OPOR AYAM RECIPE (COCONUT CHICKEN SOUP)

This is one special dish that we often make in our Eid Holiday in Indonesia. We often eat it with rice cake and vegetables, but honestly, my favorite is to eat it with steaming hot rice,  crispy shallots. This is one of the non spicy and flavorful Indonesian dishes that are enjoyable for everyone.

 

Ingredients

1 whole chicken cut into 10 pieces

1 lemongrass

4 kaffir lime leaves

1 bay leaf

about 750 ml of water

200 ml coconut cream

3 medium potatoes

2 tbs vegetable oil for sauteeing

salt ( I used around 2 tsp)

sugar (I used around 3 tsp)

some fried shallots

For the paste :

5 cloves of garlic

7 shallots

2 cm of ginger

4 cm of galangal

4 candlenuts

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tbs vegetable oil

* tsp = teaspoon, tbs = tablespoon

Instructions :

Step 1, Preparation

• Wash the chicken properly. Let the water drain, and pat dry. Season with salt, then mix and set aside.
• Cut the ginger and galangal into smaller pieces. Cut the tips of the lemongrass, then pound it with the back of your knife.
• Put the garlic, shallots, ginger, galangal,candlenuts, corriander, cumin, pepper, and some oil into food processor. Process them until they form a paste.

Step 2, Cooking

• On a hot pan, put about 2 tablespoon of oil. When it's hot enough, put the paste that you made earlier and sautee for about 5 minutes to get rid of raw taste.
  
• Add the lime leaves, bay leaf and lemon grass, sautee for a couple more minutes to release the aroma.
• Add the chicken, cook until it firms up and the color changes. After that you can add half of the water, salt and sugar, stir and let the chicken cook for about 15 minutes. At this phase you can cover ans stir occasionally, but watch it if the water is too dry, you can add more water.
  
• Once the chicken is cooked, you can add more water until the chicken is almost covered, then add the potatoes, and coconut cream. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Taste if it's seasoned properly.
  

Step 3, Serving

• Plate it on a bowl, and top with fried shallots. You can serve it hot with some rice, and Enjoy!

Notes :

• Fried shallots is actually optional but highly recommended! It takes the dish into different level.
• You can substitute candlenuts with macadamia, cashews or almonds They're not the same, but will do.
• If you can't find kaffir lime leaves, you can try using lime zest, or lemon thyme.
• If you can't find fresh ginger or galangal, feel free to use the powdered ones. 1-2 tsp for ginger and 2-4 tsp for galangal