Recipe
Kare ayam
Chicken simmered in fried base genep and coconut milk with lemongrass and lime leaf. A Balinese kare from the Petulu class, not a jar of curry powder.
All recipes·Serves 4 servings·Prep 20 minutes·Cook 35 minutes
Kare ayam is chicken cooked in coconut milk seasoned with fried base genep. The sauce is thinner than a stew you would eat with a spoon alone, and it is not a Thai curry paste. The fragrance is lemongrass, lime leaf, and the turmeric already in the paste.
Bone-in thigh stays moist. Breast dries out in coconut milk. Fry the paste before it meets the milk. Raw base genep simmered in coconut tastes harsh, and the candlenut in it is not yet cooked.
Ingredients
- 600g bone-in chicken thigh, cut into pieces
- 4 tablespoons fried base genep
- 400ml coconut milk
- 150ml water
- 1 lemongrass stalk, bruised
- 3 lime leaves, torn
- 1 salam leaf, if you have it
- 1 potato, peeled and cut into chunks (optional)
- 1 teaspoon palm sugar
- Salt
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, if the paste is stiff
Method
- Warm the fried paste in a pot, with a spoon of coconut oil if it will not loosen. Add the chicken and turn it until the pieces are coated.
- Pour in the coconut milk and water. Add lemongrass, lime leaf, salam, potato, palm sugar, and salt.
- Bring to a gentle simmer. Do not boil hard or the coconut milk splits and looks grainy.
- Cook uncovered, stirring now and then, until the chicken is tender and the sauce coats a spoon, about 30 minutes. The potato should be soft.
- Taste for salt. Rest five minutes. Serve with rice. The leaves and the lemongrass are not eaten.
This is the chicken dish that uses the same paste as sate lilit, in a pot instead of on the grill. Nasi kuning or plain rice both sit under it. Guests grind the paste before the pot goes on.