Sambal Fried Chicken

A little Intro

Accepting criticism of my cooking is always difficult. The one person who has always been critiquing my dishes with lots of enthusiasm and without mercy is my mom.

Like how she knocked on my door at 9am on a Sunday morning to complain that the crust on my raisin bread I made the night before is too hard. Or how inedible my Thai inspired basil chicken dish was.

And now to the good part. My mom raved about the sambal chicken being one of the best she had ever eaten. And that is a very meaningful compliment as my sambal dishes used to be criticised as being improperly cooked or being too dry.

Sambal Fried Chicken

Malays love spiciness in any dish. Trust me, I know. Virtually most Malays I know have a ready stash of red hot chillies in the fridge to add that additional kick to a dish. Sambal fried chicken is indeed a spicy dish. While the list of ingredients for the sambal is a little long, you will definitely feel that its worth the effort when that first piece of chicken enters your mouth. Sure, it's oily and packed with calories that you really don't need but the important thing is: It's Good!

Ingredients

8 pcs chicken wings
salt

1 small red onion - diced*
2 shallots - diced*
2 cloves garlic - sliced*
1 cm slice of ginger - finely sliced*
1 cm cube shrimp paste (belachan)*
2 tbsp assam paste - mixed in 1/4 cup of water*
1 candlenut - crushed*

1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup tomato puree
1 cup chilli paste
1 cup of oil
1 stalk lemongrass
fresh coriander for garnishing

Rub the chicken wing with salt and deep fry them in hot oil for about 2 mins. The chicken will not be thoroughly cooked but its ok. Remove from oil and set aside.

Heat half cup of oil in a pan.
Fry onion, shallot, garlic and ginger until fragrant.
Then mix in the shrimp paste, assam paste, candlenut and lemongrass.
Stir fry for 1 minute before adding in the other half cup of oil, tomato puree and chilli paste.
Cover and lower the heat to low-med and let simmer for approximately 15mins or until chilli turns a darker red.
Add in the chicken wings and remove the cover, allowing it to simmer for another 5 mins.
Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with white rice.
Serves 4