Succulent lamb potjie recipe – Aromatic and packed with flavour

Light a fire and get your potjie ready. This succulent lamb potjie recipe is a must-try recipe for every South African food lover. South Africans are known for their love to huddle around a campfire and grill juicy steak or chops on the fire or slowly cook potjiekos in a black potjie.

Succulent lamb potjie is a typical South African dish which needs to be prepared when you have enough time on hand. Potjiekos cannot be cooked in a hurry so make sure you are not too hungry when you start with your potjie adventure.

Potjiekos literally means “small pot food” and every South African has a favourite way of making this dish. This recipe uses lamb but the best part is that you can use a cheap cut. The cuts with bones are best for potjiekos as the bones add so much flavour to this dish.

Succulent lamb potjie recipe

4 from 5 votes

Recipe by James Olivier Course: MainCuisine: South AfricanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

2

hours 

Total time

2

hours 

30

minutes

Ingredients

• 2 mutton stock cubes

• 2 kg lamb, cut up in big chunks

• 1 bottle red wine

• 5 cloves garlic, whole or roughly chopped

• 2 onions, roughly chopped

• assorted vegetable chunks (pumpkin, potatoes, carrot, baby marrow etc)

• 5 sprigs rosemary and thyme

• 5 bay leaves

• olive oil or butter for browning

Method

• Dissolve the stock cubes in about two litres of water and set aside.
• While the potjie is heating up and the coals are getting ready, toss the lamb in some flour, salt and pepper. Add the olive oil or butter to the pot and get some colour on the lamb.
• Once browned, add the stock, wine, garlic, herbs and onions to the potjie along with the lamb.
• Let the potjie stew on a low heat for at least an hour and a half. The key is not to touch the potjie. Don’t stir or prod no matter how tempted you are. If the liquid has reduced too much, add a bit more.
• After about an hour and a half, gently prod the lamb to see if it’s soft. If it is, add all the veggies, cover and cook until the veggies are soft about another 30 minutes.

Notes

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If you are looking for more traditional South African recipes to prepare for your family and friends, just have a look at our recipe page, we have excellent suggestions for you to try.

Also, if you have a recipe you would like to submit as part of our South African themed recipe competition, click here to enter and stand a chance to win R1000. Each recipe published as part of this competition will receive R100.