Potatoes and Chicken Sauce
Overview
Chicken and potatoes cooked down together with onion, stock and warm spices into a single-pot sauce. It is South African home cooking of the plainest and most useful kind, and the seasoning is what identifies it. Knorrox stock cubes and peri-peri are both South African supermarket staples, and the combination, a stock cube, turmeric, garlic powder and a peri-peri kick, is a recognisable everyday shorthand in kitchens across the country. Nothing about it is ceremonial. It is a weeknight dish built around what is in the cupboard, filed by the source under breakfast, which is plausible enough in a household where a substantial early meal is normal. This page needs a warning that most do not. Its ingredient list omits the chicken and the potatoes, the two things the dish is named after, and also omits the stock, sage and basil that its method then tells you to use. It lists mayonnaise, which never appears again. The recipe below reconstructs the ingredient list from what the method actually requires, with quantities that are working estimates rather than anything the source provides. Brand names have been described generically, so the recipe works wherever it is cooked.
Ingredients
Dietary tags come from contributors and AFN does not verify them. They also depend on the products you buy. Recipes here are published for learning, not as medical or dietary advice. If you have an allergy or a medical condition, check every ingredient yourself and talk to a doctor or dietitian. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Warm the oil in a large saucepan and cook the sliced onions over medium heat until softened.
- 2
Put in the chicken pieces and let them colour on both sides.
- 3
Tip in the potato chunks and pour over the stock. It should come most of the way up the ingredients rather than covering them.
- 4
Cover and cook over medium heat until the chicken is tender and the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes, checking that nothing is catching on the base.
- 5
Season with the sage, basil, garlic powder, turmeric, peri-peri, all-purpose seasoning and salt, and cook uncovered for a few more minutes so the sauce reduces and thickens around the potatoes.
- 6
Taste, adjust the seasoning and serve hot.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Lisias Johanna- Brown the chicken before the liquid goes in. It costs a few minutes and it is where the depth of the sauce comes from.
- Do not drown it. The potatoes release starch as they soften and that is what thickens the sauce, so keep the stock below the level of the ingredients.
- Cut the potatoes evenly so they cook at the same rate as the chicken.
- Peri-peri seasoning varies a lot in heat and salt between brands. Season towards the end rather than at the start.
- Thighs work better than breast here. They stay moist through a covered cook where breast dries out.
- It is good with rice, pap or bread, all of which will take the sauce.
Questions cooks ask
Why doesn't the ingredient list match the method?
Because the source's does not. Its ingredient list omits the chicken, the potatoes and the stock, and then its method instructs you to use all three, along with sage and basil that also never appear in the list. It lists mayonnaise, which is never used. The list here has been reconstructed from what the method actually requires, and the quantities are working estimates rather than figures taken from the source. The result should be close to what was intended.
What are Knorrox and peri-peri?
Knorrox is a South African brand of beef-flavoured stock cube, extremely common in home cooking there; the recipe here calls for stock generically so it works anywhere. Peri-peri is a chilli seasoning made from the African bird's eye chilli, sold both as a dry spice mix and as a sauce, and widely used across South Africa and Mozambique. Any hot chilli seasoning will stand in, though peri-peri has a particular sharp, citrusy heat.
Is this a breakfast dish?
The source files it under breakfast, and in South African households a substantial early meal of this kind is unremarkable, particularly at weekends. It works equally well as a lunch or dinner and is really a single-pot weeknight meal rather than a dish tied to any time of day. The categorisation has been left as the source had it, and the URL is unchanged regardless.
Can I use chicken breast?
You can, but thighs are the better choice. This is a covered, moist cook of around twenty minutes, which suits thigh meat and dries breast out. If you only have breast, cut it into large pieces, brown it, then take it out and return it to the pan for the last five minutes once the potatoes are nearly done. Bone-in pieces of any kind give the sauce more body.
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