Eventhough this dish using more than 20 bird's eye chilly, to me it is not that fiery hot at all. I think this dish is the most easiest dish to cook. Just prepare those ingredients on hand and blend it to paste and put everything into a pot and cook till the chicken cook. That's it.
I seldom use coconut milk in my cooking and even when I cook chicken curry, I don't use coconut milk but I substitute with fresh milk instead. But for this Ayam Masak Lemak it is just simply too delicious to try it out to use the coconut milk. What is Ayam Masak Lemak when it doesn't use coconut milk?
Chicken In Bird's Eye Chilli & Coconut Sauce
Recipe sourced from Azlita of Masam Manis
Ingredients
½ chicken;
cut to bite size (I’ve used only chicken thighs)
3 medium
size potato; cut in 4 pieces
½ tumeric
leaf, finely sliced
2
lemongrass, bashed
1 cup
(250ml) thick coconut milk
2-3 kaffir lime leaves
2pcs tamarind slice /assam keping (optional)
Salt to
taste
Grind/Blend to paste
20 bird’s
eye chilli
2” fresh
tumeric root
2” ginger
root
2
lemongrass (white part only)
½ tumeric
leaf
3
shallots
2 garlic
2 cups
water
Method
Put the blended
paste into a medium size pot. Add in the
chicken pieces and potato, bring to boil, and lowering the heat till the
chicken and potatoes has tendered and cooked.
Add in
the coconut milk and frequently lightly stirring to avoid the coconut milk
split into oil. Add salt to taste.
Sprinkle
the additional thinly sliced tumeric leaf and serve hot.
You can always reduce the chilli if you can't withstand the spiciness!
