Ayam Merah Recipe

(Chicken in Red Spicy Sauce – Nyonya Recipe)

Ingredients A:

10 daun limau purut (kaffir lime leaves)

2 stalks lemon grass, bashed

(use only the bottom white tender part)

Ingredients B (ground to a fine paste):

10 candlenuts

¼ thumb-sized piece ginger

2 tablespoons chili powder

10 red chilies, seeded

10 red chili padi

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon dried shrimp paste

50g shallots

1.5kg chicken, cut into big pieces

450g grated coconut

4 tablespoons oil

30g tamarind, squeezed in 110ml water, strained

Method:

Marinate chicken with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon each of salt for ½ hour. Squeeze coconut for thick milk and set aside. Add 280ml water to squeezed coconut and squeeze again for a less concentrated milk. Set aside. Grease a roasting pan with 2 tablespoons oil. Rub chicken pieces with another 2 tablespoons oil and roast chicken in a hot oven until lightly brown. Repeat for other side. Remove from oven and set aside. Heat an aluminum pan. Combine the less concentrated milk, ingredients A and B and boil over medium heat for 10 minutes, adding 1 tablespoon salt. Add roasted chicken, pan juices and tamarind water. Boil for another 10 minutes. Pour in the thick coconut milk, reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 10-12 minutes or until chicken is tender. Remove from heat. Serve hot or cold.