Drunken Chicken, Idwala View, Bushveld Recipes, Self-Catering, Safari, Mabalingwe

This recipe stems from a boys-only weekend a couple of years ago. Sometimes all you need to liven things up is a drunken chicken! This is a super simple recipe that combines two of man’s favourite pastimes – braaing and cracking a cold one.

Time: 40 to 80 minutes

Serves 8 – 10

Ingredients
  • 2 Whole Chickens
  • 4 Garlic Cloves
  • Whole Black Peppercorns
  • Maldon Salt
  • Olive Oil
  • A Couple of Sprigs of Flat Leaf Parsley
  • 2 Cans of Beer
Instructions
  1. Put the garlic, pepper and salt into your pestle and mortar and bash the flavours together.
  2. Now add a good splash of olive oil and the parsley – just bruise the leaves.
  3. Use this marinade to give the birds a good old massage all over, inside and out.
  4. Light the Ketla and get the heat to about 180°C.
  5. Crack open the beers, take a swig of each and perch the well-oiled birds upright on the open cans, wriggle them down so that they’re comfortable and the cavity is filled.
  6. Next balance them on the grid and close the hood of the Ketla.
  7. Allow the chickens to cook for between 40 to 80 minutes. The secret here is that the beer boils and steams the flesh from the inside giving it that malty flavour and keeping it juicy while the Ketla acts as a oven and crisps the skin.
  8. Once cooked through, carve and tuck in!

Recipe Courtesy of Justin Bonello – Ketla