Indonesian Spicy Chicken Stir Fry (Ayam Palekko Makassar)
As an Indonesian, I could say this is one of the dish that I miss the most since I live abroad. Originally from South Sulawesi, the tenderness of the chicken with savory. tangy and spicy flavour combined with fresh aromatic Indonesian herbs, make this delicious chicken stir fry memorable.
Eventough it takes time to cook and takes a little effort to find some ingredients, but I guarantee you it is worth it. Normally, you could find any Asian’s herbs in any Asian store in your country, but if you have a difficulty to find, you could skip some ingredient and the taste is still delicious. For instance, Galangal and Tamarind, you could easily replace them with lemon or lime juice.
I made this delicious chicken stir fry for my Danish friends and they loved it. For the spicyness, if you could not tolerate too much heat, you could replace the small red chili with the big red chili. The big red chili ussualy has a bit spicyness and more sweeter than the small one.
So… without any hesitate let’s cooking it….
Indonesian Spicy Stir Fry Chicken (Ayam Pallekko Makassar)
Ingredients
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 10 pieces Shallot small
- 5 pieces Small Red chili if you like it spicer you can add 10
- 1 cm Ginger
- 1 cm Fresh turmeric
- 2 stalks Lemongrass
- 50 ml Tamarind juice
- 3 Bay leaves
- 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 1 whole Chicken small
- Salt, pepper and sugar
Instructions
- First you need to cut the chicken into small pieces and marinate it with tamarind juice, salt and pepper about 15 minutes. Set it a side.While the chicken have being marinate, put garlic, shallot, chili, tumeric and ginger in a food processor. If you don't have a chopper you could cut it real fined.For the galangal and lemongrass, you just need to crushed it with the back of your knive.
- Once all the ingredient is ready, now is time to cook. Heat the pan and drizzle with some oil. When it is hot enough put your onion chili paste and saute about 5 minutes. Remember o use medium heat so you don't burn your garlic. After your kitchen smell like Chinese restaurant, put the galangal, lemongrass and bay leaves. Saute it for another minutes.
- Now all your herbs are well cooked, add your chicken together with the tamarind juice and put about half glass of hot water, seasoning with salt, pepper and sugar. Cook the chicken until it well done. Normally takes about 20-25 minutes.
- Serve it with some steam hot rice and slice of cucumber. Look how delicious the spicy stir fry chicken that you just made. Enjoy it.Now, every time you crave for something savory, spicy and tangy chicken dish, you could make it by yourself.
Notes
- Don’t use too much oil to saute your onion in the beggining because later when you cook the chicken, the nature oil will come out. You don’t want your dish to be greasy.
- If you use food processor to blend the onion chili paste, wash it immediately because the tumeric has a very strong colour. You don’t want it to leave a stain.