Deboned chicken thigh sosaties with dried fruit and a curried orange baste

Well, that was a fine-weather weekend at the Cape if ever there was one. Driving to the supermarket, my neighbourhood was punctuated by shafts of hazy smoke drifting skywards. Everyone was in the mood for a braai.

We were too, and I was off to the shop with sosaties in mind. Pork? Beef? Lamb? These things are decided, usually, by what catches my eye. And I always look for something unusual.

It turned out to be deboned chicken thighs. Simple, and full of possibility.

Walking back to the vegetable department, there was an enticing glass urn of freshly squeezed orange juice. It seemed to invite you to help yourself, but I looked around and no glasses or cups had been provided. That was cruel, or at least thoughtless, Checkers Groot Phesantekraal View, though I was pleased that you were stocking my book.

Handily, they had placed 1-litre and 200ml bottles of the product nearby, so I took the bait and cracked open a little one, and it was sweet and delicious. Then I thought, hang on, those deboned chicken thighs…

In a flash, the recipe had turned a corner. I would simmer some onion and garlic, add 500ml of fresh orange juice (at this point I popped a litre bottle in the trolley) and there would be ground cardamom and my favourite Durban curry powder in it too. Oh, and I decided to add some chutney. Yes, Mrs Ball’s.

Much reduction would deliver unto me a deeply flavoured marinade which, once cooled, would be the new home, for a few hours, of said chicken fillet thighs. Later, the remaining marinade would be further reduced to become a baste for them while on the coals.

But they needed more, so I grabbed some red, orange and yellow pimento peppers and a small packet each of pink lady dried apples and dried cling peaches. The range of our Cape dried fruits has broadened lately. I’m a champion of our dried fruit, and this pleases me.

A note on curry powder: I cannot abide the harsh flavour profile of many commercial “curry powders”. It’s not the heat level that bothers me, but the unpleasant taste. Please try to buy a spice mix from a Cape Malay or Durban spice shop where they mix spices for you, and where you are likely to get a much better product. I always ask the spice mixer in the shop to make me her favourite mix, with guidelines such as sweet, fragrant, and telling her what kind of food it is intended for.

This marinade has only a teaspoon but the quality makes the difference even with such a small quantity.

Here’s how it all happened…

Tony’s deboned chicken thigh sosaties with dried fruit and a curried orange baste

(Makes 6 sosaties)

Ingredients

For the curried orange marinade/baste:

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

A splash of olive oil

1 heaped tsp quality curry powder

500ml freshly squeezed orange juice

1 heaped tsp masala / curry powder

1 heaped tsp cardamom powder (also available from a good spice shop)

½ cup Mrs HS Ball’s chutney

Salt to taste

For the sosaties:

12 deboned chicken thighs (mine were sold just like that by Checkers)

12 dried cling peaches

12 dried pink lady apples

24 pieces of red, yellow and orange pimento peppers

Salt to taste

Method

Start at least half a day before you plan to braai the sosaties.

Peel and chop the onion and garlic. Trim the pimento peppers and cut them into pieces that will fit a skewer neatly when placed between deboned chicken thighs.

Have a glass of the orange juice, because you’ll be thirsty by now after all the chopping. Well, I did, as the juice was irresistible.

Put a deep medium pot on a moderate heat and add a slash of olive oil.

Add the onion and cook, stirring, for 3 or 4 minutes, but stop cooking before the onions take on colour. You only want them to be soft and translucent.

Add the chopped garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute.

Add the cardamom and curry spices, salt to taste, stir, and cook, stirring, for 10 seconds.

Pour in the orange juice, and chutney, stir and bring to a boil. Let it burble at a rapid pace until reduced by about half.

Leave it to cool completely.

Immerse the deboned chicken thighs in this and refrigerate for at least 4 or 5 hours. Remove from the fridge an hour before you want to braai the sosaties.

When the time is right (and you have a fire going so that you’ll have lots of lovely hot coals), thread the thighs onto them, interspersed with the dried fruit and peppers. Salt lightly on all sides.

Put the pot with the remaining marinade back on a high heat and reduce by half again. All you want is a fairly thick baste with which to… well, baste… the chicken while on the coals.

Braai them for about half an hour, turning often. Every time you turn them, baste the uppermost parts of the chicken and fruit.

As you’ll notice in the photograph, I baked did some potatoes in foil in the coals, while the Foodie’s Wife made a salad with what was available in the crisper. DM

To buy a copy of Tony Jackman’s Retro Karoo Food (Penguin Random House) signed by the author in gold, send an email to him at tony@dailymaverick.co.za
Or buy it through the Daily Maverick shop.

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.