Best Javanese Chicken Curry Opor Ayam Recipes

OPOR AYAM (CHICKEN IN COCONUT MILK)

Steps:

• Soak chicken pieces in lemon juice for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat a dry skillet over medium heat. Toast candlenuts, coriander, and cumin in the skillet until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer to a large mortar and pestle and grind into a paste with shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger, peppercorns, and turmeric. Work in batches if necessary.
• Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add spice paste and stir until aromatic, 2 to 3 minutes. Add lemongrass, tamarind juice, lime leaves, bay leaves, salt, and sugar.
• Rinse lemon juice off chicken pieces and slide them into the skillet. Turn to coat evenly with spices. Pour in thin and thick coconut milk. Simmer until flavors combine, about 30 minutes. Add basil leaves. Continue cooking until chicken is tender, about 15 minutes more.
• Serve chicken and sauce in a bowl, sprinkled with fried shallots.

JAVANESE CHICKEN CURRY (OPOR AYAM)

Steps:

• In a small food processor, whirl coriander seeds until finely ground. Add chili, shallots, garlic, galangal and ginger and process to a smooth paste, adding a tablespoon or so of water if needed. (Ingredients can also be chopped finely, then pounded together in mortar and pestle.)
• Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. When oil is hot enough to gently sizzle a pinch of paste, add all the paste and cook, stirring often, until golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce heat as needed to prevent browning.
• Using a heavy object like a glass measuring cup, smash lemon grass stalk, crushing lightly just until bendable. Tie in a knot, pulling gently on both ends. Add to pot with cinnamon and lime leaves. Cook 1 minute more, until cinnamon is fragrant.
• Scrape paste to one side and add chicken to pot. Raise heat and brown chicken lightly on both sides, about 10 minutes total. Add 1 cup coconut milk, 1 1/4 cups water and salt, stirring well and scraping up browned bits from bottom of pot. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered 40 to 50 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thickened. Do not boil.
• Add remaining coconut milk and heat through. Taste for salt. Let cool slightly and serve.

JAVA CHICKEN CURRY, OPOR AYAM RECIPE - (5/5)

Steps:

• Wash clean the chicken and cut into 5-6 pieces. Wash the lemongrass and cut into two pieces and lightly bruise. Peel the garlic and shallots, chop up with a kitchen knife Mix coriander seeds, white peppercorns and candle nuts, heat the non stick skillet and toast the spices mixture. Toast until fragrant about 3 minutes. Grind the shallots, garlic, toasted coriander seeds, white peppercorns and candle nuts. Heat up oil in a wok or non-stick pan, add in the spice paste and fry until aromatic. Add the chicken, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, tamarind pulp and Indonesian bay leaves (daun salam), cook at medium heat for about 15 minutes. If it seems too dry up, you can always add up sufficient amount of water. When the chicken turn it color and aromatic, lower the heat and pour the light coconut milk, season well with salt and sugar. *If it looks too thick, you can always add up a cup of water or chicken broth. Gently cook until the chicken perfectly done around 35-45minutes. Take the chicken with a slotted spoon, arrange in the serving bowl and ladle the coconut milk broth over the chicken, garnish with kaffir lime leaves and sprinkle a smattering fried shallots for some crunch.

OPOR AYAM (INDONESIAN CHICKEN CURRY)

Steps:

