Zakkie's Lamb Neck Potjiekos Recipe
- Zakkie Bester
- May 11
- 2 min read
No fancy tricks. No red wine reductions. No twenty ingredients you’ll never use again. Just proper lamb neck, good fire, and enough patience to let the pot do its thing.
INGREDIENTS
1 kg lamb neck, cut into chunks
100 ml cooking oil
2 onions, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 beef or lamb stock cube
1 cup hot water, plus extra as needed
1 kg potatoes, peeled and quartered
Salt and black pepper
White Tastic rice, for serving
METHOD
Get your fire going properly first. You want steady coals, not raging flames. A good potjie is cooked low and slow.
Heat the oil in a size 3 potjie pot until properly hot. Carefully add the cup of water, keeping your face well back because it can splatter aggressively.
Season the lamb neck generously with salt and pepper, then add the meat to the pot. Brown it well. Don’t rush this step, because those dark sticky bits at the bottom are where the flavour lives.
Once the meat has taken on good colour, add the onions, garlic, and celery. Let everything cook together for a few minutes until the onions soften slightly.
Crumble in the stock cube and add a little extra water, just enough to create some moisture in the pot without drowning the meat. This is not a stew.
Move your coals so the heat sits around the pot rather than directly underneath it. The potjie should gently simmer, not boil aggressively.
Put the lid on and leave it alone for about 1½ hours. Maybe longer if the fire cools down or the stories around the fire get too long. The lamb should become soft and tender.
Towards the end, pack the potatoes on top of the meat. Put the lid back on and allow them to steam through until soft.
And whatever you do, DO NOT STIR THE POT.
Serve with Bester Family Red and white Tastic rice. Nothing fancy. The potjie is already doing all the hard work.
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