Ayam Betutu / Chicken in Traditional Balinese Betutu Sauce

Betutu is a Balinese famous chicken dish, almost all nasi campur Bali will have betutu in it. One of my favorite betutu in Bali is from Warung Adyana, that is also known as Nasi Pasar Burung, I always go there whenever I visit my hometown.
Now that I live far far away from my beloved hometown, I can't get this dish anywhere here...so I started my adventure to try finding the betutu recipe that tasted delicious, and would be comparable to my favorite betutu in Bali. I tried 3 different recipe and finally found this recipe that in my opinion, beat any other recipe that I had tried previously. It's very easy, I don't need to wrap the chicken with banana leaves, and I don't even need to bake it on the oven.
I cooked this dish for my mother who visits me from Bali, she was surprised that the betutu tasted very authentic, she said it tasted just like those betutu sold in Bali :)
This recipe was adapted from Kitchen Warrior's Ayam Betutu Express


Ingredients,
2 pack of sliced chicken
2 tbs coconut oil
500 ml water
one handful chopped lemongrass
salt

Sauce Ingredients ---> blend them all in food processor
20 cloves garlic
3 big shallot / 7 small shallot
2 thumbs ginger
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp kutchery powder (kencur)
1 tsp galangal powder
2 tsp belachan
10 red jalapeno

Cooking Method,
1. Blend all the sauce ingredients in food processor, we want a coarse, not to fine result.

2. Heat 2 tbs coconut oil on a big pan

3. When the oil is hot, add on the blended sauce ingredients and the lemongrass, stir well and season it with salt

4. When the sauce is fragrant, add the chicken pieces and stir well

5. Add on water, let it boil, then simmer covered until the chicken is cook and tender and the water is reduced by half. The thicker the sauce the stronger the taste, adjust it to your own personal taste. 

Bihun Kuah Ayam / Vermicelli Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is a very well known comfort food in a lot of places. In USA, the famous chicken noodle soup is made out of pasta, chicken, carrots, celery and potatoes. In Indonesia, we have different version of chicken noodle soup that is using bihun or vermicelli.
This dish is one of my mother's favorite food, also the go to food to order when any of us got sick. I remember that we always order this food from one of the oldest Chinese restaurant in Bali, Atom Baru. The light taste of this soup makes it easy for the sick people to chow down. I was craving for this bihun last Sunday and decided to cook it based on my memory of the taste. It's really fun to re'create my childhood dishes and introduce them to my new family, hubby and bebe. The soup turn out to be really good, light and tasty at the same time, my family loved it! :)

Ingredients,
Bihun / Rice Vermicelli / Starch Stick.
8 cups of home made chicken broth
1 pack of chicken tight with bone and skin
2 handful of garlic, crush. divide into 2 part
1 handful of shallot, slice thinly
2 thumb of ginger, slice crosswise
a bunch of green vegetable (I forgot it's name...) cut into 4
salt
white pepper
sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Put the chicken, ginger slices and half of the garlic into a pot. 

2. Add 8 cups of water and 1/2 tbs salt, then bring them to boil.

3. Take the chicken out (don't throw the water), cut into small piece, set aside. 

4. Steam the green vegetable, then set aside. The vegetables on the picture bellow may look like a lot, but once they are cooked, they'll shrink to around the 1/4 of what you see now.

5. Heat a new big pot, drizzle some sesame oil.

6. Add the shallot and garlic, stir fry until golden.

7. Add the chicken pieces, stir for 5 minutes.

8. Add the water from boiling the chicken earlier, use a fine tea strainer, then add the home made chicken stock. Season the soup with salt and pepper, also 2-3 pinch of sugar.

9. Cook your bihun / vermicelli on separate pan, then serve them in a bowl with the soup and vegetable.

Thai Crispy Fried Chicken Wings

My friend, Ann Lee made such a delicious fried chicken, and I'm addicted to it! She shared me the surprisingly simple recipe and also got me the special batter mix for the fried chicken. She said that you can just use the flour mix, but usually she also added some oyster sauce, soy sauce, garlic and white pepper into the mix.
For me, I marinaded the chicken for at least 2 hours before I added the batter mix. My fried chicken got a deep brown color from the soy sauce.
I made this fried chicken for last week family care group, and everyone loved the super crispy fried chicken :)

