Moroccan Grilled Chicken

My family had Moroccan Grilled Chicken with steam rice & spicy Tom Yum Soup a couple of weekends ago. That was a rare occasion where the preparation of our meals at home does not involve sautéing of spices. The chicken just needed marinating before grilling. The soup was even easier to prepare.... I just dumped a tom yum cube, some fresh prawns & other accompanying ingredients into the pot of water & in just 20 minutes, it's done!

Moroccan Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:
1 (2 kg) chicken, halved
salt
lettuce, torn into large pieces
cucumber, sliced
tomato, sliced
potato, boiled, peeled & sliced
lemon, cut into wedges
mint leaves

Chermoula Spice (finely ground):
3 red chillies
1 tbsp  chilli powder
1 tbsp paprika powder
1 tsp  cumin powder
1  onion
4 cloves garlic
30 g (1/2 cup) coriander leaves / cilantro / Chinese parsley
60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon

Method:

1. Rub the chicken with salt & chermoula spice & marinate for 3-4 hours in the refrigerator.
2. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator & let it come to room temperature
3. Roast the chicken in a 180-deg C preheated oven for 45 minutes, turning it after 20 minutes.
4. Serve with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, potato, lemon & mint leaves. (We had the chicken with rice instead of potato.)

Recipe by Chef Wan from Simply Sedap!

I'm linking this post to the Cook-Your-Books event no. 17 hosted by Kitchen Flavours.

Ayam Goreng Lengkuas & Nasi Kuning

This delicious Galangal Fried Chicken is a great variation if you are thinking of having homemade fried chicken. I also cooked some yellow rice  using the liquid from the half-cooked chicken so as not to waste it. The rice & chicken are already bursting with flavour, so I just served them with Tomato Sambal, the kind usually served with ayam penyet.

Ayam Goreng Lengkuas 
(Galangal Fried Chicken)

Ingredients:
1 chicken ( weighing about 1 kg), cut into 8 pieces
4 tbsp shredded galangal
5 tbsp oil
2 salam leaves (or bay leaves as a substitute)
1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
oil for cooking  & deep frying

Spice (ground):
3 gloves garlic
5 shallots
3 candlenuts, roasted
1 tsp tamarind
2 tsp chopped turmeric
salt & sugar

Method:

1. Combine chicken with ground spices & shredded galangal & mix thoroughly.
2. Heat about 3 tbsp of oil in a frying pan & add  in the chicken. Add salam leaves & lemon grass. Cover the pan & fry over low heat, adding a little water if necessary.
3. Remove the chicken when it is half-cooked. Drain the chicken & set aside the remaining liquid. Deep fry  the chicken until golden brown.
4. Serve the chicken with fried shredded galangal sprinkled on it.

Notes & modifications:

1. After combining the chicken with the ground spices, I left it in the fridge for about 2 hours. 
2. I did not add any water when cooking the chicken as there was already a lot of water coming out from the chicken as I was cooking it. Once the chicken is half cooked, I removed the chicken & used the remaining liquid in the frying pan to cook yellow rice.

Nasi Kuning

Ingredients:

800g rice (I used basmati rice.)

2 tbsps shredded turmeric or 1 tbsp powdered turmeric

1 litre coconut milk from 1 coconut (discard the skin) - 

1 tbsp salt

2 salam leaves (or bay leaves as a substitute)

2 stalks lemon grass, bruised

1 tbsp lime juice

Method:

1. Wash & drain rice.
2. Steam for 25 minutes until it is half-cooked. Then transfer to another saucepan.
3. Soak the shredded turmeric in coconut milk.  Add in salt, salam leaves, lemon grass & the liquid from the half-cooked chicken. Bring to a boil.
4. Pour the boiled coconut milk onto the half-cooked rice, add lime juice & allow to simmer. Continute to stir until the liquid is completely absorbed. Then steam until thoroughly cooked.

Note: - I combined all the ingredients & cooked the rice in the electric rice cooker.

          - adjust the total amount of liquid accordingly.

Sambal Tomato 

(Tomato Chilli Sauce)

Ingredients:
150g red chillies, seeded
6 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1 red tomato, chopped
½ tsp dried shrimp paste (belacan)
salt & sugar
2 tbsp oil
     Sauté red chillies, shallots, garlic, tomato & shrimp paste until half-cooked. Set aside.  Grind & add salt & sugar.

