Ayam Percik Kelantan

I have a whole chicken in the fridge and tired of eating roasted chicken, I decided to try out my hands at making Ayam Percik Kelantan version for MFF.   To be frank, I am not good at cooking local Malaysian dishes :p   I told WB that I will try something different  this time with the chicken and he was a bit doubtful that I could whip out ayam percik for him.  He likes those sold at  'Ayamas ' though . I told him mine version would be better than Ayamas  LOL!    I cheated a bit here, instead of grilling over glowing charcoal , I grilled them in the oven :p   The weather was scorching hot and WB doesn't want to start the charcoal fire for me.  He said the neighbor will be jumping mad with the smoke !   But just the same, it tasted great despite being grilled in the oven .  It is quite easy to make this.  The recipe is taken from Betty Yew's Rasa Malaysia  

Ayam Percik Kelantan  -  Betty Yew's Rasa Malaysia

1.5 kg chicken cut into 4 large pieces

Ground

1.5 cm (1 inch ) ginger

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

3 cups coconut milk

1 heaped tbsp rice flour

Ground

8 dried chillies, soaked

8 shallots

1/2" ginger

1" square dried shrimp paste ( belacan)

Mixed and strained

1 tbsp tamarind paste

4 tbsp water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Method:

Marinate chicken with ground ginger and garlic and salt and leave for 1 hour.

Mix coconut milk with rice flour, ground ingredients and tamarind juice and bring to a slow boil.  Add salt and sugar and keep stirring over low heat for 10 mins till thickened.

Dip chicken in thick coconut gravy and place over glowing charcoal grill, basting chicken frequently with more coconut milk for approximately 15 mins or until both sides are evenly browned and chicken is cooked.

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