Ingredients,

24 chicken wings

Fried chicken batter mix

2/3 cup garlic, crush & chop finely

3 tbs oyster sauce

4 tbs light soy sauce

2 pinch of sugar

dash of white pepper

Vegetable oil for frying

Cooking Method,

1. Mix the chicken wings with the garlic, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and pepper.

2. Cover the bowl and let it sit on the fridge for 2-3 hours.

3. Pour the batter mix and add a little bit amount of water to form a thick paste like the picture bellow.

4. Heat the oil, I always use 325F to fry my chicken. Fry the chicken until it turn brown & cooked through.

Nasi Ayam / Stir Fry Chicken with Vegetable on Rice

Nasi ayam is one of our family favorite foods. My sister, my brother and I love this food a lot, and usually mami (our mother) will ordered this food from a small restaurant inside Bali's biggest traditional market. I believe the restaurant name is restaurant Honey, or more known as "Fong Sen" (the late owner of the restaurant), and they sell the most delicious nasi ayam ever!
I was so craving for their nasi ayam and attempted to make one myself. The result is delicious and it tasted similar to those that I always eat from "Fong Sen". Now, I'm proudly share this super simple, and easy recipe with you all :)

Ps. This is a big batch, and other than the sauce, I didn't measure the other ingredients, but you can see the amount of the foods from the picture.

Ingredients,
cooked white rice
1 pack of boneless chicken tight, sliced.
broccoli, cut into small pieces, then soaked in warm water with salt for 20 minutes.
nappa cabbage, sliced.
carrot, slice crosswise.
1 cup of water
Sesame oil

Sauce Ingredients,

2 handful of garlic, crush & chop. Divide into 2

1 thumb ginger, sliced thinly

4 tbs light soy sauce

1.5 tbs chicken stock powder

2 tbs cornstarch diluted in water for thickening the sauce

Cooking Method,

1. Heat the pan, drizzle generous amount of sesame oil then add half of the garlic and ginger, stir until fragrant. 

2. Add the chicken, then the soy sauce. Stir fry until the chicken cooked, then set aside.

3. Wash the pan, then add sesame oil then add the garlic, stir until fragrant.

4. Add the broccoli and carrot, stir until they are half cook.

5. Add the nappa cabbage and chicken stock. Mix them well, add the water and cover the pan with lid.

6. Wait until the vegetable are wilted & soft.

7. Add the cooked chicken back to the pan, mix them well, taste them and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. 

8. Add the diluted corn starch to thickening the sauce. You can skip this part if you prefer thinner sauce.

9. Pour it on top of white rice, it's ready to be enjoy with your family & friends :)

Masman Chicken Curry & Puff Paratha

I like to stock up on "emergency foods" on my freezer.
What is emergency foods? for me, emergency foods are those easy convenient foods that I can reach whenever I don't have much stuff left to cook. My emergency foods usually are dumplings...and now I'm start stocking on puff paratha too.
Yesterday, I didn't have much stuff left on my fridge, and I have to prepare some foods for the care group at my house...then I decided to make thick curry & puff paratha, using anything I can find in my kitchen :D
It turn out so well and everyone loved it too!! Gotta make this combo again next time, with different type of curry!
This recipe is super easy because we going to use a shortcut here...a.k.a using ready to use spice...lol...but I still like to add more spices into it to make the food more fragrant :)

Ps. I didn't follow the cooking instruction from the curry box, I made the curry very thick so it suitable for dipping the paratha.

Ingredients,
10 tbs masman curry paste ---> almost the entire small jar of the paste.
1 pack of chicken wings
1 sweet potato, cubed.
1 onion, sliced.
1 handful kaffir lime leaf
1 handful chopped lemongrass
4 bird eye chilli
1 tsp sugar
3 tsp tamarind paste
1 can of coconut milk
4 cups of water
Olive oil

Cooking Method,
1. Heat the pan, drizzle some olive oil.
2. Add chicken, half of the onions, lime leaf and lemongrass. Stir until the onion wilted and the chicken turn a little bit brown.

3. Then add the curry paste & water. (In this picture I only put 5 tbs curry paste, later on I added 5 more)

4. Using medium-high heat, let the sauce boil. Then add the rest of the onion, sweet potato & chili. Let it boil for another 15 minutes, then lower and simmer covered for another 30 minutes. If your pan lid does not have the vent holes, place the lid slightly open like the picture bellow.

5. When the chicken is cooked and tender, add the coconut milk, sugar and tamarind. Then simmer for another 15 minutes. If the curry became too thick, add some more water. 

6. It's ready to be served with the puff paratha.

Tips for crunchy paratha: flattened the edge of the paratha before put it on the frying pan. I'm using medium heat and some butter to cook the paratha.