Nasi ayam penyet with all the trimmings

This ‘nasi ayam penyet’ recipe is for a full meal complete with chicken rice, soup, side dishes and a sambal to die for. — YAP CHEE HONG/The Star

Originating from Surabaya in East Java, nasi ayam penyet is today available at every street corner throughout Indonesia. Judging from its popularity, this dish has also become a hit beyond the archipelago.

Penyet which means flattened or pressed, refers to the fried chicken which is lightly pounded with a pestle to soften it, or squished with a brick or a frying pan.

Like most Indonesian fried chicken dishes, this one calls for the chicken to be poached first before it is marinated in spices for at least two hours. This method ensures that the chicken is fully cooked and that the marinade penetrates into the meat while it firms up in the refrigerator.

Thereafter, the meat can be fried at a high temperature to brown and crisp up without worrying that it is not sufficiently cooked inside. It also remains moist because the meat would have retained its juices.

This recipe includes ingredients and methods to prepare a full meal complete with chicken rice, soup, side dishes and sambal. It gives you the opportunity to use up the broth from poaching the chicken but you can omit these components if you prefer.

The one component you must not omit, however, is the sambal, which is the crowning glory of the dish. It’s the most time-consuming part of the dish but the result is most satisfying.

Do not be alarmed by the one cup of oil in the ingredient list because by the time the sambal is ready, you’ll realise it’s just the perfect amount for the recipe.

Once you start digging into the dish, you’ll realise that the portion of sambal it yields is just enough to go with everything on the platter and you won’t have any leftover.

A delectable component of this dish is the crispy kriuk, which I used to think were pieces of flotsam left over from frying the chicken. If the mixture is not properly dried out, the crunchy bits may end up being chunky but you can use a pestle to break up the bits after frying.

You may wish to omit this if you prefer not to consume more fried carbs, but it adds a scrumptious crispy finish that pairs beautifully with the sambal.

Nasi Ayam Penyet

Ingredients

4 chicken quarters

1 cube chicken stock

1 knob ginger

2 cloves garlic

8 cups water

3 cups cooking oil

Marinade

½ tsp cumin, toasted

½ tsp fennel, toasted

3 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted

1 tbsp turmeric powder

½ tsp white pepper

3 cloves garlic

1 knob ginger

½ tsp salt to taste

Crispy kriuk

excess chicken spice marinade

1 egg

½ cup rice flour

Chicken rice

3 cups rice, rinsed and drained

3 cups chicken broth

3 cloves garlic cloves, minced

1 stick cinnamon

2 pods star anise

5 pods cardamom

1 tbsp ghee

3 pandan leaves, knotted

½ tsp salt to taste

Chicken soup

1 packet bunjut soup mix

1 stalk lemongrass, pounded

Garnish

1 stalk Chinese parsley, plucked

1 stalk spring onions, diced

5 bulbs shallots, thinly sliced

Sambal

1 cup cooking oil

1 cup anchovies

10 pods birds eye chillies

10 pods red chillies, roughly chopped

3 tomatoes, quartered

10 bulbs shallots, quartered

3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 cube belacan

1 block palm sugar, coarsely chopped

a pinch of salt to taste

juice from 5 calamansi limes

Side vegetables

2 pieces tempeh

4 pieces tofu

cucumber, sliced

tomatoes, cut into wedges

long beans, cut into 4cm lengths

cabbage, doubles as a sambal container

Method

Wash the chicken and poach in water with ginger, garlic and stock cube for 20 minutes until cooked. Remove the chicken and let it cool.

Toast cumin, fennel and coriander seeds together until fragrant. Cool the spices and grind together with all the marinade ingredients into a smooth paste.

Marinate boiled chicken with spice paste for at least two hours for the spices to penetrate into the chicken. Also marinate tofu and tempeh with the same paste but don’t mix with the chicken. For the crispy kriuk, mix the excess spices with rice flour and eggs, then set aside to dry out for about two hours.

Fry the chicken in oil on high heat until crispy. Flatten chicken by pounding it with a pestle or pressing it down with a heavy pan. In the same oil, fry the tempeh and tofu until crispy.

For the crispy kriuk, crumble the mixture and fry until crispy.

For the chicken rice, heat ghee to temper cinnamon, star anise and cardamom, then add garlic to saute until fragrant. Toss in the rice and stir. Add chicken broth, pandan leaves and salt, then cook the rice as usual.

For the chicken soup, simmer the chicken broth with soup mix and lemongrass, adding chicken bone parts such as neck and chicken legs as desired until flavourful. Garnish with parsley, spring onions and fried shallots when ready to serve.

Before cooking the sambal, fry the shallots in fresh oil until crispy and set aside.

Fry anchovies in the same oil until crispy and set aside. Similarly, do the same for the chillies in the same oil and finally, fry the tomatoes and remove when seared before it starts boiling instead of frying.

In a food processor, grind fried anchovies, chillies and tomatoes with shallots and garlic into a coarse paste. In the remaining oil, fry the belacan until fragrant then add the ground paste with palm sugar and saute until it thickens into a deep red. Season with salt and calamansi to taste.

On a platter, serve a scoop of rice sprinkled with fried shallots and parsley. Plate up a piece of chicken topped with crispy kruik.

Arrange the fried tempeh, tofu and other vegetables on the platter accompanied by a bowl of soup and sambal on the side.