Nkukhu Black, Benoni

Updated: 08-12-2022

Nkukhu Black is a relatively new brand and was created to embrace African flavours, culture, lifestyle and fashion through food. A true African township brand that focuses on authentic “Kasi” taste.

The name “Nkukhu” is a well known name in most African languages meaning “chicken”. While the focus of the menu is grilled chicken, it’s not the Portuguese style that has proliferated all over South Africa. The flavours are more peppery with a hint of sweet bbq and come in lemon & herb, mild, hot and prego.

The branch in Benoni is the first halaal branch of the franchise. It is located next to and owned by the same family of BP Sujee Motors on Actonville circle. It’s a unique concept where the building is entirely made and run out of a container. Seating is casual benches and tables outside and plenty of parking. It feels a rather like a roadhouse.

We ordered ahead to collect and take it home and decided to try a bit of everything. A big focus on the menu is the Kota. What is a kota you ask? I would say it’s a sister to the Bunny Chow. A quarter (kota) loaf of bread is hollowed out, filled first with a layer of french fries, then topped with optional layers of sauce, cheese, egg, and meat.

We ordered the Soweto Kota – filled with garlic polony, russian, chicken fillet, egg and cheese, topped with atchar, half chicken and chips (you can also opt for rice, pap or salad), 6 wings and the chicken livers. Yes, our eyes were a bit big as we are only 2 and half people. The portions are really good. The livers can easily feed 2 people, though it comes with one roll only. This was my favourite. The flavour is hot but tangy and so moreish. Move over Nando’s livers. Ridiculously cheap at R29!

The Kota is a tummy filler. I found it too bready and heavy. The polony had a nice flavour but in general the kota was a bit dry for me. I would request more sauce. The chicken wings comes on a skewer. And the 6 wings are in fact 6 full wings. Not cut in half as is the norm with all other franchises. While it was saucy and flavourful, I found the full uncut wing messy to eat. However I was at home and could get my hands dirty.

The chicken itself was tender and the flavour was a nice change from the predominently Portuguese style we are used to. The chips were ok but plain and could have used a seasoning salt of some sort.

Prices are very reasonable. Our entire order came to R198. So if you’d like to try out some halaal Kazi style cuisine Benoni is where you’ll get it for now. Perhaps some more halaal branches will roll out soon.