Recipes / Sides
Jacket potatoes in the coals
Large potatoes wrapped in double foil and baked in low coals for about an hour, split open and filled with sour cream and chives or garlic butter.
- Prep
- 15 min
- On the fire
- 1 hr
- Serves
- 4
- Done at
- 210°F (99°C)
Ingredients
Sour cream and chive filling
Garlic butter filling
Method
Cooking on gas?
- A gas grill has no coals to bury the parcels in, so bake them in the closed grill instead.
- Set up for indirect heat: light the outside burners and leave the one in the middle off, at about 200°C (400°F) on the lid thermometer.
- Lay the double-wrapped parcels over the unlit burner, close the lid and bake for 50 to 70 minutes, turning them every 15 minutes. Test with a skewer as in the recipe.
- Light the fire early. The potatoes need a deep bed of coals that has burnt down past the hot stage, so start them before the meat.
- Prick each potato 4 or 5 times with a fork. Rub with the oil and sprinkle with the coarse salt.
- Wrap each potato in a sheet of foil, then wrap it again in a second sheet with the seam on the other side.
- Rake a layer of low coals to the side of the fire, away from the flames. Nestle the parcels into the coals and push more coals up around the sides.
- Bake for 50 to 70 minutes. Turn the parcels with tongs every 15 minutes so no side sits on the same hot spot.
- While they cook, stir the sour cream, chives, salt and pepper together and keep it cold. Mash the butter with the garlic, parsley and salt in a separate bowl.
- Test a potato after 50 minutes by pushing a skewer through the foil into the centre. If it meets resistance, return it for another 10 to 15 minutes.
- Lift the parcels out onto a board and leave them for 5 minutes. Open the foil away from your face, as the steam is very hot.
- Cut a deep cross in the top of each potato and squeeze the base so the flesh pushes up. Spoon in the sour cream filling or a thick slice of garlic butter.
Done when: a skewer slides into the centre with no resistance and the flesh is soft and fluffy all the way through, about 99°C (210°F) inside.
Tips
- Low coals matter. Over hot coals the skin chars black under the foil before the middle cooks. If you can hold your hand above the coals for 8 to 10 seconds, the heat is right.
- To save time, microwave the pricked potatoes for 8 to 10 minutes first, turning once, then finish them in the coals for 25 to 35 minutes.
- Add crumbled biltong, crisp bacon or grated Cheddar on top of the sour cream for a more filling side.
Baking potatoes straight in the coals is one of the oldest braai habits in South Africa, from farm fires to camping trips. Some cooks bury them bare and scrape off the burnt skin, but foil keeps the skin edible and the flesh moist. They look after themselves while the meat cooks on the grid above. For more on wrapping food for the fire, read cooking in foil on the braai.
Source
Adapted from Braaied baked potatoes stuffed with sour cream and biltong at Woolworths TASTE and Throwback Thursday: Ash-baked potatoes at Daily Maverick.