We welcome Tiff from Free to Feed who's travelled from Kelantan, Malaysia and is from a Hokkian culture, a Malaysian-Chinese community. He's kindly shared one of his favourite dishes, a famous Malaysian dish called Ayam Kecap Manis.
Ingredients:
- 1 Whole Chicken or 2 Chicken Breasts & 2 Chicken Maryland
- 1 tbsp Turmeric
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Vegetable Oil
- 160g Red Onion
- 250g Brown Onions
- 160g Shallots
- 1 whole bulb Garlic
- 10 stalks Curry Leaves
- 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- 1/3 C Kecap Manis
- Salt to taste
- 1 1/2 tbsp Sugar
- White Pepper
- 30g Dried Chilli Paste (Singalong)
- 50g Lemongrass
- 2 tsp Light Soy
- 3/4 C Water
- 3 litres Oil for frying
- 1 Long Red Chilli, finely sliced on diagonal (garnish)
Method:
- Cut chicken breasts & marylands into 3 to 4 pieces.
- Marinate chicken with turmeric, salt and oil and let sit for 1 hour.
- Peel red onion and 1 brown onion, shallots and garlic, roughly cut and place in food processor bowl and process until finely chopped. Decant into a bowl and add dried chilli paste.
- Peel and finely slice the other brown onion and slice the lemongrass
- Heat oil until it reaches 170C. Deep fry chicken in batched until golden and 3/4 cooked (about 10 mins).
- In a large, wide, shallow pan, on high heat, add 1C oil and once hot, add in finely chopped onions, shallots and chilli mixture and cook for several minutes, constantly stirring (about 10-15 mins).
- Add light soy, kecap manis and oyster sauce.
- Reduce heat to medium and add chicken, stir to coat and keep stirring to prevent paste from burning.
- Add water and lemongrass and cover for 5 minutes.
- Add curry leaves and fry for a couple of minutes
- Stir through sliced onion and chilli
- Add 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar and stir well
- Simmer for 40 minutes.
- Turn off heat, cover with lid and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Serve with Jasmin rice and Tiff's pickles.
