Ayam Goreng Jawa (Javanese Fried Chicken)

My another favorite dish!! Javanese Fried Chicken or my family usually call it Ayam goreng Jawa. It is a very popular dish in Indonesia (especially in Java) and very common to be served together with hot steamed rice, sambal, and some raw vegetables (lalap) such as sliced cucumber, tomato, and lettuce. It is very delicious with its sweet and savory taste.

Actually, there are a lot of name for this fried chicken. Some people name it Ayam goreng ungkep (Fried slow cooked chicken) or Ayam goreng bumbu kuning (Fried chicken with yellowish spices). Well, actually those name are not wrong because of how we cook the chicken. The chicken will be cooked in mixed yellowish spices for about 30 minutes - 1 hour before deep frying until golden brown. I really like it. And the best part is I can cook the chicken days before and keep it in my refrigerator for days (even for weeks in freezer). When I want to eat it, I just need to take it out from my refrigerator, let it sit on room temperature for a while, and deep fry the chicken. 

Ingredients :

• 1 kg chicken, cut into pieces
• 4 medium shallots (about 10 Indonesian shallots)
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 4 candlenuts
• 4 cm fresh galangal (about 1/2 tsp galangal powder)
• 2 cm fresh ginger (about 1/4 tsp ginger powder)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 lemongrass, bruised and knotted
• 1 bay leave
• 1 tbs palm sugar
• 400 ml canned coconut milk (medium thickness)
• 400-500 ml water
• a lot of vegetable oil

Preparation :

1. Ground together shallots, garlic, candlenuts, galangal, ginger, turmeric powder, ground coriander and salt until you get a paste form. 
   
   
   
   
2. In a big and deep pan (or a pot), preheat about 5 tbs vegetable oil.
3. Add spices paste into the pan and saute the paste for about 30 seconds or until fragrant.
4. Add the chicken into the pan together with lemongrass and bay leave. Stir them together for a while until most of the chicken are covered with the spices.
   
5. Add coconut milk, water, bay leave,  and palm sugar into the pan and stir once again.
   
6. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 1 hour until the chicken is well cooked. Stir it once in a while during the process.
7. Turn off the heat, drain, and remove the chicken from the pan. (Tip: at this step, you can put the chicken in an airtight container and store it in refrigerator to serve it for another time. Tip : Do not throw away the leftover liquid from simmering the chicken. It can be used to make a delicious condiment later)
8. In another big pan, preheat vegetable oil to deep fry the chicken.
9. Once the oil is hot, deep fry the chicken until they become golden brown.
10. Remove the chicken from the oil, drain well, and remove the excess oil using kitchen towel if needed.
11. Serve the chicken hot with hot steamed rice, sambal, and some raw vegetables.

During the process of cooking the chicken, I got a lot of leftover spiced liquid mixture. From that spiced mixture I could make some crispy spiced flakes (or kremesan. Kremes means to be crushed easily just with bare hand). It is a very perfect and tasty condiments for this fried chicken.  I'm going to share the recipe next time.