Ayam Goreng Crispy

 

Maybe you will think that crispy fried chicken is not kind of health food that we can include as our family menu everyday. But in my home, this crispy fried chicken is one of menu that is usually served at home. My son love to eat fried chicken and about twice a week he will ask me to cook this. I try to cook it by myself and not buy in fast food restaurant (that is very unhealthy with high MSG, bad oil, trans fat and something like that). For the first time, I don't have any idea how to make delicious crispy fried chicken like fast food restaurant sell. Trial and error each recipe that I find and here is my favorites recipe ever. I feel so comfort when I can cook it by myself, I can control the ingredient, not using seasoning powder who contain high MSG or sometimes if I have to use it I only use in very little amount. Because the one who eat this is my son, I try to use good quality cooking oil for him. 

I got the recipe from book "60 Resep Masakan Favorit Anti Gagal" by Fatmah Bahalwan from NCC. Very easy to make. You can choose which one suit you the most, pan-fry it or deep-fry it. I prefer the deep-fry method because it makes the fried chicken crispier. But of course, deep-fry will need excessive oil consumption. The exact amount may vary depending on cook time and temperature, ingredient density, and the specific type of oil used. Hope one day I can buy my own air-fryer Phillips, can fry something in healthy way, LOL.

When cooking fried chicken, flavor is important, that’s true. But a flavorful fried chicken is a mere shadow of its full potential if it lacks a crackling kick. It’s an unwritten rule: fried chicken needs to have a crispy crust—always! To enhance the flavor of fried chicken just make sure you get enough time to marinade the chicken. If I have free time I will marinade the chicken a night before. But sometimes, if I am in hurry, I just cook the chicken with the spices and some herbs (you can use any herb, I usually use Basil and some thyme). Let them cool for a while then dip in the crispy flour and the batter then fry it ;)

 

Ayam Goreng Crispy (Crispy Fried Chicken)

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken (about 1,5 kg), cut into you desired 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbs chicken powder
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp seasoning powder (optional)
• cooking oil

Crispy Flour:

• 1 kg flour
• 2 tbs tapioca flour
• 6 tbs baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chicken powder
• 1 tsp ground pepper

For batter:

• 1 egg white
• 1 tbs chicken powder
• 500 ml water

Direction:

• Place all the chicken in large bowl and toss with salt, chicken powder, ground pepper, and seasoning powder. Allow chicken to marinade for at least 15 minutes, up to overnight would be better.
• For batter : Whick egg white, add chicken powder and water. Set aside.
• Prepare the seasoned and crispy flour. Iin large bowl, simply mix all the ingredients. Set aside.
• Heat the cooking oil, you can use pan-fry or deep-fry but I would suggest it would be better using deep-fry. If you choose use pan-fry make sure the cooking oil is one inch deep. If you want to deep-fry it, just pour as much oil as is needed to completely cover the chicken parts. Let the cooking oil hot before putting the chicken into the fryer.
• One by one, roll the chicken pieces in seasoned-crispy flour. Then dip them into the batter, then in the flour again for one last time. Just make sure all their parts are covered. Let the chicken rest for a while to allot the coating stick to the chicken and the season come inside the chicken.
• Fry the chicken pieces in batches until they turn in golden brown. Place aside in cooling rack and allow them to drain. Ready to eat! 

Kepiting Saos Padang (Padangese Hot and Spicy Chilli Crab)

When I was still lived in Pontianak (the capital city of West Kalimantan), crab is one of my family's favorite seafood. If my parents went into local market and found the big crab sell or when came from Singkawang, they would not leave not to buy those crabs. In Kalimantan we can buy big and good quality crab. It is very different what we face in Java island now. It is so hard to get any good quality crab and the price is so expensive, a kilogram crab in here almost as same as a kilogram beef. But don't worry, we still can eat good crabs if we go to a seafood restaurant that get their crabs from Kalimantan. If you live in East Java, of course you will know the most famous seafood restaurant in here who made crabs dish as their signature dish, "Kepiting Cak Gundul". My friend said that they get their crabs from Tarakan, a city in East Kalimantan. 

At home, my mother usually cook crabs by boiling it with garlic and ginger then only then eat those by dipping in sweet soy sauce or tomato sauce. Sometimes she made crab with sweet and sour tomato sauce or corn soup with crab meat. But in Indonesia, actually there are so many recipes that use crabs as main ingredients that you can try at home. One of them is this Indonesian Chilli Crab or Padangese Hot and Spicy Chilli Sauce. I never eat Indonesian Chilli Crab before. Due to my curiousness, then when I went to market, I bought some crabs. Original recipe from Resep Keluarga Nugraha in here. But I modified this recipe to suit me.

I prefer to boil the crab first before mix it in the cooked sauce. Beside boil it you can also fried the crab before cook it with sauce. How to clean crabs? You can check it out in this blog. The tutorial how to clean crab is complete there (added with picture). Great tips for you...

Padangese hot and spicy chilli crab is one of very famous dish from Padang (a city in West Sumatra) beside Indonesian Beef Rendang (stewed beef in brown coconut curry). Of course, because it comes from Padang, the taste of this dish is really hot and spicy. For spicy lover this dish will be one of must-to-eat-in-Indonesia. But despite the frills of "Padang" in the name of the dish, I hope you will not overestimate to get this dish in all Padangese restaurant in all over Indonesia. This dish only common in Chinese seafood restaurant. Beside with crabs, sometimes they use shrimp, clamp or mussel, but as alternatives you can use fish too as main ingredients in this dish.  You can enjoy this Indonesian chilli crab with warm rice or a plate of Mantou (Chinese steamed buns). So yummy...

Indonesian Chili Crab 

(Padangese Hot and Spicy Chilli Crab)

Ingredients:

• 2 big-sized crabs (about 500 gr), cleaned, boiled
• 5 tbs tomato sauce
• 2 tbs chilli sauce (Indonesian chilli sauce)
• 4 tbs oyster sauce
• 150 ml water
• 1 1/2 tbs corn starch, dissolve in a tbs of water
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp lime juice

Finely ground:

• 5 shallots (can be change with 1 small-sized onion, sliced)
• 3 garlic
• 3-4 red chillies
• 3 bird-eye chillies (you can add more bird-eye chillies if you want more spicy)
• 3 cm turmeric
• 1 tsp pepper
• salt and sugar as desired

Directions:

• In a large skillet, heat up the cooking oil in medium-high heat. Saute the ground spice until fragrant. Add the tomato sauce, chilli sauce and oyster sauce. Stirring often and cooked until well done.
• Add the crabs, stir it. Add water and bring to boil in a high heat. Adjust the taste with add some sugar and salt. Wait until bubbling.
• Add the dissolve corn starch, stir it and cook it in low-heat until the sauce come inside the crabs meat and let the sauce thicken. Add lime juice, stir it for a while then turn off the heat. Ready to be served with hot steamed rice or hot Mantaou.