I.F.C

Name: I.F.C
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Indonesian
Ingredients: 3 small red Asian shallots, roughly chopped; 700 ml (scant 3 cups) coconut water (1 large young coconut); 4 chicken legs, skin on; oil, for deep-frying; 2 tablespoons plain flour; 3 cm (1¼ inches) ginger, skin scrubbed, roughly chopped; 1 teaspoon coriander seeds; 1 teaspoon salt; 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Fire Islands

By Eleanor Ford

Published 2019

About

Indonesian Fried Chicken is the fast food of choice. There are as many variants as there are islands in the archipelago, but to my mind this cult version from Yogyakarta is the ultimate. Chicken legs are poached in spice-scented coconut water, which both flavours and tenderises the meat. The final frying gives a crunchy golden crust.

Ingredients

4 chicken legs, skin on
700 ml (scant 3 cups) coconut water (

Asia
Indonesia
Lunch
Main course
Snack
South East Asia

Method

Marinate the chicken in the coconut water, all the aromatics and salt for a couple of hours in the fridge.

Transfer everything to a pan. The chicken should be fully covered with liquid, so top up with water if needed. Cover and bring to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and leave the pan covered for the chicken to cool slowly in the broth. After 50 minutes the meat should be cooked thro