Pecel Ayam Kremes (Fried Chicken with Crunchy Crumbles)

Pecel Ayam is one of the most famous dish that you can find on every corner of the street in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta. The vendors of this menu are everywhere. If there is a statistic survey on it, there are probably more number of pecel ayam vendors than the amount of bulbs of traffic lights in Jakarta. It is that many. Am I exagerating?.. Maybe.. A little.. 

Why are there so many pecel ayam vendors? Simply because this menu is easy to prepare and it fills our tummy easily. It consists of most of our favorite food; rice, sambal, fried stuff, fresh vegetables (cucumber and tomatoes, usually we also have thai basil or kemangi leaf to go with). I literally had this menu almost everyday when I was at the university. It was cheap yet it gave me enough energy to keep me going for the whole day.

The key of this menu is actually on the sambal. Everyone has their own touch of the sambal they make, either on how many chillies they put or other secret ingredients. I think this is why the vendors survive despite the tight competition. 

So what is the Kremes part? kremes means crumbles. In this menu, the crumbles made from the broth of the chicken, which makes it tasty. Somehow I just love to have different texture on each bite; the softness of the rice, crunchyness of the kremes, chewiness of the chicken and the freshness of the raw vegetables on the side. 

Ingredients for the chicken:

1 kg of chicken (I used 4 complete chicken thighs)

3 salam leaves (Indonesian bayleaf)

2 cm of fresh ginger

4 kaffir lime leaves

1 big lemongrass

500 ml water

 1 tbsp tamarind concentrate 

Ingredients to paste:

6 shallots

4 garlic

2 cm galangal

5 candlenuts (kemiri)

1/2 tsp white pepper powder

2 tsp corriander powder

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp salt

Cooking step:

1. Put shallots, garlic, galangal, candlenuts, white pepper powder, corriander powder, salt and sugar into a food processor and proceed until it becomes a soft paste,
2. In a big wok, put the chicken, salam leaves, fresh ginger, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, water and the pasted ingredients. Turn the heat to medium and cook until the chicken is done. Turn the heat and add tamarind concentrate. Set aside to cool down. 
3. Once the chicken is cool enough, pick it up from the broth and set aside to dry a bit, keep the broth to make the kremes,
4. Deep fry the chicken until it turns golden brown. 

To make the Kremes:

Ingredients:

125 gr rice flour (tepung beras)

25 gr tapioca flour

500 ml water (use the broth from the chicken)

1 egg white

1 tsp of salt (if you find the broth is not salty enough)

Cooking step:

1. Put all the ingredients altogether in a bowl, mix gently and make sure the flours don't clump,
2. Prepare a wok with oil and put it on high heat. Once the oil is hot enough, take half cup of the kremes batter and drizzle it gently from high distance, make sure you don't drizzle it on the same spot, otherwise you'll end up with a fried pancake,
3. This will bubbles a lot (and perhaps a bit steamy from the water evaporating), once the bubbles on the oil calm down, you will see your kremes is almost ready. When the kremes turns golden brown, scoop it and drain it on paper towel (like a lot of paper towels). 

Serving suggestion:

Pecel ayam always served with white rice and lalapan (raw cucumber, tomatoes and Thai basil) and sambal (chilli paste). Today I served it with home-made sambal bajak. The recipe is posted on the next posting. 

Happy cooking!!

PS: Since the chicken is already cooked, do not fry it for too long otherwise the meat will become dry and tough. Fry it on high heat and make sure the oil is hot enough before you put the chicken in. 

Be careful when you are cooking the kremes, the kremes turns brown pretty fast so you have to keep your eyes on it the whole time. If you find your kremes is not crunchy enough, probably your batter is too thick, you can add more of the chicken broth.