About this recipe
Chicken grilled over charcoal and basted again and again with a thick, pale coconut-milk spice sauce until the surface is coated and lightly charred at the edges. Percik means to splash or sprinkle, which is exactly what the cooking is. It belongs to the east coast — Kelantan and Terengganu — where the cooking runs sweeter than in the west, and the sauce is served over the chicken rather than beside it. It is not Indonesian ayam betutu, which is stuffed and slow-baked in a dark paste, and not Filipino chicken inasal, which is coloured with annatto and basted with oil rather than coconut milk.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 6 servings
- Prep
- 30 minutes (plus 2 hours marinating)
- Cook
- 45 minutes
- Total
- 195 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- Medium
Allergens Contains tree nuts (candlenuts), shellfish (belacan) and coconut. Halal as written.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The chicken
- 3 1/2 lb (1.6 kg) chicken, cut into 8 pieces, or 8 bone-in thighs and drumsticks
- 1 tsp (6 g) salt
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) lime juice
The rempah
- 10 dried red chillies, soaked in hot water 20 minutes and drained
- 10 shallots, roughly chopped
- 5 cloves garlic
- 3 stalks lemongrass, tender lower third only, sliced
- 1 1/2 in (4 cm) galangal, sliced
- 1 in (2.5 cm) fresh turmeric, or 1 tsp (2 g) ground turmeric
- 5 candlenuts (buah keras)
- 1 tsp (5 g) belacan, toasted
The basting sauce
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) neutral oil
- 2 cups (475 ml) coconut milk
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) tamarind concentrate
- 2 tbsp (24 g) gula Melaka, chopped, or dark palm sugar
- 1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
- 2 kaffir lime leaves, torn
- 1 1/2 tsp (9 g) salt, or to taste
To serve
- Steamed rice, or nasi kerabu for an east-coast plate
- Cucumber slices
Equipment
- Charcoal grill, or a heavy ridged grill pan and an oven
- Blender or food processor
- Medium saucepan
- Basting brush
- Instant-read thermometer
Method
- Rub the chicken pieces with the salt and lime juice and set aside 20 minutes, then pat dry.
- Blend the drained dried chillies, shallots, garlic, sliced lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, candlenuts and toasted belacan to a smooth rempah, adding a splash of water if needed.
- Rub about a third of the rempah over the chicken, working it under the skin where you can. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Make the basting sauce: heat the oil in the saucepan over medium heat and fry the remaining rempah 10-12 minutes, stirring, until it darkens and oil separates at the edges.
- Add the coconut milk, tamarind, gula Melaka, bruised lemongrass, torn kaffir lime leaves and salt. Simmer gently 15-20 minutes, stirring often, until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not let it boil hard or it will split.
- Divide the sauce: keep about a third in a separate bowl to serve, and use the rest for basting.
- Light the charcoal and let it burn down to an even bed of grey-ashed coals with no flame, or heat the grill pan over medium.
- Grill the chicken skin-side down first, 8 minutes, until marked, then turn and begin basting generously with the sauce every 3-4 minutes, turning each time.
- Continue 25-30 minutes in total, until the chicken reads 165°F (74°C) at the thickest part of a thigh and the surface is coated, thickened and charred at the edges. If the coals are too fierce, move the pieces to the cooler side.
- Rest 5 minutes, then spoon the reserved unused sauce over the chicken and serve with rice and cucumber.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Ayam Percik sits in the Malaysia chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Malaysia chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.