Ayam Goreng Berempah (Malay Spiced Fried Chicken)

Commonly known as Ayam Goreng Berempah, this Malay style crispy spiced fried chicken is delectably crunchy, juicy and bursting with the strong flavours of herbs and spices in it!

📝 Ingredients

• 6 chicken whole legs (approximately 2kg+, cut into medium size pieces)
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour (to remove poultry smell)
• 2 stalks curry leaves
• 1 tbsp chili paste (ground dried chilies)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tbsp salt (2-3 tbsp, adjusted to taste)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 tbsp cornflour
• 1 egg (slightly beaten)
• 2 tbsp meat curry powder
• 2 inch ginger (skinned)
• 6 cloves garlic (skinned)
• 12 shallots (skinned)
• 6 lemongrass (use upper tender parts)
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 1/2 tbsp ketumbar powder (coriander powder)
• 1 1/2 tbsp jintan manis powder (fennel powder)
• 1 tbsp jintan putih powder (cumin powder)

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1First clean the chicken. Wash, coat and rub all-purpose flour into chicken. Then rinse and drain well.
2. 2Cut the chicken into medium size pieces or as desired.
3. 3Have ready all the ingredients needed.
4. 4Blend coarsely lemongrass, shallots, garlic and ginger. Add a little water when grinding. Transfer into a bowl and set aside for later use.
5. 5Next, blend finely the ketumbar, jintan manis and jintan putih seeds. You can also choose to buy these spices in powdered form.
6. 6Mix well all coarsely and finely ground spices, chili paste and turmeric powder in a bowl.
7. 7Then mix in one egg.
8. 8Followed by curry leaves and cornflour.
9. 9Mix everything until well combined. Add salt and sugar to taste.
10. 10Then add the fresh herb paste into the chicken pieces.
11. 11Mix with your hands until chicken is thoroughly covered with the aromatic spices and seasoning.
12. 12A long and sufficient marinating time is quite important so cover with plastic wrap and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for several hours, preferably overnight.
13. 13Remove the marinated chicken from the refrigerator 1 hour before frying to bring the chicken to room temperature so the inside of chicken meat isn't cold. Otherwise, we will end up with meat that is burnt on the outside but raw on the inside.
14. 14Heat up enough oil to fry the chicken over high heat. Oil is ready for frying when oil bubbles appear around the stick. (Or you can drop a small curry leaf in and it sizzles and bubbles.)
15. 15When oil is ready, fry some stalks of curry leaves for about 2-3 minutes over medium to low heat. Curry leaves release a strong curry-like fragrance with a citrus overtone.
16. 16Then remove the fried curry leaves from the oil using a strainer. Set aside the fried curry leaves for garnishing.
17. 17Next, put in marinated chicken into the curry leaves infused hot oil, piece by piece. In batches, deep fry for 15 to 20 minutes until chicken is crispy, golden brown in colour and juices run clear.
18. 18Once done, remove the fried chicken from oil using strainer.
19. 19Drain the fried chicken on paper towel to remove excess oil.
20. 20Also remove the fried spiced crumbs from the oil and set aside to drain off excess oil. Do not throw away these spiced crumbs as that is one of the tastiest part. And we're done!
21. 21Serve them hot garnished with the fried curry leaves and crispy fried spiced crumbs for extra flavour.
22. 22This crispy chicken is just perfect with some homemade Malaysia's traditional nasi lemak. As always, ENJOY!