14 Indonesian recipes. Page 1 of 1. Compare ingredients and cooking times. Ayam Goreng (Indonesian Spiced Fried Chicken Without Coating).
Instead of flour or batter, the coating here is coconut milk and a turmeric, garlic, and ginger paste simmered down until it clings to the chicken. Fried afterward, that layer turns deep gold with rough, crunchy nubs rather than a smooth shell.
Kecap manis, Indonesia's thick sweet soy sauce, coats each grain of cold rice in a glossy brown layer. Shrimp paste and sambal are fried first until the oil turns red, and the rice tastes salty and hot as well as sweet. On top goes a fried egg with crisp edges and a soft yolk.
Ripe saba bananas are slit into fans, dipped in a rice-flour batter and fried, then given a rough, craggy shell by drizzling extra batter into the oil beside them and pressing the crisp bits on. That shaggy crust is the point of Indonesian pisang goreng, as opposed to a smooth single coat. Bananas with dark-spotted skins give the sweetness and softness the dish needs, and no syrup or sugar goes on top. Draining on a rack keeps the underside crisp.
Kecap manis, Indonesia's sweet soy sauce, turns into dark glossy patches and light char once the chicken thighs meet high grill heat. Because the chicken first cooks gently in its marinade, the grill only has to color the surface, and the sugary sauce spends little time over the flame.
Instead of the offal and many garnishes found in fuller versions of this Jakarta soup, this home recipe makes its beef broth from brisket, coconut milk and a ground paste of onion, garlic and ginger cooked in oil. The milky color comes from the coconut milk added at the end, with no need to wait for a cloudy stock. Brisket is the slow part, and a cooked-looking surface says little; a fork should slide easily into the center. Rice is served on the side.
Kecap manis, Indonesia's thick sweet soy sauce, caramelizes against the hot wok and wraps the thin rice vermicelli in a dark, sticky coat. Sambal fried in the oil first puts heat underneath that sweetness, and chicken, cabbage and carrot are tossed in quickly so the vegetables keep some crunch. Street stalls and warung across Indonesia and Malaysia cook it from early morning until late at night.
The name means 'mixed' in Javanese, and that is how gado-gado is eaten across Indonesia: blanched cabbage and bean sprouts, boiled potato, seared tofu and halved eggs, all stirred into a thick peanut sauce. Street vendors pound roasted peanuts in a mortar; this version shortcuts with peanut butter loosened with soy sauce, palm sugar and lime juice, which still lands nutty, sweet and tart at once. With potato, tofu and eggs on the plate, it eats like a full meal rather than a side.
Most of the effort goes into a wet paste of onion, garlic, and ginger, fried slowly until the oil separates from the solids. Rushing it leaves a raw, harsh edge in the sauce. After that, chicken thighs simmer in coconut milk with turmeric, ground coriander, and lemongrass until the sauce turns bright yellow and thick enough to coat the meat. Ayam gulai belongs to the Padang food of West Sumatra's Minangkabau people, whose restaurants lay out many small plates before anyone orders and charge only for the ones you touch.
Compared with Malaysian nasi lemak, this Jakarta coconut rice has a lighter coconut note, with lemongrass and pandan adding a soft herbal layer. The rice itself is salted, and fried shallot flakes on top give it crunch. It is meant as a base for side dishes such as fried tempeh, chicken or thin egg omelet strips.
Kecap manis, Indonesia's thick sweet soy sauce, caramelizes the moment it hits a hot wok and lacquers the egg noodles a deep, glossy brown. That sweetness is what sets Javanese mie goreng apart from Chinese-style fried noodles, and a spoonful of sambal keeps it from turning cloying. Shallots and garlic fried golden lay the aromatic base, and chicken thigh sliced thin cooks through in a few minutes over high heat while staying juicy. Noodles that are still wet drop the wok's temperature and leave the stir-fry soggy, and a weak flame in the last minute does the same. Java's street stalls serve it with a runny-yolked fried egg, prawn crackers, and a wedge of lime to cut the sweetness.
Peanut butter loosened with lime juice and soy sauce turns a plate of blanched cabbage, bean sprouts, potato, seared tofu and egg into one Indonesian meal. Each vegetable gets its own blanching so the cabbage keeps its crunch while the sprouts only just soften. Everything sits in separate sections rather than tossed together, and the sauce is added at the last moment. Every forkful ends up a different mix of soft, crisp and nutty.
Fried chicken gets one firm press in a mortar, enough to crack the crisp skin but not shred the meat, and a coarse sambal of red chili, boiled garlic, salt, and lime juice goes into the cracks. That is the Javanese idea behind ayam penyet, smashed chicken. Because the legs are first simmered with garlic, ginger, and salt, the oil only has to blister and darken the skin.
Turmeric turns the broth a bright gold, and galangal and lemongrass give the chicken stock a warm, citrusy perfume. Unlike a plain chicken noodle soup, the aromatics are ground into a paste and fried in oil before the chicken and water go in, which gives this Indonesian soup its earthy depth. Rice noodles, boiled eggs, and mung bean sprouts sit in the bowl first, and the hot broth poured over them warms everything through. A squeeze of lime at the table cuts through the turmeric.
Over two to three hours the coconut milk goes from loose curry to thick sauce and finally to a dry stage, where the oil separates and the beef fries in its own spice crust. Finished pieces are dark brown, almost black at the edges, carrying chili heat, the warmth of galangal, and the sweetness of caramelized coconut. Beef chuck suits that long cook, a cut that needs the hours to turn tender.