There’s nothing like a potjie when you’re camping – it’s the perfect outdoors food. Just throw everything in the pot and let it simmer! This is a twist on the old favourite – chicken potjie – with the addition of biltong.
Ingredients for chicken, mushroom and biltong potjie
Serves 4
- 30 ml vegetable oil
- 2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 green peppers, deseeded and chopped
- 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 8 pieces of free-range chicken
- 100 g biltong dust
- 5 ml fresh thyme
- 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
- 500 g baby potatoes, skin on
- 8 baby carrots
- 500 ml chicken, beef or lamb stock
- 500 g assorted mushrooms (a mixture of brown, button or portabello)
- 250 g baby marrow, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons mushroom soup powder or cornflour (optional)
- Salt and pepper
Cooking method
Heat oil in a cast iron three-legged potjie. Add onions, green peppers and garlic and cook until soft. Add chicken pieces skin side down and brown the meat. Sprinkle the biltong dust and thyme over the chicken and stir to combine. Add the diced potatoes, baby potatoes, carrots and stock to the potjie and simmer for 35 to 40 minutes. Add the mushrooms and baby marrows and cook for 10 minutes.
To thicken the sauce, mix the mushroom soup or cornflour with a quarter cup of hot water and stir into the pot. Allow to cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with rice or chunky slices of fresh white bread to mop up the sauce.
Tip:
When cooking on coals try to have two fires burning, using one to cook food and the other to provide extra hot coals.
