Ayam goreng is a Indonesian dish consisting of chickendeep friedinoil. Ayam goreng literally means "fried chicken" in Indonesian and Malay. Unlike the Southern United States-style fried chicken, this Southeast Asian version is neither coated in batter nor flour, but rather seasoned rich in various spices.
Marination and spices
Frying ayam goreng
The spice mixture may vary among regions, but usually it consists of a combination of ground shallot, garlic, Indian bay leaves, turmeric, lemongrass, tamarind juice, candlenut, galangal, salt and sugar. The chicken pieces are soaked and marinated in spice mixture for some time prior to frying, for the chicken to absorb the spices. The marination process might include heating the chicken in ground spices to assist the spice absorption. Most often prior to deep frying, ayam goreng is already half-cooked with yellowish colour tinted of turmeric. In Javanese, this process is called ungkep.
The chicken is then deep fried in an ample amount of hot cooking oil, either palmorcoconut oil. The chicken is well-fried until golden yellow. Some variant such as Javanese ayam goreng kremes might add the deep fried spiced flour as crispy granules. While in other recipes, these tasty granules is acquired from fried grated galangal or coconut (serundeng).
Ayam goreng is usually served with steamed rice, sambal terasi (chili with shrimp paste) or sambal kecap (sliced chili and shallot in sweet soy sauce) as a dipping sauce or condiment and slices of cucumber and tomato for garnish. Fried tempeh and tofu might be added as side dishes.
Variants
Nasi bungkus Padang with Padang style ayam goreng.
There are many recipes of ayam goreng, among the popular ones are:
Ayam goreng lengkuas: galangal fried chicken.[2] also known as hayam goreng Bandung: SundaneseBandung style ayam goreng.[3]
Ayam goreng Padang: Padang style ayam goreng, there are several variants of Padang fried chicken. The most popular one is quite similar to galangal fried chicken.[4]
Ayam pop: Padang style skinless pale fried chicken, served with distinct sambal.[5]
Ayam goreng balado: Padang or Minang style fried chicken. The fried chicken pieces is coated with spicy balado chili paste.[6]
Ayam goreng lado ijo: a variant of Minang-style ayam goreng balado using green chili pepper.
Ayam goreng Jakarta: Jakarta style ayam goreng.[7]
Ayam goreng Kalasan: Javanese fried chicken from Kalasan village, Yogyakarta.[8]
Ayam goreng kremes: Javanese fried chicken with kremes crispy granules.[9]
Ayam goreng serundeng: Javanese fried chicken with serundeng grated coconut.[10]
Pecel ayam: East Javanese ayam goreng served with sambal.
Ayam penyet: penyetisJavanese word for "squeezed" since the fried chicken is served in earthenware mortar upon sambal and squeezed with pestle to mix it with sambal.[12]
Ayam goreng berempah: Malay fried chicken, fried till golden burnt with crunchy flour bits – signature of the dish.
In Indonesia and Malaysia various style of foreign fried chicken is often also called as ayam goreng. Common Southern United States fried chicken is often called ayam goreng tepung or flour-batteredorbreaded fried chicken. Ayam goreng is also served at McDonald's locations in Malaysia.[13]
Ayam goreng variants
Ayam bumbu, a Minang fried chicken in Aie Badarun restaurant, Tanah Datar.
Ayam goreng lado ijo, Minang fried chicken with green pepper