"Sambal Chicken, A spicy malaysian delicacy. Chicken flavoured with lemon grass, dry red chillies and coconut."
Sambal Chicken
Few weeks back i tried making my version of malaysian platter. I made nasi lemak, chicken sambal and sago cake. I will share all those recipes soon. This is my version of chicken sambal and it taste absolutely delicious.
A popular condiment in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, sambal is a sauce made from chilies, spices, herbs, and aromatics. It has a complex flavor that is all at once earthy, spicy, and hot. The traditional way of grinding the spices to make the sambal starter paste is to use a stone mortar and pestle. But you can use a blender to fasten the process.
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Table of Contents
What is Sambal?
Sambal is a spicy sauce made using red chillies, ginger, garlic, lemon grass, galangal, tamarind, palm sugar, onions and shallots. The paste is cooked in oil till the raw smell goes and the paste gets thick and oily.
How long can we Store Sambal?
You can make a huge batch and store in a glass jar for over a month in fridge.
Pro Tips
- After the sambal is cooked, ladle as much of the hot sauce as you want onto your main dish or rice. The rest of the sambal should cool before storing in fridge or freezer.
- The frozen sambal will keep for 2 to 3 months. It's best to freeze it in smaller containers and take out what you need for each meal.
- Most of the ingredients can be found at Asian markets or high-quality grocery stores with a robust international foods aisle.
Recipe Variations
- Instead of shallots, you can use small red onions.
- In place of the dried chilies, add chilli powder.
- If fresh turmeric is unavailable, use turmeric powder.
- If galangal is difficult to find you can use a 1-inch piece of fresh ginger.
- Instead of tamarind paste, use tamarind juice instead.
Make a huge batch of sambal and use in recipes throughout the month.
You can make my egg sambal which is hugely popular
Hope you will give this a try and let me know how it turns out for you.
If you have any questions not covered in this post and if you need help, leave me a comment or mail me @[email protected] and I’ll help as soon as I can.
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Sambal Chicken
Ingredients
For Sambal:
- Small onion - 10
- Onion - 1 chopped
- Dry Red Chillies - 10 to 15
- Ginger - 1 small pieces
- Garlic - 6
- Lemon Grass - 1
- Salt to taste
- Palm Sugar - 4 tblsp
- Tamarind paste - 2 tblsp
- Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
- Oil - ¼ cup
For Chicken Sambal:
- Sambal - 1 cup
- Boneless chicken - ½ kg
- Coconut Milk - 1 cup
- Coconut - ¼ cup toasted
- Cinnamon / Pattai - 1 piece
- Cardamom / Yelakai - 4
- Cloves / Krambu - 4
- Star anise - 1
- Lemon grass - 2
- Kaffir lime leaves - 2
Instructions
- Grind all ingredients given for sambal except tamarind and jaggery to a smooth paste.
- Heat oil in a kadai. Add in the ground masala and cook for 5 mins or so.
- Now add in jaggery and tamarind and mix well.
- Cover and cook till oil separates and the sambal is thick.
- You can remove the sambal to a jar and store in fridge till needed.
- Now let's make sambal chicken.
- Take one cup sambal in a kadai. Add in whole spices and stir well.
- Now add in chicken and stir fry for a min.
- Now cover and cook for 5 mins.
- Add in kaffir lime leaves, coconut milk and cook for 10 mins.
- Add in toasted coconut and mix well.
- Cook for few more mins.
- Serve.
Video
Notes
2)The frozen sambal will keep for 2 to 3 months. It's best to freeze it in smaller containers and take out what you need for each meal.
3)Most of the ingredients can be found at Asian markets or high-quality grocery stores with a robust international foods aisle.
4)Instead of shallots, you can use small red onions.
5)In place of the dried chilies, add chilli powder.
6)If fresh turmeric is unavailable, use turmeric powder.
7)If galangal is difficult to find you can use a 1-inch piece of fresh ginger.
Instead of tamarind paste, use tamarind juice instead.
Nutrition
Sambal Chicken Step by Step Pictures
1)Take all ingredients for sambal
2)Take all ingredients in a blender except palm sugar and tamarind.
3)Now it is smooth.
4)Heat oil in a pan. Add in ground sambal.
5)Mix well
6)Mix well and cook
7)Add tamarind paste
8)Add in palm jaggery
9)Mix well and cook on low heat till oil separates.
10)Add in whole spices
11)Mix well
12)Add in boneless chicken
13)Saute the chicken till done.
14)Cover and cook till chicken is half cooked.
15)Now chicken is half cooked.
16)Add in coconut milk
17)cover and cook
18)mix well
19)Add in kaffir lime leaves
20)Toast coconut in a dry pan till golden
21)Add coconut in
22)Mix well.
23)Serve
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Desicart
Nice blog to follow while preparing recipes.Thank you so much for sharing with us.
D
So so yummy!
Delvina Glover
I love sambal it’s my favourite dish.