Recipe (with some modifications) by Yasa Boga from The Best of Indonesian Cooking.

I'm submitting this post to Asian Food Fest: Indonesia, hosted by Alice from I Love. I Cook. I Bake. 
I'm also linking this post to Cook-Your-Books #10 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.

Soto Ayam

Soto ayam needs no introduction in this region. In Singapore, we can enjoy soto ayam any time of the day in many food outlets. Nevertheless, I still cook it at home at least once a month as my family loves this dish very much. I also like to serve this dish to my guests during hari raya.

This recipe is my mum's. I usually just estimate the amount of ingredients, but since I'm sharing the recipe here, this time I measured all the ingredients that I used.

Notes & modifications:

1. This is a truly homemade soto. The flavour comes from the chicken & other ingredients in the recipe… no chicken cube or msg.
2. Alternatively, instead of cutting the chicken into small pieces, you can cook the whole chicken. Once cooked, separate the chicken from the soup & shred the chicken meat.
3. The soup can also be served with yellow noodle or rice vermicelli (commonly called bee hoon). Just cook the noodle in boiling water & drain it. Then serve with the soup & garnish.

Soto Ayam

Ingredients:
nasi impit (or yellow noodle  or bee hoon)
1 chicken (cut into small pieces.)
7 cups water
1 stalk lemongrass – bruised
2-cm thick sliced galangal (lengkuas) – bruised

Grind to paste:
*2 ½ tbsp coriander powder
*1 ½ tsp cumin powder
*1 ½ tsp fennel powder
*1 tsp white pepper powder
*(You may replace these ingredients with 4 tbsp store-bought dry soto mixed spice (rempah soto)
3 candlenuts
400g onions (about 4 large pieces)
4 pieces of garlic
2 cm-thick sliced fresh turmeric (Fresh is better, but you may replace it with the dry ground form.)
1 small slice (about 1cm) cekur root - no need to use this if you can't find it.

- In a large pot, put the chicken, ground paste, water, salt, lemongrass & galangal. Bring to a boil & then allow chicken to simmer for about 20 minutes. (*Read notes & modifications for alternative method of cooking.)

Garnish:
bean sprouts (Blanched in boiling water.)
fried shallots
spring onions & celery – chopped fine
begedil (potato cutlets)

Chilli Padi Sauce:
¼ cup birds-eye chilli (chilli padi) – If chilli padi is not available, you may use fresh red chilli.
3 pieces of garlic
dark soya sauce ( I used sweet dark soya sauce.)

- Blend chilli & garlic into a coarse paste. Add in black soya sauce & mix well.

To serve:
Put the nasi impit in a dish, sprinkle bean sprouts & add soup & chicken pieces. Then garnish & serve with chilli padi sauce.

Tandoori Chicken

          Tandoori Chicken goes very well with naans. So I made these Tandoori Chicken. I used the recipe from the same book I took the naan recipe from. Everyone agreed the chicken was very delicious but Amirah asked me, "Why is your Tandoori Chicken not red.......???" That's because I didn't use any colouring because I didn't have any. Nevertheless, the taste was still authentic.

Chicken Tandoori

Source: The Complete Book of Indian Cooking

             by Shehzad Husin & Rafi Fernandez

Ingredients:
4 chicken quarters

175 ml (3/4 cup) natural (plain) low-fat yogurt
1 tsp garam marsala
1 tsp ginger pulp
1 tsp garlic pulp
1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
few drops red food colouring (I didn't use.)
2 tbsp corn oil

Method:

1. Skin, rinse & pat dry the chicken quarters. Make 2 slits into the flesh of each piece, place in a dish & set aside.
2. Mix together the yogurt, garam marsala, ginger, garlic, chilli powder, turmeric, ground coriander, lemon juice, salt, red colouring & oil & beat so that all the ingredients are well mixed.
3. Cover the chicken quarters with the spice mixture & leave to marinate for about 3 hours.
4. Preheat the oven to 240 deg C (475 deg F). Transfer the chicken pieces to an ovenproof dish.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked right through & browned on top.
6. Remove from the oven, transfer onto a serving dish & garnish with salad leaves, lime & tomato.