Potjie-roasted Moroccan chicken and potatoes

My adventure with roasting whole chickens in a potjie took a new turn at the weekend when I spied the dried fruit aisle and thought what I often think — that the combination of dried fruit and spices is, strangely, what links the Cape of Good Hope to its far northern cousin, Morocco.

We mix our spices our way, they mix them theirs. We have dried fruit as an essential component of the bounty of the Cape, and yet we don’t seem to use them nearly as much in savoury dishes as we could.

And they have their tagine, while we have our? … potjie. So (the thought continued), why not use both elements in that quintessentially South African cooking vessel? And yes, of course what we call a potjie is used in other parts of the world too, but not in the way we use it.

Then we come to my way with roasting a chicken in the three-legged pot. I’ve done it various ways, and everyone at home who’s tried it soon lets me know how happy they were with the result. Thank you for that, we all need encouragement, especially when pushing the boat out to try something original.

The result: I bought dates and dried Turkish apricots, the little round ones. I selected spices from my cupboard. I thawed some butter (don’t you also snap up a butter bargain when you spot 500g bricks marked down? They freeze perfectly.) You need plenty of butter when roasting a chicken in a potjie — that’s key to its success.

Another key thing — the chicken needs to fit the potjie, with some space around it so that you can turn it over using round-edged wooden spoons.

Making this potjie-roasted chicken different from my previous recipes is that for the first time I cooked potatoes in the potjie with the bird. And the dish is finished with toasted whole almonds.

Tony’s potjie-roasted chicken and potatoes with dried apricots, dates and almonds

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

1 x 1.8kg chicken

1 medium onion, quartered

1 whole garlic bulb

100g dried Turkish apricots

100g dates

4 potatoes, peeled and quartered

Toasted almonds to serve

Salt and freshly ground pepper

½ cup butter plus 3 Tbsp

Salt and black pepper

The spice mix:

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp cayenne pepper

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Mix the spies together in a small bowl. Add 3 Tbsp butter and mix well.

Rinse the bird and pat it dry.

Season the cavity with salt and black pepper.

Slice the onion into wedges. Cut the garlic bulb in two, right through all the cloves.

Add the following to the cavity, alternating the ingredients, so that something of everything is inside the bird: the onion wedges, some of the garlic, dates and dried apricots. All the rest can go into the butter once the chicken is on the go. Tie the drumstick ends together with kitchen string.

Spread the spiced butter all over the outside of the chicken. Season the skin with salt and black pepper too.

Presuming that you have had the foresight to make a fire and have a clean potjie to hand, place coals underneath and, when it is hot, add the half cup of butter to the pot and let it melt.

Add the chicken, breast side down, give it a quick shake so that it doesn’t attach to the bottom of the pot, and leave it to cook for 10 to 15 minutes. By now it should be nicely browned.

Turn it over with two wooden spoons and add the remaining apricots and dates to the butter. Put the lid on and cook for half an hour.

Peel and quarter the potatoes and add them to the pot, around the bird.

Put the lid back on and continue cooking until the chicken and potatoes are done.

Toast almonds in a dry pan and scatter some over when serving, spooning some of the sweetly spiced butter over the chicken. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023

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