052 - Balado Chicken / Ayam Balado

Where do you come from anyway? That’s probably the question that people ask right after they got introduced to someone. Me? I’m of Padangnese descent. But no, I did not grow up there. I grew up in Jakarta (also spent 2 years or so at SF) to a strong Padangnese food culture. Every now and then. Lying. Every DAY, there'll always be a Padangnese food at the dining table at my home. Let it be a humble Rendang, Kalio, and this dish.

Padang cuisine is filled with, well mainly 2 things. Care to guess? Yes, it is Coconut Milk and Chili. The cuisine is easily characterized with it's vibrant Red-ish color, and of course, spicy heat. 

Now, let’s have some fun cooking the famous Padangnese comfort food, 

BALADO CHICKEN.

It’s basically a deep fried chicken mixed with spicy concoction of Chili, Shallots, Salt, Sugar and Vinegar. Truth be told, nobody knows which version is authentic. But this is the version my mom taught me. And it tasted bad ass!

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For 8 pieces of Chicken, you will need;

8 pieces of Chicken. I like mine with the skins off. But if you like ‘em, you can leave it anyway.

Oil for frying

For the Chicken Marinade

4 Cloves of Garlic

2 tsp of Salt

For the Chili Sauce

10 Large Red Chili.

8 Red Bird’s Eye Chili.

6 Shallots

2 tsp of Salt. Or to taste.

1 tsp of Sugar

2 tbsp of Vinegar                

3 tbsp of Oil

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Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Cut your chicken into portions if you haven’t done so. Or you can always get your butcher to help you with that. Clean them under running water, pat them dry, and put in a mixing bowl. Chop the garlic finely. Spread it over the chicken along with the salt. Give them a good massage, and let them rest for about 1 hour to marinate.

Step 2 – Slice the entire Chili Sauce ingredient finely. I recommend you to grind all the ingredients inside the spice attachment of a blender. If you got food processor, that’s fine, they work just fine. Or you don’t have either but you got a mortar and pestle? Bash away my friend. Set it aside.

Chili

Shallots

Victimized.

The lovely spice attachment!

In they go!

Blitz away!

Hell!

Step 3 – By now, the chicken should have been marinated nicely, so heat a large amount of oil in a pan, set it on medium high. Once the pan is smoking hot, put the chicken in. If your chicken pieces are large, set the heat to low and let cook for about 7-10 minutes, before turning the heat back to high for another 2-3 minutes to crisp up. If your chicken pieces are small, cook it on medium high for about 5 minutes should do it. Anyway, no pictures on this one, i was too lazy to make one. HAH!

Step 4 – Heat oil in the pan, about a 2 tablespoon should do. Set the heat on medium, and cook the chili mix. Add the Salt, Sugar and Vinegar, give it a nice stir. At this point, if the mix is looking a little dry, you can add more oil in. The cooking process for the chili will took around 10-15 minutes depending on the amount of the chili. You can tell it’s done when the chili is noticeably darker from when it began, and smelling wonderful.

Canola oil

Stir!

Sugar

Salt

Vinegar

This is before

And this is afterwards (5 minutes later)

Step 5 – Mix the chicken with the chili! Now this is where the fun begins. Mix thoroughly, and..what else?

Step 6 – SERVE!

Did you notice something? Yes. This is my first Indonesian food recipe here!!!!

HAHAHAHAHA. Sorry it took me long enough to actually made one. Tell you what, this baby is not at all greasy, it has a lot (i mean, a lot, LOT) of spicy kick. I really loved to eat this with a nice serving of piping hot white rice, cucumber slices, and prawn crackers. 

It. Hits. The. SPOT!

Cheers

xx