Chicken Potjieoks With spices and Coconut Milk, potjieoks is uniquely South African and traditionally made around an open fire preferably in the company of good friends or with a family members. So its a delightful and memorable meal. The best meat to use for potjiekos is what is known as stewing beef, sinewy and gelatinous cuts of beef which become deliciously tender when simmered for a long time, developing a strong meaty flavour. Other meat such as venison, mutton, chicken and even fish make ideal potjies.
Last friday I got a chance to make this Potijeoks. It was my husbands year end office party and had Potijeoks competition. We decided to make Chicken potjieoks with our Kerala stew touch. It became flavorful and delicious , we got first place in that competition😊.
Potjiekos (literally meaning pot food) has been part of South Africa’s culture for many centuries – since the days of the first settlement at the Cape when food was cooked in a black cast-iron potjie pot hanging from a chain over the kitchen fire. Later the black pot accompanied the pioneers who moved into the country. As the Victorian era unfolded, so the delights of the bubbling black potjie pot made way for magnificent oven roasts, and later still the traditional braaivleis in the 1950’s and 60’s. The re-emergence of potjie in the late 1970’s coincided with the increase in meat prices at the time, and it was then that food magazines and books started publishing articles on potjiekos cooking and potjie recipes.
It is believed that the potjie came from the Dutch ancestors of the South Africans, who brought with them heavy iron cooking pots which hung from hooks over the open hearth. These cast-iron pots retained heat well and could be kept simmering over a few embers. Rounded, potbellied pots were used for cooking tender roasts and stews as they allowed steam to circulate instead of escape through the lid. The flat-bottomed iron pans heated more quickly and were used to bake crusty loaves of bread in Dutch ovens.
What sets potjiekos apart from these traditional cooking methods, is the fact that it is cooked outside. When the pot was moved from the kitchen hearth to a fire in the open bush, it became a potjie and part of the South African cooking heritage. The most common potjie is the rounded, potbellied, three-legged cast iron pot.
The fire is an important part of creating a culinary potjie masterpiece. Unlike a braai, the choice of wood or charcoal does not make much difference, as long as you can regulate the heat. That is done by adding or removing coals once the potjie is heated up. Timing is also very important, apart from the time the potjie needs to become cooked you have to factor in the time it takes for the wood or charcoal to become coals, so in most cases you will have to start long before serving.
Here is my version of Chicken Potjies recipe for you all to try.
