finished rising, place the pot near the fire and put a few coals on its lid. Let it bake like this for 20 minutes. Then make place for the pot in the fireplace, surrounded by a ring of coals about 8 inches from the pot. Turn the pot every 15 minutes. Keep the coals on the lid of the pot. Bake for another 15-30 minutes, or as long as it takes for the bread to become light and sound "hollow". Check it now and then during the baking - be careful when lifting the lid so that no ashes fall into the potjie! When the bread is finished, remove it from the pot and let it cool off under a cloth on a basket.