Anyone Can Cook #1: Sambal Ayam

Dear Earthlings (and disguised Spacelings),

Out of sudden, I thought of giving something useful to this blog apart from self-updating stories. So I have decided to share some home-cooked recipes starting from today. Well this might be quite useful to some newly-weds whose kitchen's experience was maybe to cook instant noodles using the boiled water (aha!).

So today's recipe will be Sambal Ayam or Fried Chicken with Chillies. Some people called it Ayam Goreng Bercili/Berlada but it is a same thing. Please do take note for this Sambal Ayam is not similar to Ayam Masak Merah. It is a side dish so it shall be served with rice or Nasi Lemak.

Some optional ingredients marked * below are listed to enhance the flavors but you may skip them anyway for a still delicious, simple recipe. I prefer my cooking to be simple yet tasty. However if you are not rushing and most optional ingredients are ready-in-stock, then you could twist the usual recipe for a brand new taste.

'Courtesy of Rasa.com. Spicy level: 3/5'

Sambal Ayam
(Fried Chicken with Chillies)

What You'll Need:

(A)

1/2 from a whole chicken

1+1/2 tbsp of turmeric powder (serbuk kunyit)

1/2 tbsp of salt

2 cups of vegetable oil

(B)

1/2 from an onion (bawang besar)

4 garlic cloves (bawang putih)

2 candlenuts (buah keras) - *optional

1 small lemongrass (serai) - *optional

1 cup of water

(C)

1/2 from an onion - sliced

6 tbsp of blended dried chillies (cili kering)

1+1/2 tbsp of sugar

1/2 tbsp of salt

1 chicken stock cube (kiub pati ayam)
Juices from 4 small limes (limau nipis)
4 Kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut) - *optional

Now Let's Get Cooking:

1. Cut chicken into small pieces. Rub them with turmeric powder and salt in (A) before frying them in vegetable oil until half-cooked in a cooking pan. Set them aside.

2. Blend everything in (B).

3. Take out half of the oil used for chicken frying and set it aside. Using the other half of oil left in the same pan, saute the sliced onion and blended dried chillies in (C) on medium heat for five minutes.

4. Add in the blended ingredients in (B). It should be sauteed for another five minutes on slow heat. Make sure you keep stirring it to avoid it burns on the bottom of pan.

5. Add in the Kaffir lime leaves, sugar, salt, chicken stock cube and lime juice. Mix them well before add in the fried chicken pieces. Stir for another five minutes on low heat. Ready to serve.

Cooked with much loves, people!