Right, another Fried Chicken :-). But this time in different style. American Style. I don't want to claim that this is how americans usually do their fried chicken. I never live in US, though... hahaha. I named this posting American style only because we, Indonesians, first knew about this style of Fried Chicken by the booming of this kind of fast-food restaurants, started with KFC maybe around almost 20 years back. Now we have so many similiar restaurants, including McDonald almost everywhere.

As usual, everytime there is a new popular dish in town, people start to try to make the home-made one. After a lot of experiments on so many recipes of KFC style Fried Chicken, finally I can say that this is the best recipe so far. When I posted it in my Indonesian version Blog, there are several friends tried it, and they also satisfied with the result. The recipe is taken from Seri Memasak FEMINA magazine.

INGREDIENTS
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 teaspoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
5 eggs white, beaten

ground to form a paste:
3 cloves garlic
3 candlenuts, dry roast on a pan
1 teaspoon coriander, dry roast on a pan
1 cm ginger
3 teaspoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground pepper

Coating Mix:
200 grams all purpose flour
20 grams cornstarch
20 grams rice flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon powdered coriander
1/8 teaspoon powdered nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon chilli powder

DIRECTIONS
1. Marinate chicken pieces in lime juice for about 30 minutes.
2. In a pan, heat 1 - 2 tbsp cooking oil, saute ground seasonings paste until fragrance and well cooked. Add in salt and sugar, stir well.
3. Add in chicken pieces, stir well. Cover the pan and cook chicken on low heat until done and the spice are fully absorbed. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
4. In another bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, rice flour, baking soda, coriander, nutmeg, salt, chilli powder and pepper.
5. Dip each piece of chicken into eggs white; then roll chicken in flour mixture until covered. Repeat this process once more. Store in an air-tight container. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
6. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and fry until golden brown turning both sides as needed.

This is the traditional and the most common way of Indonesians preparing Fried Chicken. The main spices used in this style of fried chicken is garlic, ginger, candlenuts, coriander, pepper and of couse turmeric that will gives the yellow colour. You can go with only those spices I mentioned if you cannot find the other spices required in the real recipe.

There are two phrase of cooking the chicken. First is simmering the chicken along with the paste-spices and water. And the second one is the deep-frying. The simmering part make the chicken already cooked and tender. We just need a short deep frying to make it dry.

1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces

1 piece of lemongrass, take only the white part, and crush it.

2 salam leaves (indonesian bay leaves)

salt

1 cup of water

oil for deep frying

6 garlics

5 candle nuts

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 inches fresh turmeric (1/2 tsp turmeric powder)

3 inches galangal

2 inches ginger

1 tsp white pepper

Marinate the chicken pieces in the pasted-spices for about 1 hour. In a pot, boil the chicken along with the spice paste with low heat. Add salt, lemon grass, salam leaves and water. Cook with a lid until all the water has gone in low heat.

Remove from stove and let it cool.

Heat enough cooking oil in a pan. Deep fried the cooked chicken pieces until golden yellow. Remove from oil, and drain it with kitchen towel.

I never prepare chicken liver dish in Indian way before. I just didn't know how, cause I found it very rare (never) in Kerala house. One day when I bought one package of chicken livers from nearest supermarket, I decided to give it a shot. So I just browsed around. And you know what, I found only one recipe from Pachakam.

The preparation a little bit 'confusing' if you follow the recipes though, hehehehe.... So, just use your feeling. That would be better. And I feel satisfied with the taste... For me, it's perfect with rice, but not with chapati as the recipe's owner suggested.

As only two of us in the house who will enjoy it, I adjust the ingredient according to our need and the ingredients available in our kitchen. My husband love it..

2 tbsp oil for stir frying

1 Onion, chopped

5 cm cinnamon stick, break into pieces

1 potato (big size), cut intu small cubes

salt as required

a little water

2 tbsp oil for frying

3 garlic (minced)

2 tomatoes, chopped

250 grams chicken liver, cut into pieces

1/2 cup frozen green peas

2 green chilies, slit lengthwise

1/4 tsp garam masala

For the paste:

1 tbsp water

1 tbsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin powder

Heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat. Fry the onions and cinnamon, until the onions are soft. Add the potatoes, salt and stir-fry the potatoes for about 2 minutes. Add some water, cover the pan and simmer until the potatoes are tender.

Heat the remaining oil over medium heat in a heavy bottomed wide pan. Add the garlic and stir-fry for 30 sec. Add the spice paste, lower the heat and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add half of the tomatoes, along with some of the juice, stir and cook for further 2-3 minutes, breaking the tomatoes with the spoon. When the mixture is fairly dry, add the liver and adjust heat to medium high. Stir-fry the liver for 3-4 minutes. Add the remaining tomatoes and the juice, stir-fry for 5-6 minutes. Cover the pan and simmer for about 8 minutes.

Add the potatoes, green peas, green chillies and the remaining salt and cook for a minute or two. Adjust heat to medium and cook uncovered for further 5 minutes. Stir in the garam masala powder and remove from heat.