Ten recipes for a three-legged pot this Braai Day

As well as recipes for what goes into the three-legged pot – and they range from mutton and beef to seafood and vegetables – we have side dishes for you too, including the pot breads I love.

Beef shin potjie – a feast for a slow day

Beef shin is one of the less expensive beef cuts and this leggy joint is ideal for a slow cook. Being on the bone, it is strong on beefy flavour. It needs to be sliced though before embarking on this recipe. Ask your butcher to cut you some thick slices, right through the bone. Then light a fire.

Potjie-roasted Moroccan chicken and potatoes

Here’s a lazy-day potjie-roasted chicken with dates, apricots and sweet spices; a melding of food cultures in a pot. In Morocco it would be cooked in a tagine, but we can make this recipe in a potjie.

Thor’s Hammer, a beefy cut for a potjie kind of day

It’s as macho and gung ho as a cut of meat gets, and it needs taming. Enter the potjie, this recipe, and plenty of time. Think of a Thor’s Hammer as a giant that’s been French-trimmed. Just be sure the one you choose can fit in your potjie – it needs the height to be able to keep that bone in the pot.

Durban Curry in a potjie

This is a Durban curry recipe for lamb or mutton, but it is cooked slowly in a potjie rather than in a pot on the stove. What makes this recipe special is that you toast your own spices first.

Chicken, chorizo and olive potjie

There’s something a tad Spanish about this slow-day potjie recipe. There are tomatoes involved, and wine as well. 

Marrow bone and beef shin potjie

Beef and its marrow are obviously a natural fit. Add lots of garlic (a whole bulb in this case), coriander seeds, merlot and good beef stock, and you’re in for a truly hearty spring day potjie.

Rosemary-butter mielies on a potjie lid

Fresh rosemary adds a superb herbiness to the sweet kernels on a cob of corn. Butter always enhances a mielie, and as every South African knows, a bit of deft seasoning goes a long way.

Potjie-braised leg of mutton

I’ve been experimenting with roasting meat in a potjie since early lockdown. This one is more of a pot roast, with sun-dried tomatoes and little pickling onions, a handful of sweet spices and my old standby of a cheeky splash of nagmaalwyn.

Tomato bredie, potjie-style

A three-legged pot, or potjie, is an ideal vessel for cooking a traditional tomato bredie. In fact, it takes on even more special flavours thanks to the intensified slow cooking under a tight-fitting lid.

Meat lover to vegetarian – a flavourful Thai vegetable potjie

Here’s a vegetarian potjie recipe from my colleague Ray Mahlaka. He wrote: “My month-long challenge to go vegetarian has turned into a lasting lifestyle change, bringing unexpected benefits such as improved digestion, clearer skin and more energy.” Things have changed since then, so Ray might be making one of the above meaty recipes next time… DM