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Chicken in a Hole

Chicken in a Hole is a traditional Botswanan recipe for a classic dish of chicken rubbed with spices and garlic that's wrapped in cabbage leaves and aluminium foil before being cooked in an earthen pit or on a lidded barbecue. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Botswanan version of: Chicken in a Hole.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

210 minutes

Total Time:

230 minutes

Serves:

4

Rating: 4.5 star rating

Tags : CurryChicken RecipesFowl RecipesVegetable RecipesBotswana Recipes


This is a traditional camping recipe from Botswana, with many variants dependent on the originating cook.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, gutted and cleaned
15 garlic cloves, sliced lengthways into 4 slivers
1 onion, studded with 6 cloves
12 cabbage leaves
1 Maggi cube
1 tbsp paprika
2 tsp Herbes de Provence
2 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp dried priri-piri chillies
1 tsp salt

Method:

Wash the chicken in a little vinegar then wipe dry. Push the slivers of garlic between the skin and the flesh of the chicken. Stuff the onion into the body cavity (use stuffing if you like). Place the chillies in a pestle and mortar and pound to a paste. Add all the other spices and salt and pound to mix. Rub the spices all over the inside and outside of the chicken, ensuring an even coating.

Wrap the cabbage leaves around the chicken then wrap the bird in a cheesecloth or in muslin. Now wrap the entire bird in at least three full layers of aluminium foil. The bird really should be cooked in a cooking pit (but you can use an oven for a similar effect). Dig a hole about 1m deep and 50cm square. Line the walls of the hole with wood and put hot coals in the bottom. Sprinkle sand over the hot coals and place the chicken on top of these. Cover the chicken with a layer of sand and then a layer of hot coals. Add sand over the layer of coals then fill the hole.

Mark the cooking spot with a stick and allow to cook for between 3 and 4 hours. Dig-up the chicken at this point and eat. You could approximate this cooking method using a barbecue that has a lid. Heat your coals, place the chicken on a wire rack atop the coals and then add a lid to cover everything.