Best South African Chicken Recipes

SOUTH AFRICAN CHUTNEY CHICKEN

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and cook the onion, garlic and chilli for a few mins until softened. Stir in the chutney, Worcestershire sauce and mayonnaise. Taste and season.
• Arrange the chicken on a foil-lined baking tray and spoon over the chutney mixture. Roast the chicken in the oven for 40-45 mins until cooked through and sticky. Serve with a green salad.

SOUTH AFRICAN CHICKEN CURRY

Steps:

• Start with a hot pan with olive oil - add onion and saute for a few minutes. Add ginger paste, sriracha, garlic, curry powder, garam masala and cinnamon stick. Saute for a few minutes until you make sort of a paste.
• Add chicken and saute until chicken is no longer pink.
• Add potatoes, tomatoes, curry leaves, bay leaves and chicken stock - bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to simmer and cook uncovered for approximately 1 hour stirring occasionally.
• Add more chicken stock if you like it thinner.
• The curry should thicken and have a rich deep golden colour.

KALYA E KHAAS (TRADITIONAL SOUTH AFRICAN CHICKEN CURRY)

Steps:

• Wash the chicken and pat dry.
• Combine the yogurt, tomatoes, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, peppercorns, cumin, chilies, saffron, turmeric, cayenne, ginger, garlic and salt.
• Pour mixture over the chicken, turning the pieces until they are well coated.
• While they marinate, in a large heavy skillet or stew pot, fry the onions gently in the butter and oil until light, golden brown. Let onions cool slightly and crush them with the back of a spoon.
• Add entire contents of the marinating bowl. Simmer until chicken is tender, adding small amounts of water as needed to keep the contents from sticking.
• Garnish with cilantro and mint and serve with rice or Indian bread.

SOUTH AFRICAN CHUTNEY CHICKEN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• In a medium bowl, combine chutney and dry soup mix. Mix together. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper to taste.
• Place seasoned chicken pieces in a 9x13 inch baking dish and pour chutney mixture over chicken.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes, or until chutney sauce has turned brown and crunchy.

SOUTH AFRICAN CHICKEN - INYAMA YENKUKHU

Steps:

• Cut chicken into pieces.
• Heat the oil and fry chicken until golden brown.
• Add onions and cook 5 minutes.
• Add tomatoes, salt and pepper, and simmer gently for 45 minutes or until cooked through and tender.
• Slowly pour water into the flour in a bowl, whisking constantly to mix. Add mixture to the chicken and vegetables and gently stir until the mixture is thickened.

SOUTH AFRICAN CHICKEN

Steps:

• In large zipper-type bag, combine onions, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
• Add the chicken pieces and zip up the bag.
• Roll the chicken around in the bag to coat.
• Refrigerate over night to marinate.
• Remove chicken from the marinade and pour the marinade into the crockpot.
• In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown the chicken pieces in a little olive oil.
• Transfer chicken to crockpot, putting the dark meat pieces on the bottom, white meat on top.
• Cover with lid and cook on low-setting for 4-6 hours, or until chicken is thoroughly done.
• When chicken is done, remove from crockpot and reserve, keeping warm.
• Transfer the remaining cooking juices and onions into a skillet and cook for about 10 minutes, or until reduced by half.
• Serve the chicken with brown rice and spoon the reduced sauce over everything.

SOUTH AFRICAN ORANGE CHICKEN

Steps:

• Set oven at 350 deg F/180 deg Celsius.
• In a small pot, mix all the ingredients EXCEPT the chicken pieces. Use a whisk to mix everything well.
• Simmer this sauce, stirring now and then, until the sauce has reduced by one quarter or more. This reduction process will thicken it slightly and intensify the flavours.
• Watch it, as it can boil over if heat is too high. You want a brisk bubbly simmer. As the liquid evaporates, the sauce will thicken just a little. Donlt worry if some "scum" forms. It's just foam, and will disappear as the sauce boils.
• Add the brandy after you've removed the sauce from the heat. (The alcohol will evaporate in the baking process, but it gives additional flavour, and boy, you can taste that extra flavour, especially if you use a good brandy/cognac/Armagnac).
• Taste a little of the sauce with a teaspoon, being very careful not to burn your tongue! If too acid, stir in more honey, or a little sugar. You want a tangy taste.
• Pack the chicken pieces, skin side up, in a large oven dish, preferably in one layer, and pour over the thickened orange sauce. Put in preheated oven, open.
• Bake about 3/4 hour. You will need to check after 15 mins., and lay a piece of foil loosely over the chicken, to prevent burning.
• Baste with the sauce a few times during baking. Take off the foil to let the chicken brown.
• Note: if you use fewer chicken pieces, as I often do, you'll probably have sauce left over. Save for another purpose, or add it to the chicken when baking is nearly done.
• To serve to guests, put in heated serving dish, and decorate with thin strips of orange zest and a scatter of very finely chopped parsley. Goes well with fluffy rice or roast potatoes, young green beans (steamed) and a large salad. Serve with an off-dry wine such as a good blanc de noir, chenin blanc or a dry rosé.

