Indonesian Padang style fried chicken (ayam goreng serundeng)

[KennethT]

This installment of Extremely Labor Intensive Padang Food is one of my favorites - fried chicken.  In my opinion, this, with all of the accoutrements, is vastly superior to the vaunted Thai Hat Yai fried chicken. The steps are essentially as follows - grind a spice paste out of fresh ingredients, simmer/braise the chicken in the spice paste with as much water as to partially submerge the chicken, remove the chicken once tender (traditionally, you'd use "kampung" or village chickens which tend to be quite tough) and then separately remove all of the solids from the braising liquid with a very fine mesh strainer, then shallow fry the braised chicken and then fry the solids.  Serve with even more labor intensive sambals...  The good thing is that it doesn't all have to be done at the same time.  The sambals can be done well in advance - some people even store them at room temperature for a few weeks (I portion and freeze them as I'm not THAT confident that they won't go bad and ruin all that work as well as my evening/next day), the chicken can be braised earlier that day or a few days before and fried at the last minute and the spice paste, once fried, will keep forever as long as it is kept dry (I keep it in an airtight plastic container with paper towels above and below to absorb excess oil and I add a couple of desiccant packets between the upper paper towel and the cover).

 

Just to make things a little more complicated, you can make variations of the serundeng (that's the fried spice paste) by varying the ratio of ingredients.  Personally, my favorite is the galangal heavy version which is detailed below, but you can easily make it a candlenut heavy version by practically eliminating the galangal (just use a little bit then) and using a metric ton of candlenuts (around the same volume as the galangal would have been).  Or you can make a ginger heavy version or an extra shallot-y version... It's all up to your personal preference.  Usually, in a Padang restaurant, they serve only one kind which they won't tell you what it is unless you specifically ask so it's a fun surprise.  Truth be told, once the frying is all done, all of the serundeng are remarkably similar tasting - the differences are there, but are much more subtle than you'd expect them to be.

 

Yield 4-8 chicken thighs - if only 4, you'll have a LOT of extra serundeng

Spice paste (bumbu):

Shallots - 3 western size or 8 of the smaller Asian ones (about 150g)

Galangal - about the same volume as the shallots or maybe a bit more

Garlic - 6 large cloves

Fresh turmeric - roughly 4" long, 3/4 - 1" diameter

Ginger - about 1/4 of the shallot volume

Candlenuts - 3 pieces

Ground dried coriander - 1 heaping Tablespoon

Ground black peppercorn = 1 teaspoon

 

Water to almost cover the chicken

 

2 large daun salam (Indonesian bay leaves, very different from Turkish or California bay)

6 kaffir lime leaves

1 stalk lemongrass

 

Seasoning:

1/2t MSG

1/2t chicken powder

1-2t salt (to taste)

1/2t sugar

 

Grated coconut (fresh or frozen) - unsweetened - about the same volume as the shallots

 

Oil for frying - I like peanut oil but you can use canola oil, corn oil or any relatively high temperature oil

 

 

1) Grind the spice paste (bumbu) in a blender with some water to help it blend, or if you want to make it even more labor intensive, use a mortar/pestle

2) In a cold wok or pan just large enough to hold the chicken close together, add the blended spice paste, water, leaves/lemongrass, seasoning and chicken, mixing to combine thoroughly and bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally

3) Sprinkle the coconut on top and mix in thoroughly, turn the heat to low, cover and simmer until tender/cooked thoroughly, turning and stirring occasionally, scraping the bottom to make sure nothing settles/burns

4) Remove the chicken and set aside on a rack to drain well (this will minimize spattering later), also remove the lemongrass/leaves and discard

5) Using a fine mesh strainer, remove the solids from the braising liquid, then press to remove as much liquid as possible

6) In a clean wok or pot, add enough oil to shallow fry the chicken and bring to 350degF

7) Fry the chicken in batches until golden brown on both sides, then remove and drain on a rack or paper towels, removing any loose serundeng between batches to avoid burning

8 ) Bring the oil back up to temperature and add the drained solids (slowly so it doesn't explode) and stir constantly to keep from burning

9) Once golden brown, remove the fried solids with a fine mesh strainer and drain well, then spread on a couple layers of paper towel to absorb any excess oil

 

Serve with jasmine rice, sambal ijo and sambal merah, putting a healthy pile of the serundeng on top of the chicken: