Recipe for Ayam Goreng Berempah (Spiced Fried Chicken)

Adapted from Huang Kitchen

Ingredients:

  • 6 chicken whole legs or chicken drumstick fillets, approximately 2kg+, cut into medium size pieces
  • 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 3 tbsp KampongKu Curry Chicken Paste
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 2 stalks curry leaves
  • 3 tbsp cornflour
  • 1 egg, slightly beaten

Ground Ingredients to Blend:

  • 2 inch ginger, skinned
  • 6 cloves garlic, skinned
  • 12 shallots, skinned
  • 6 lemongrass, use upper tender parts
  • 3 tbsp water

Instructions:

  1. Wash the chicken and rub all-purpose flour into chicken. Then rinse and drain well to remove poultry smell.
  2. Cut the chicken into medium size pieces or as desired.
  3. Blend coarsely lemongrass, shallots, garlic and ginger. Add a little water when grinding. Transfer into a bowl.
  4. Mix in KampongKu Curry Chicken Paste and turmeric powder to the bowl of blended marinade.
  5. Add in one egg.
  6. Followed by curry leaves and cornflour.
  7. Mix everything until well combined. Add salt and sugar to taste.
  8. Mix the chicken pieces with the marinade until chicken is thoroughly covered with the aromatic spices and seasoning.
  9. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for several hours, preferably overnight.
  10. Remove the marinated chicken from the refrigerator 1 hour before frying to bring the chicken to room temperature so the inside of chicken meat isn’t cold. Otherwise, the meat will be burnt on the outside but raw on the inside.
  11. Heat up enough oil to fry the chicken over high heat. Oil is ready for frying when oil bubbles appear around the stick. (Or you can drop a small curry leaf in and it sizzles and bubbles.)
  12. When oil is ready, fry some stalks of curry leaves for about 2-3 minutes over medium to low heat.
  13. Then remove the fried curry leaves from the oil using a strainer. Set aside the fried curry leaves for garnishing.
  14. Next, put in marinated chicken into the curry leaves infused hot oil, piece by piece. In batches, deep fry for 15 to 20 minutes until chicken is crispy, golden brown in colour and juices run clear.
  15. Once done, remove the fried chicken from oil using strainer.
  16. Drain the fried chicken on paper towel to remove excess oil.
  17. Also remove the fried spiced crumbs from the oil and set aside to drain off excess oil. Do not throw away these spiced crumbs as that is one of the tastiest part. And we’re done!

    Extra Note: Use new batch of cooking oil to fry the leftover rempah from the marinade with curry leaves. Garnish the crispy bits over the fried chicken for the extra umphhh!

  18. Serve them hot, garnished with the fried curry leaves and crispy fried spiced crumbs for extra flavour. Enjoy!