SOUTH AFRICAN MALAY LAMB BREYANI (OR CHICKEN)

Steps:

• (Masala, a ground mixture of different spices, is available from Indian shops).
• Boil rice, cassia, cardamom and salt in sufficient water to cover. Drain and set aside. Boil lentils in sufficient water to cover until almost soft. Drain and set aside.
• Fry onions in oil until golden, remove with slotted spoon and set aside. Fry onions in same oil until golden, remove and set aside.
• Mix everything for the marinade together.
• Place the meat in a large bowl with half the fried onions and cover with the marinade. Leave for at least 1 hour.
• Pour the used oil into a large saucepan. Sprinkle 2 cups cooked rice over the oil, then arrange the meat with its marinade over the rice.
• Layer lentils, potatoes and the rest of the rice over the meat.
• Layer remaining onions over potatoes and sprinkle over saffron (or turmeric).
• Dot with the butter, pour the cup of water over, and close saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Cook for 10 minutes over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer 1 hour or more until meat is tender.
• (Okay, I won't make it this way, but this is true-blue Malay down to all that oil! Which you can reduce!).

SLOW-COOKED SOUTH AFRICAN BBQ CHICKEN

Steps:

• Place chicken in slow cooker. Combine all remaining ingredients except rice; pour over chicken. Cover with lid.
• Cook on LOW 8 hours (or on HIGH 5 hours).
• Serve over rice.

CHICKEN PIE, TRADITIONAL SOUTH AFRICAN STYLE

Steps:

• * About the chicken: it's hard to get a chicken larger than 3 lbs. Buy a nice chubby chicken, and make up the shortfall with a pack of chicken pieces. We prefer the brown meat, which is more flavourful than breasts).
• Defrost the pastry in the fridge or at room temperature, but make sure it stays cool. If you made My Gran's Sour Cream Pastry, keep in plastic wrap in fridge until needed.
• Use a large pot, like a soup pot. Add the water, and then the whole chicken, any extra fat removed. Add giblets as well, if available.
• Sprinkle over the stock powder or granules: please note that you use the stock powder itself, not a mix made with water!
• Put on lid. Bring to boil, turn down heat, keep lid on, and boil chicken gently until almost tender, about 45 minutes.
• Then soak the sago granules in a little warm water -- they swell a little -- and add, stirring it into the water around the chicken.
• Simmer with lid on until chicken flesh almost falls from bones, and the sago has turned into translucent little pearls.
• Take chicken out of the sauce and leave in a dish to cool down. Leave the sauce in the pot, but give the bottom a good scrape to loosen the bits that stick. Bits of meat can stay in the sauce, just lift out any bones with a slotted spoon: the wing tips often fall off into the sauce.
• When the chicken and sauce have both cooled down enough, take all the bones from the chicken, and cut up the meat. This is a messy job, but be careful to remove all small bones. Use ALL meat and skin. Don't cut up meat too finely -- bite-sized. Rub soft meat and skin off carcass and wings so you use it all.
• Then, with a slotted spoon, remove remaining meaty bits from the sauce in the pot, and add all edibles to the chicken meat, discarding small bones. Don't worry about the sauce in the pot: it will still have bits in it.
• Add the flour to the sauce, and whisk in smoothly. A wire whisk usually does the job with no lumps remaining. Add all the flavourings to the sauce, and taste the result -- chickens differ, flavourings differ. Adjust to your taste. Be especially careful not to oversalt, so taste before you add the salt. (Some chicken stock powders are salty, others not).
• Beat the eggs in a bowl, and add to the sauce.
• Now add the chopped chicken to the pot again. Stir through with wooden spoon. Taste again: you might want more seasoning at this stage, and you can also add a touch of chilli, if you like.
• Set oven at 220 deg C (425 deg F).
• On a floured board, roll pastry out thinner (if necessary) and to fit the top of your dish. Beat an extra egg in a small bowl.
• Using a suitable oven dish, scrape the chicken with its sauce into the dish.
• Slice up the ham, and scatter over the top. This filling should come up to within 1 1/2 inch, or 3 cm from the top of the dish.
• Paint the edges of the dish with beaten egg to help the pastry stick, then cover loosely with the puff pastry. Do NOT stretch: leave a bit of slack, as the pastry will shrink as it bakes. Press the edges neatly with your fingers all around the dish, then cut off excess pastry with scissors or a sharp knife.
• Brush the pastry with the extra beaten egg. Put into the hot oven. After 15 minutes, turn heat down to 180 deg C (350 deg F) and bake for about 1 hour or until pastry is puffed up and golden, and you can see the filling sizzling underneath (if using a glass dish).
• Suggested side dishes: South African Yellow Rice or roast potatoes, steamed green beans, sweet potatoes, and a tomato salad.
• Although the recipe sounds long, it's really worth making and it's a favourite with every age group.