Gulai Ayam – the Indonesian Chicken Curry Version 1

 

There are three types of curry in Indonesian cuisine that I know of. The first one is the one with runny and soupy consistency. This version has the lightest color – light orange. Made from diluted coconut milk, this can be used served with steamed rice, rice cakes or vermicelli noodle. Also called as “Gulai“, any kind of meat can be used, white meat, red meat, gizzard, liver. The second one is “Kari”, with slightly grainier texture and less water. The third one is “Rendang”, the driest of all. 

Today I was shown how to prepare gulai using chicken. Gulai ayam (chicken gulai) was made from scratch – we mixed and processed the gulai spices. Not exactly from scratch, if you know what I mean. I do not have live chicken running around our front yard. 

In traditional wet market (or big chain supermarket such as Carrefour or Hypermart), there will be fresh spices vendor around. All ground spices are available, such as ground galangal, ground coriander seeds, ground candlenut etc. When you want to make a certain Indonesian dish which normally required ground spices, you can just tell the staff and he / she will mix the grounded spices so that when you get home, you will only need to stir fry the spices with a little bit of oil, and then add the rest of the ingredients. Piece of cake! 

But, for the sake of my Indonesian cuisine learning curve, I have insisted that we mixed our own spices so that I grasped the basic flavor of each dish. If you have access to instant spices for “gulai“, I guess that would work just fine.

Ingredients 

6 (30 gr) red chili

4 (10 gr) candlenut

1/2 tablespoon whole coriander seed

2 (10 gr) cloves garlic

4 (20 gr) cloves shallot

1″ fresh turmeric

0.5″ fresh ginger

40 gr galangal

1 lemongrass

4 salam leaves

1/2 (375 gr) spring chicken, chopped into 6 to 8 pieces

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1/2 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

1 cup coconut cream, diluted with 2 cups of water

1 (300 gr) large potato, peeled and cubed

Instructions

• In a bowl of spice grinder, add chili, candlenut, coriander seeds, garlic, shallot, turmeric and two tablespoons of water. Grind the ingredients for 5 minutes until it reaches smooth consistency. You can add more water to make the grinding process easier
• Wash the galangal under running water for a couple of minutes to remove dirt traces. Flatten the galangal using a pestle or back of cleaver. This is important to release flavor
• Remove first layer of lemongrass. Cut into two halves. Flatten and set aside
• In a medium sized saucepan, heat cooking oil over medium high heat. Stir fry the spice paste till fragrant – constantly stirring to prevent burning. Add salam leaves, lemongrass and galangal. Cook for a couple of minutes
• Add salt, sugar and chicken pieces. Cook over medium high heat for another 3 minutes
• Pour the diluted coconut milk slowly into the stock pot and add potato cubes. Cook for another 25 minutes
• Lower heat and simmer for another 30 minutes
• Remove from heat, serve with rice, noodles or rice cakes

Tagged as: Chicken, chicken curry, coconut cream, coconut milk, fresh spices, galangal, gulai ayam, indonesian cuisine, lemongrass, salam leaves, turmeric