Ayam Suwir Bumbu Bali (Balinese Spicy Shredded Chicken)
Ayam Suwir Bumbu Bali
Ayam Suwir Bumbu Bali—which means shredded chicken with Balinese spices—is an easy chicken dish with an exotic taste and aroma. This dish is ideal for those who love boneless chicken.
This recipe will help you make this chicken dish from scratch so that you can adjust the chili heat to feed all your loved ones.
I suggest you put little to no chilies in your initial spice mixture. When the spice mixture is done, take some out and put them into a new pan. Then, add as much shredded chicken as you need to feed your little ones to the pan. Mix it and cook it until the poultry absorbs all the spices.
After that, you return to your original cooking pan and add all the remaining chicken pieces to finish your cooking process.
This way, you will have Ayam Suwir Bumbu Bali with two different strengths of chili heat, and everyone in the family will be happily fed. Job sorted, mama?
Side Dishes to Go with Spicy Shredded Chicken
This spicy shredded chicken is delicious enough to enjoy with plain white rice. But if you have more ingredients, time, and energy to cook, some simple vegetable dishes will go nicely with this aromatic chicken dish.
I usually serve it with simple stir-fried vegetables, sweet corn fritters (Perkedel Jagung), or mung bean fritters/ Perkedel Kacang Hijau.
Main Ingredients
- Chicken: This is the number one ingredient in the recipe. You can use either boneless chicken or chicken with bone. It does not matter because you must boil it, whichever poultry you choose, before cooking the recipe.
- Dried shrimp paste (Terasi) or Fish sauce: Traditionally, the recipe uses Terasi (dried shrimp paste or Belacan). But I don’t always have it at home, so I swap it for fish sauce and still get a yummy Ayam Suwir.
- Palm Sugar: Ideally, you use palm sugar, but you can always use brown or regular granulated sugar if you don’t have it. Yes, the sweetness and the flavor can be slightly different, but it’s not huge.
- Tamarind: You only need a few tablespoons of Tamarind juice. You can make it by soaking a Tamarind block or dried Tamarind in water or mixing a little Tamarind paste with some water. Mix one teaspoon of Tamarind paste with three tablespoons of water.
- Cooking Oil: Any cooking oil will do. But I use either sunflower oil or rapeseed oil.
- Coconut milk: This recipe calls for only a quarter cup of coconut milk. You can also use coconut milk powder if you have it at home. Add 3 tablespoons of coconut milk powder and 2 tablespoons of water extra.
Spices and Herbs for Ayam Suwir Bumbu Bali
You need some spices that you pound into a paste and some that you need to put a whole.
The spices paste contains onion, garlic, chilies, ground pepper (either white or black), and turmeric.
The whole herbs to put in the spice mixture are kaffir lime leaves, Indonesian Salam leaves, galangal, and lemongrass.
These days, we are lucky to enjoy many conveniences, including cooking ingredients such as ready-made spice paste.
I am one of those who make the most of this practicality. So, sometimes I use ready-minced garlic, which is usually sold frozen, or lemongrass paste, galangal paste, chili powder, turmeric powder, etc.
All these have made my cooking process way quicker. In the past, I tried to follow the old-fashioned way of cooking, which uses whole fresh spices and herbs and then pounds them into a paste. But really, it did take time. I used to spend more time in the kitchen whenever I cooked Indonesian food.
So, after many trials and tests of using dry spices or ready-minced ginger and garlic, I now don’t find any difference in my food’s flavor and taste quality. In the end, the proportion of each ingredient plays a significant role in creating delicious food.
How to Make Ayam Suwir Bumbu Bali
Firstly, you boil the chicken together with the whole ginger root, Salam leaf, a few kaffir lime leaves, and a little bit of salt until the poultry is cooked and tender. Then drain the water, rinse the chicken slightly, and shred the meat to slivers.
Secondly, fry and cook the spice paste and some whole herbs until fragrant. Then add the coconut milk and water and let it cook until you get a nice thick spice sauce.
Thirdly, put the shredded chicken into the sauce and cook until the meat pieces absorb the spice mixture.
Pro Tips to Make Delicious Balinese Shredded Chicken
- Every Terasi has its flavor strength, so if you use it for this recipe, you may want to add it little by little. Also, try to dissolve your Terasi with a teaspoon of water before adding it to your cooking to make mixing with the rest of the spice mixture easier and faster.
- Make sure you have enough spiced gravy to cook the shredded chicken. If the chicken is not covered in the spices, add more water.
More Indonesian Food Recipes
Thank you for reading the post. I hope you are now thinking of trying this Ayam Suwir recipe. When you do, we would appreciate it if you could share what you think about it in the comments below.
And please follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and/or Pinterest to sneak a peek at what’s cooking in my kitchen.
Before you go, don’t forget to check my other recipes that you may like.
- The real Indonesian Beef Rendang – simply authentic.
- The best Indonesian sweet soy sauce chicken – Ayam Kecap Manis.
- Soto Ayam – Indonesian clear chicken soup.
- Indonesian fried chicken – Ayam Goreng Bumbu.
- Ikan Pesmol – Indonesian fish dish in yellow pickled spices.
Thank you and all the best.
Ayam Suwir Bumbu Bali
Equipment
- Cooking pan
- Wooden spoon
- Pestle and mortar or
- Food processor
- Large frying pan or
- Wok.
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds boneless chicken.
- ¼ cup coconut milk.
- 4 kaffir lime leaves.
- 3 salam leaves.
- ½ – inch ginger root.
- ½ – inch galangal.
- 1 lemongrass or ½ tsp lemongrass paste.
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil.
- ½ cup of water.
For the spice paste mixture:
- 1 onion chopped.
- 5 garlic chopped.
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder.
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce or Terasi/ dried-shrimp paste
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper.
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder.
- 1 teaspoon salt.
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar brown sugar.
- 3 tablespoons tamarind water see the note.
Instructions
- Pound all the ingredients for spice paste using pestle and mortar. Or, you can use a food processor. Set it aside.
- Boil the chicken with enough water to cover it together with 2 kaffir lime leaves, 1 salam leaf and ginger root. Cook it until the poultry is tender. Discard the water, rinse the meat slightly to get rid of the impurities and shred it to pieces.
- In a large frying pan or cooking pan, heat the oil and fry the paste mixture until it releases aroma.
- Then add the coconut milk and water to the spice paste mix. Let it cook for a minute or two in between each addition.
- When the spice mixture is nicely bubbling, put the shredded chicken pieces in. Stir it well until all the meat slivers are coated with spices.
- Leave it to cook for about 5 minutes or until almost all the chicken absorbs almost all the spice mixture. If you prefer, you can leave some gravy. I personally prefer my Ayam Suwir Bumbu Bali to be slightly dry.
Notes
- You can use regular chili powder or freshly pounded chili paste. If you use fresh chilies, for this recipe, you can use about 2-3 bird’s eye chilies for moderate heat. Of course, you can always add more if you prefer.
- You may not have Salam leaf and find it difficult to obtain it. In that case, you can try substituting it with one bay leaf and a few curry leaves. I won’t use just either one because bay and curry leaves have different types of aromas from Salam leaf. But if you use them together, somehow, they work together, although they may not 100% resemble the fragrance of Salam leaf.
- If tamarind is not available, you can substitute with one tablespoon of lemon juice.
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutritional info in this recipe is only estimate using online calculator. You should refer to it as a guide only. Please verify with your own data if you seek an accurate info.