• In a dry skillet over medium-high heat, toast the coriander seeds for 2 to 3 minutes. Let cool, then grind in a spice grinder.
• In a large sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and a generous pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, until browned, about 10 minutes. Remove shallots to a food processor and set aside. Add the garlic cloves and candlenuts to the same pan and cook, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until deep golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and candlenuts to the shallots in the food processor along with the kaempferia galanga root, white pepper and 2 tablespoons water; purée into a paste.
• Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon coconut oil in the sauté pan over medium heat and add the ginger, galangal, lemongrass, salam leaves and lime leaves, scrunching the lime leaves in your hands as you drop them into the pot. Allow to cook until the ingredients start to smell less intense and raw, stirring occasionally, 5 to 7 minutes.
• Stir the ground coriander seeds, shallot paste mixture and tomato into the pan. Reduce the heat to low and slowly stir in the coconut milk, a little at a time, to keep the sauce from breaking. When all the coconut milk is incorporated and the mixture is gently simmering, add the chicken stock. Nestle the chicken into the pan and spoon some of the sauce over the top. Cover and cook on low heat for about 40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the dish is aromatic. You may have to adjust the heat to keep the mixture at a gentle simmer. (Do not boil.) Season to taste with salt. Before serving, remove the galangal, ginger, lemongrass, salam and makrut leaves. Serve with rice.

JAVANESE CHICKEN CURRY

Steps:

• 1. First, make the flavoring paste. Place the chile, shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger, and coriander in a small food processor, and pulse until the coriander is well ground (no visible bits or pieces should remain) and you have a smooth paste the consistency of creamy mashed potatoes. (If the paste will not purée properly, and repeatedly creeps up the side of the food processor instead of grinding, add up to 2 tablespoons of water to it, 1 tablespoon at a time, periodically turning the processor off and scraping the unground portions with a spoon down toward the blade as you go.) Set aside.
• 2. Rinse the chicken under cold running water and pat it dry with paper towels. If using a whole chicken, for authenticity cut it into 16 pieces. If using precut chicken parts, you can leave them whole. Set aside.
• 3. Heat the oil in a 3- or 4-quart saucepan, Dutch oven, or soup pot over medium-low heat. Test to see if the oil is the right temperature by adding a pinch of the ground paste. The paste should sizzle slightly around the edges, not fry aggressively or sit motionless. When the oil is the correct temperature, add all the ground flavoring paste and sauté, stirring every 10 seconds or so to prevent sticking and burning, until the paste begins to separate from the oil and the smell of raw garlic and shallots has dissipated, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the cinnamon, tied lemongrass, lime leaves, and daun salam leaves (if using) and stir to combine them with the flavoring paste. Continue sautéing until you can clearly smell the fragrance of cinnamon, about 1 minute.
• 4. Add the chicken and raise the heat to medium. Sauté the chicken in the flavoring paste, moving it around often with a large spoon or spatula to prevent sticking or scorching. Turn each piece so that it sauts in the oil, until they are evenly golden brown, about 10 minutes. (You need not brown the chicken in two batches - it's fine if the chicken is piled in 2 layers, as long as you adjust the pieces in the pot so they all eventually brown.)
• 5. Add 1 cup of the unsweetened coconut milk, the water, and the salt to the chicken. Stir well to combine, blending the flavoring paste with the liquids and scraping from the bottom of the pot to bring up all the bits of flavor stuck to the surface, and bring to a low, steady simmer. Let the coconut milk simmer, stirring occasionally, until the fats from the chicken and coconut milk have risen to the surface and the chicken is tender and cooked through, but not falling apart from the bone, 40 to 50 minutes. You may need to lower and raise the heat occasionally if the simmer becomes too aggressive. Be careful to not allow the liquid to boil; the chicken will likely toughen and the coconut milk curdle. Taste for salt, and add more if necessary.
• 6. Add the additional 1 cup coconut milk and allow it to heat through and begin to take in the flavors of the curry, about 2 minutes. This additional coconut milk enriches this rich dish even more. If there is too much oil floating on the surface of the curry for your taste, feel free to skim some of it off, but by all means not all of it - it's intensely flavorful. Taste for salt once more.
• 7. Transfer the chicken and sauce to a low serving bowl; you may remove the cinnamon, tied lemongrass, and kaffir lime and daun salam leaves, if you like, or leave them in the bowl to continue to season the dish. Allow the dish to rest and cool at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before eating, which will give the flavors time to blend and intensify.