Saturday, December 12, 2009

Ayam Percik/Malay Style BBQ Chicken

This is such an exotic Malay style BBQ chicken. It has the full flavor of spices and sweet fragrant smell of coconut. This dish is originated from Kelantan, a beautiful state in the Northern East Coast of Malaysian. You can find this dish at every food bazaar during Ramadan month in Malaysia. The Ramadan market will not be complete without the sweet smell of the vendors grilling this special Ayam Percik.

The most important part of this dish is the blended paste. Like many other Malaysian dishes we uses a lot of fresh herbs and spices like Chilies, Lemongrass, ginger, shallots, buah keras and garlic all blended together with some tamarind paste and cinnamon. It gives this dish such a rich and aromatic flavor. The sauce is perfectly sweet, sour, salty and spicy. Traditionally cooked over hot charcoal fire but because of the cold weather here I just baked it in the oven.

Ingredients:

4 whole chicken legs with thigh attached
1 tsp tamarind paste (Asam Jawa)
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 cup of coconut milk
1/4 cup of water
1 tbsp of brown sugar
Salt to Taste

Spice (Blended to paste)

4 candlenuts/buah keras (or macadamia nuts)
6 Cloves Garlic
2 tbsp of chili paste (I used sambal Oelek)
1” ginger
4 shallots
2 lemongrass – sliced thinly

1. Clean the chicken, removed all the skin and fat. Make some light cuts on the surface of the meat. Pat the chicken dry with paper towel.
2. Mix the paste with the rest of the ingredients together in a Ziploc bag. Marinate the chicken for at least 3 – 4 hours. Make sure the chicken is well coated with the marinate.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F. Put the chicken in a deep dish together with all marinates. Cover it with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for half an hour. Remove the foil and then continue to bake until chicken cooked and golden brown. Make sure you turn the chicken occasionally and basting it with the gravy.

Note: If you are using tamarind pulp, just mix the pulp with the ¼ cup of water from the recipe.

23 comments:

Little Corner of Mine said...

Super yummy! I'm salivating looking at the screen.

Shereen said...

Che,
2 more weeks and I can sink my teeth into this ayam percik.Don't like the chicken but simply loves to pick on the delicious spicy and aromatic skin of the chicken....too bad Sam will not be there to help out with the rest of the chicken...hahahah.

Ju (The Little Teochew) said...

MY GOODNESS!! This looks really yummy, and I didn't know you can bake it. I promise I will make this and let you know how it turns out.

Ju

Indonesia Eats said...

I bet I will love this since the ingredients are similar to Ayam Bumbu Rujak

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

You also pandai cooking Malay style of dishes, this ayam look so delicious. I will try this out soon.Thanks for sharing.

pigpigscorner said...

The spices and the coconut...delicious!

Angie's Recipes said...

With a glass of beer, that makes a perfect football meal!

~~louise~~ said...

I adore the blend of spices. Without a recipe such as yours, I would never dream to concoct such a mixture.

Thank you so much for sharing the recipe and the instructions. A keeper for me!

P.S. If I cooked up this recipe in my rural area of Pennsylvania, I'm sure my neighbors would wonder what I was up too:)

mycookinghut said...

I like Ayam Percik!! Full of flavours! I skipped my lunch.. and now I wish I could have it right now!

Lisa Ho said...

Hiya
I was 'bloghopping' and hopped into yours...glad that I did :)
i am drooling.... so yum...

Anshika said...

I just love BBQ Chicken.

Pei-Lin said...

Wow!! You even made this! I love ayam percik! Wish I can have some now, too!

Pei-Lin

tracieMoo said...

This chicken must be great with all these wonderful flavours! I didn't know they had cinnamon and coconut milk in the recipe. Must be very fragrant! The pictures itself is making me drool.. Yum!

Anonymous said...

Just curious... You have two parts here... do you just rub that spice paste on the chicken after you pull it out of that coconut/tamarind marinade?
The directions were a bit dodgy, but wanted to make sure thats what you meant before trying this... it does sound really good, dont get me wrong... just dont want to screw it up :)

Elin Chia said...

Gert, what can I say...simply delicious ohh. Thanks for the recipe. Must try this out. I normally buy from the malay stall but yours definitely looks better :))

ICook4Fun said...

LCOM, :)

Shereen, You can make this with chicken wings as I know you like wings :) I have to wait for another a bit longer to eat this.

Ju, Is too cold to grill outside so I just bake this in the oven :)

Indonesia Eats, I have to check Ayam Bumbu Rujuk out and see the difference :)

Sonia, actually I miss Malay food a lot that is why I try cooking it myself.

Pigpig, yea it is.

Angie, yeap :)

Louise, which part of Philly are you at? Yea can you imagine all your neighbors will be at your door when you grill this during summer time :)

Ho Ho Ho, thanks for stopping by.

Anshika, if you like BBQ chicken you will like this too :)

Pei-Lin, I don't have a choice as I don't have the luxury of going out to buy some :)

Tracie, yes this chicken is really great. I hope you try this out :)

Anon, just mix the blended paste with the rest of the ingredients and then marinate the chicken with it.

Elin, you can always grill this over charcoal fire and I will taste even better.

3 hungry tummies said...

This always reminds me of the puasa months when percik on bamboo skewers are sold everywhere :)
yours looks wonderful!!

Cheah said...

What a mouth-watering dish, love this ayam percik, will go well with pandan rice.

Zurin said...

I love ayam percik but I seldom make it cos my kids prefer black pepper roast. can u believe that???!!!! ok my fault ..but I have to make this soon even if for myself :))) tq for reminding me. :))

~~louise~~ said...

Each time I see that picture of yours, I dream of making it. I will someday, I filed it under someday recipes:)

I don't live near Philly. I'm by State College in central PA.

Dori said...

That sounds absolutely delicious and amazing! YUM!

Nate @ House of Annie said...

We've been looking for an ayam percik recipe. Sounds delicious. Will let you know if we try it out. Thanks for sharing!

ICook4Fun said...

3 hungry tummies, thank you.

Cheah, great idea. The next time I should make some :)

Zurin, you kids prefer the mat salleh roast yea :)

Louise, ha ha I hope you can try this out. It is very different from the normal roast chicken. This is pack with flavor.

Nate, hope you like this :)