Balinese Triple Cooked Chicken
Adapted from Iboe Soelastri
Preparation time: 5-15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
- 750g/1.5lbs. chicken pieces, skin on
- 1 medium sized red or brown onion, peeled and chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- 4 large red chillies, sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste
- 150g/5ozs. tomato, chopped
- 1 teaspoon palm or white sugar
- 100g/3.5ozs. candlenuts (I used macadamia nuts)
- 1/2 cup tamarind paste
- Oil for frying
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 1 cup water
Step 1 - Place the chicken into a pot of boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the chicken pieces (you can reserve the stock for some great chicken broth).
Step 2 - Blend the onion, garlic, chillies, shrimp paste, tomato, sugar and nuts and some of the tamarind paste until it becomes a smooth paste. Add a little oil to a skillet and fry the paste mixture until fragrant then add the reserved chicken, the rest of the tamarind paste, coconut cream and water. Simmer for 15 minutes or so until chicken is cooked through (it depends on the size of the pieces).
If you need to add more water, do so a little at a time. At this stage you can refrigerate or freeze the chicken and just bbq or grill it just before serving. I like to do it this way because the chicken is fully cooked and there's no risk of serving guests raw chicken.
Step 3 - Preheat bbq or grill onto high and slip the pieces under the grill to brown the skin. Serve with steamed rice, coconut rice or salad.