This dish is a holiday memory. The roadside cafes of Indonesia, known as warungs, each specialise in a street food unique to the region. So, a warung in Bali will serve different food to a warung in Java or Sumatra. This chicken recipe, ayam bumbu Bali, is fried chicken with a Balinese twist: lots of chilli, fragrant lime, and sweet and addictive kecap manis. A pale lager is the go here.
Ingredients
- 10 dried red chillies about 5 cm (2 inches) long
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar (jaggery)
- 2 tomatoes chopped
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 4 lime leaves roughly torn
- 4 fl oz/½ cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
- 8 large chicken drumsticks
- kecap manis to serve
How to Make It
- .Put the dried chillies in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to soak for 30 minutes, then drain and cool. Pick the stem ends off the chillies. Rub the chillies between your thumb and fingers to loosen the seeds so they fall out. Remove as many seeds as possible.
- Chop the chillies and place in a food processor with the garlic, palm sugar, tomatoes and salt. Process to a sambal paste. Stir in the lime leaves.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Heat the oil in a frying pan over high heat. Fry the chicken drumsticks for 8 minutes, turning every 2 minutes, until golden all over.
- Lay the chicken pieces in a ceramic baking tray, so they fit snugly. Spread the chilli sambal over the chicken and bake for 30 minutes, or until cooked through. Serve hot, drizzled with kecap manis.
