Nasi Ayam Penyet (Indonesian Smashed Fried Chicken Rice)

 印尼炸鸡

This is a very popular dish in Indonesia and widely found in Singapore's hawker centre and food courts. Ayam means "chicken" and Penyat means "Smashed" in Bahasa Indonesia. We went to a new food court for lunch two days ago and tried the Ayam Penyet there. It was very tasty, and I quickly search for its recipes. There are many versions and I adapted the recipes from Lisa's Lemony Kitchen and honest-to-goodness. I did not include recipe for sambal (chilli sauce/paste) as my family does not take spicy food.

Ingredients A 

1 chicken (cut into 4 pieces)

2 bay leaves

3 lemon grass (white part) - crush/smash it

2-3cm blue ginger (galangal) - crush/smash it

3 kaffir lime leaves - remove center vein

1 litre water 

2.5 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

Spice paste (12 shallots, 5 garlic cloves, 4 candlenuts [optional], 1/4 teaspoon tumeric powder, 1/4 teaspoon coriander powder)

1 spoonful of love

Ingredients B 

50g rice flour

10g corn flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

100ml chicken broth

Sides which you can serve with this dish:

Tau Kwa/firm tofu - can fry using the same batter

Tempeh (fermented soybean) - can fry using the same batter. Click here to know more about tempeh.

Vegetables e.g. cucumber

Method

1. Prepare spice paste. I use a mortar and pestle to pound all the spices. You can use a blender.

2. Put all the ingredients A in a big pot and bring to boil. Then simmer for 1 hour until the water is reduced to half.

3. Remove chicken pieces from the pot and let the chicken and the chicken broth cool completely.

4. Prepare batter using ingredients B. The chicken broth is from above steps and should be cooled to room temperature before mixing with the batter. The batter is liquid in consistency. 

5. Cook rice as per normal but using the cooled chicken broth. I added a bunch of pandan leaves to make the rice more fragrant.

6. Smash each piece of chicken (I use pestle to do it). 

7. Dip the smashed chicken into the batter and deep fry until light golden in colour. 

8. Turn up the heat in the fryer/wok to approximately 180 degree celcius. Fry the chicken pieces again until nicely brown. This will take about 20seconds for each piece. Place the fried chicken on wire rack to cool.

9. Serve the fried chicken hot with rice and sides.