South African Bobotie recipe

South African Bobotie Recipe

Origin of Bobotie

This week we continue our culinary of Africa and head to South Africa for this wonderful minced beef dish. It is believed that the origin of Bobotie came to South Africa from Indonesia or Malaysia. See below for the full South African Bobotie recipe and check out our video showing all steps. As you know, we like to do most of our cooking on our pellet smoker so we adapted this recipe for that purpose. But don’t fret, it can still work in your oven as well.

Prep time is about 15 minutes and it will cook for 45-60 minutes.  This serves 5-7 people.

Ingredients (Subsitutes are listed)

  • 1 1/2 Cups – Whole Milk
  • 1 Tsp – Turmeric
  • 3 Tbsp – Chutney (Mango/Peach/Apricot, what you can get)
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp – Curry Powder (or Curry Paste) – https://amzn.to/3sBcW0N
  • 4 ounces dried fruit (Sultanas are traditional, however in the US you can substitute golden raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries or chopped figs or dates) – https://amzn.to/3eaAl3Q
  • 1/2 Tsp – Cayenne Pepper
  • 2 Tsp – Salt
  • 3 – Bay Leaves 
  • 1 Tbsp – Vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp  – Worchestire Sauce
  • 2 – Eggs
  • 4 Tbsp – Butter 
  • 2-3 – Medium Diced Onions
  • 3 cloves – Minced Garlic
  • 2 1/4 lbs. – Ground Chuck
  • 2 Slices – Bread (with crusts cut off)
This dish is from South Africa (on the left) and you can see what it looks like before baking (on the right)

Directions for Preparing Bobotie

  1. Put Bread in the bowl of milk and set it aside.
  2. Heat butter in the pan
  3. Sauté onions and garlic until translucent in a cast-iron skillet (be sure to use one you can place in your smoker for cooking later)
  4. Add Chutney, Curry Powder, Turmeric, Cayenne, Salt, Vinegar, and Soy sauce and mix over heat for 2 minutes.
  5. Mix in dried fruit and stir in for 2 minutes over low heat.
  6. Put in the ground beef and continue to stir with a wooden spoon until the ground beef is no longer pink on the outside (about 6-8 minutes)
    1. You are not trying to brown the ground beef, just remove the pink
  7. Remove from Heat
  8. Wring out bread to get most of the milk out of the bread and break the bread into the beef mixture in the pan.
  9. Crack 2 eggs into the leftover milk bowl and then whisk well until eggs are thoroughly mixed. 
  10. Sprinkle in a 1/4 Tsp of Turmeric for color and flavor

Directions for Cooking Bobotie

  1. If you are going to cook in your oven, it is best to place the meat mixture in a glass casserole dish and back in the oven in a larger pan with water on the bottom (a Bain Marie)
  2. If you are cooking on your grill or pellet smoker, leave the mixture in the cast iron skillet as you can cook on the grill with it.
  3. Pour Milk/Egg mixture over the pan of seasoned ground beef to cover the top.
  4. Add bay leaves to the top
  • Place in 300-350 degree smoker, grill, or oven for 35-45 minutes.
  • Cook on the top rack for indirect heat to avoid scorching the bottom of the pan and bobotie.
  • Remove when wonderfully hot and bubbly. Serve hot (but honestly, we enjoyed it just room temperature as well)
This is what it looked like as we were ready to remove from Grill/Oven

Items we used making our maafe

  • Pit Boss Combo Smoker/Grill – https://amzn.to/32nY5vN
  • Mango Chutney – https://amzn.to/3eaAl3Q
  • Curry Paste – https://amzn.to/3sBcW0N
  • 12″ Lodge Cast Iron Grill Pan – https://amzn.to/3sqJ7Qf
  • Teak Wooden Spoon – https://amzn.to/3uZovjP
  • Saramonic Wireless Microphones – https://amzn.to/2P0tYri
This was one of the better dishes we made. It was unique and wonderfully flavored.

Please check out our other videos as well and click on the playlist below for a couple we think you may enjoy.

  • The Refit Playlist – https://youtu.be/8wyNNpLAeNs
  • Our Sailing to New Orleans Playlist – https://youtu.be/gzzteJxewAU
  • Epoxy Vs Polyester Fiberglass test results – https://youtu.be/V1bXiKPYDKI
  • Our series on hatches – https://youtu.be/7dNMu8s32kY
  • and Our Series on new Freshwater Plumbing – https://youtu.be/8uv7ABaD3YM

Tools and supplies

Tools and supplies we use regularly can be found here: First, Please note these are amazon affiliate links. Second, we get a little commissions if you use these, but they don’t cost you any more. And Lastly, All of these are also eligible for Amazon Prime free shipping if you have that service.

For all of you outdoor grillers that want to see information on the Pellet Smoker from Pit Boss or the Pit Boss Pro Series Gas Grill, Pellet Smoker Combo, you can check out our playlist on that as well.

Video and Camera Equipment we use

Video equipment used is: Canon Vixia G40

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