Recipes around Africa: Bunny Chow from South Africa

Bunny Chow is said to have originated from a large Indian community in Durban on the East Coast of South Africa.

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Although there are many conspiracies around the origin of this meal, what remains the same is that the Indians used white bread to accompany their meals. This meal, also known as Bunny, is now one of South Africa’s main street foods.

Bunny Chow is a hollowed loaf of bread that is filled with various curries and eaten that way as a meal. The loaf is meant to soak in the juices from the curry. The curries can go from beef, chicken to vegetables.

The whole idea of Bunny Chow is filling the hollow loaf with curry, so any recipe you decide to try will work out perfectly.

Here are the ingredients you will need to prepare chicken Bunny Chow:

• Whole loaf of bread cut into two halves.
• Three tablespoons of vegetable oil
• One the Star Anise flower
• One cinnamon stick
• Four cardamom pods
• One large onion
• Six cloves of garlic
• One stem of ginger
• ½kg of boneless chicken
• One teaspoon of red chili powder
• One teaspoon of paprika
• One teaspoon of coriander
• ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder
• One teaspoon of cayenne powder
• ½ teaspoon of Garam masala
• One teaspoon of cumin powder
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• ½ teaspoon of green chili paste
• One large tomato
• Two potatoes cubed into small pieces(fried preferably)
• Coriander leaves for garnishing at the end
• Two tablespoons of lemon juice
• One cup of water

Method:

In a nonstick pan under low heat, add your Star Anise flower, cinnamon stick and cardamom pods and let them heat up for 2-3 minutes while stirring to ensure they evenly heat up to bring out their flavours.

Then add your vegetable oil and let it heat up for some few seconds since the pan is already hot.

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Add your finely chopped onion and continue stirring the mixture. After two minutes of stirring, add your garlic and ginger paste and continue stirring for two minutes.

Remember the heat should be low. Then add your boneless chicken, remember to cut them into small pieces, and continue stirring for about three minutes.

Then to the mixture add; the red chili powder, paprika, coriander powder, turmeric powder, cayenne powder, garam masala, cumin powder, salt and the green chili paste (the measurements are above on the ingredients you need).

All this are added at once to the mixture, then continue frying for about 4-5 minutes.

Then add your rated tomato to the mixture and continue stirring, then add your fried potatoes and continue stirring the mixture.

Add your lemon juice the mixture and continue stirring while you pour small portions of water to the mixture to allow it to cook till thick enough to your liking.

Do not use a lot of water when cooking, the curry needs to be very thick to allow it to soak in the loaf. Once ready, add finely cut coriander leaves to the curry and stir.

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For the loaf, use a knife to divide it into two halves. Hollow out your loaf using a knife, then fill in the hollowed portion with your curry to the top.

Garnish with some chopped coriander on the top and squeeze lemon juice to the mixture too.

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Serve while hot. Enjoy!

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