Lord of the braais wings it in Gugulethu

One sunny afternoon, on the corner of Klipfontein Road and Ny Road in Gugulethu, this man gave me a master class at braaing chicken.

John Dubeni, who really does braai for a living, took me under his wing and gave instruction from the side, as I took over his job for an hour or two.

Every morning, John buys fresh chickens and starts preparing. Step one is to butterfly the chickens and make a deep cut lengthwise in each breast, “˜allowing the heat to penetrate the meat so the whole chicken braais evenly.’ This happens to be something I do at home.

Thirty minutes prior to putting the birds on the fire, they’re dunked in a bucket of fresh water. This technique is called brining and usually involves salty water, although John uses plain water. Traditionally done with meats such as chicken and pork, the rationale of brining is to get additional moisture into the meat, and increase your margin of error to braai the meat to a point where it’s properly cooked throughout, but not dry.

There are other less noble reasons for brining as well: butchers or supermarkets sometimes brine meat to add weight in water that the consumer pays for at meat prices, and recently some operators made the news for using brine to preserve post sell-by meat.

John does neither of these. He uses fresh chickens and doesn’t sell by weight, but by chicken. He’s convinced brining makes them juicier, and thousands of returning customers – as well as a major school of thought in cooking – agree with him.

John knows his stuff and assertively states that these flat chickens should be braaied for “˜35 to 39 minutes’. For the first half of the braai, the wings are left hanging off the grid away from the heat as “˜they cook quicker than the rest and would otherwise dry out.’ When braaing chicken, you need to turn it often and, with 16 chickens on the grid, this meant I was turning continuously. After each turn the meat is painted with a mixture of water, barbeque spice and salt. The basting contains no oil as this causes flames and there’s enough natural fat in the chicken’s skin.

For half a braaied chicken John charges R25, and R45 for a whole one, as you get a discount when buying both halves.

Should you buy a Stoney ginger beer at the petrol station across the road for R6 as I did, this leads to a really great meal for R51. Upon request John will even give you a serviette to wipe your hands afterwards.

If you replace the fresh garlic and onion with dried garlic and onion flakes, you can make larger quantities that can be stored in an airtight container. Use this rub on all meats before braaiing.