Chicken with Balinese Spice Mixture

Name: Chicken with Balinese Spice Mixture (Ayam Betutu)
Yield: For 6–8 people
Cuisine: Indonesia
Ingredients: 5 red chillies, de-seeded and chopped; or 1 tsp chilli powder; ¼ tsp ground or grated nutmeg; 2.5-cm/1-inch stick of cinnamon; ¼ tsp ground white pepper; ¼ tsp galingale powder; 5 shallots or 2 medium onions, chopped; ½ tsp ground turmeric; 5-cm/2-inch stem of lemon grass, outer leaf discarded, chopped, or ¼ tsp lemon grass powder; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled; 280 g/10 oz/2½ cups curly kale or spinach (stalks removed), well washed, then blanched, squeezed dry and shredded; 1 oven-ready chicken, weighing about 1.5–2 kg/3½–4 lb, boned; or 6–8 boneless chicken breasts with their skins on; 3 tbsp tamarind water or lime juice; 1 tsp shrimp paste; 2 tbsp peanut oil; 2 tsp coriander seeds; 2 tbsp water; 2 candlenuts or macadamia nuts (optional); 4 cloves garlic, chopped; 1 tsp salt; 2 green cardamoms

Ayam Betutu

Preparation info

For
6–8
people

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Indonesian Regional Food and Cookery

By Sri Owen

Published 1994

About

If you are wondering why this chicken dish is not in the Nusatenggara section of the book, it is because the original ayam betutu was a West Javanese dish from the area around Banten. It was always a chicken dish, never duck, and the chicken was always cooked whole and stuffed, with or without cassava leaves, and with several hard-boiled eggs. I have had this ayam betutu many times in restaurants in Jakarta and elsewhere in West Java, and my impression each time was that they were not spice

Ingredients

Asia
Indonesia
Main course
South East Asia
Spicy
Gluten-free

Ingredients

Method