Recipes / Potjie
Old Cape chicken curry potjie (heritage recipe)
A mild 1890s Cape chicken curry: onions browned in butter, curry powder, vinegar and a little sugar, simmered with chicken pieces in a potjie for an hour.
- Prep
- 20 min
- On the fire
- 1 hr 15 min
- Serves
- 4 to 6
- Done at
- 165°F (74°C)
Ingredients
Method
Cooking on gas?
- A potjie works well on gas, and the heat is easier to hold steady than coals.
- Use a gas ring, your grill's side burner, or stand the pot on the grates over one burner with the grill lid open. Check that it can take the weight of a full pot.
- Where the recipe says hot or medium coals for browning, use a medium-high flame. Where it says low coals or a few coals under the pot, turn it down to the lowest flame that keeps a gentle bubble. You will not need to add fresh coals.
- Set a size 3 potjie over medium coals. Melt the butter with the oil and cook the onions for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring, until soft and light brown.
- Stir in the curry powder and cook for 1 minute until it smells toasted. Add the vinegar or apples, sugar and salt to make a thick paste.
- Add the chicken and turn each piece in the paste until it is coated. Cook for 5 minutes, turning, so the chicken firms up.
- Pour in the stock and stir in the tomato paste, if using. Put the lid on.
- Rake the coals down to a small, low bed under the pot. Simmer for 50 to 60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes and adding a splash of water if it starts to catch.
- Take the pot off the heat and stir in the lemon and milk, if using. Serve with rice.
Done when: the chicken comes away from the bone and a thermometer in the thickest piece reads at least 74°C (165°F). Thighs are most tender at 80°C (175°F) to 85°C (185°F).
Tips
- Old Cape curry powders were mild. If yours is hot, start with 1 tablespoon and taste the sauce before adding more.
- Bone-in pieces give the sauce body. Breast meat alone dries out over an hour of simmering.
- Serve with a fruit chutney and a cucumber sambal to cool things down.
Cape curries were sweeter and milder than Indian ones, shaped by Malay cooks and by the vinegar, sugar and dried fruit of the Dutch kitchen. Hildagonda Duckitt’s chicken curry from 1891 is a good example: browned onions, curry powder and a sour note from vinegar or green apples. It suits a potjie because it needs a long, gentle simmer. Read potjie basics for managing the coals under the pot.
Source
Adapted from Hilda's "Where is it?" of Recipes by Hildagonda J. Duckitt (1891), public domain.