Justin Bonello’s pit-oven chickens recipe

Posted by Justin Bonello on 8 November 2010

Making your own pit oven

The principle behind a pit oven is the slow and even release of heat within a sealed earth-oven. Anything prepared using this method is cooked slowly and, as a result, the natural juices and flavours are sealed in rather than scorched out. Since no combustion (that’s flame or fire) occurs during the actual cooking process, there’s no danger of your food being burnt. Basically, think of this as an underground pressure cooker.

To get you going, you need a whole load of igneous rocks. Metamorphic and sedimentary rocks will explode and you’ll be pulling shrapnel out of your mate’s backside (or worse).

First thing to do is make the pit oven:

• Gather igneous rocks the size of your fist, or slightly bigger.

• Dig a hole approximately three times the size of the food you’d like to cook. Keep the earth that you dig up for later use.

• Line the bottom and sides of the hole with fist-sized igneous rocks.

• Make a fire in the pit with lots of wood and charcoal.

• Build a pyramid of rocks over the fire.

• Let the fire burn down until the rocks collapse on the fire (about three hours).

For the chickens you’ll need:

125 g salted butter
Fresh rosemary sprigs or tarragon
(if you’re making two chickens,
do one of each)
2 lemons
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
12 washed banana leaves
1 free-range chicken

First up, make a flavoured butter: pull all the rosemary or tarragon leaves off the stems and put them in a bowl with the butter, black pepper and sea salt. Using a fork, mash all these ingredients together thoroughly. Slide a finger between the skin and the flesh on top of the chicken breast to create a pocket.Push the flavoured butter under the skin and massage the bird, forcing the butter all around. Drizzle lemon juice from one of the lemons all over the chicken. Cut the second lemon in half and pop it into the cavity. Wrap the chicken in five layers of banana leaves and secure with a piece of butcher’s string or wire.

Once your chicken is prepared:

Test if the rocks are hot enough by dropping water on them. They should be so hot the water evaporates instantly. If they’re not hot enough, add more wood.

Using a set of tongs, remove the top layer of rocks and as many burning coals as you can.

Place three banana leaves on the bottom layer of rocks, followed by a bunch of edible plants or herbs (rosemary or tarragon will do).

Place the wrapped chicken on top of the herbs.

Cover with more banana leaves and then the hot rocks. Cover these with an old towel or piece of fabric to keep the sand off.

Lastly, fill in the hole with dirt and walk away.

It takes two to three hours to cook (rather err on the side of caution as it’s impossible to burn it and the longer it cooks, the easier it’ll fall off the bone).

For more recipes and outdoor cooking ideas, read Justin Bonello’s Cooked in Africa: A cooking journey through Southern Africa.

Buy the book now

Cooked in Africa: A Cooking Journey Through Southern Africa

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