Semur Ayam: Dutch-Indonesian Chicken Braised in Soy Sauce
This wonderful dish of chicken braised in soy sauce is classic Indonesian home cooking! It’s not spicy at all, but tasty, and great for the whole family.
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- 35 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- Half chicken, cut in pieces and washed thoroughly.
- 2 potatoes, peeled, cut to big chunks and soaked in cold water
- 6 shallots, peeled, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled, chopped
- 3 cm ginger, peeled, chopped
- 1 lemongrass, bruised, knotted
- 0.5 tsp ground white pepper
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 5 tbsp sweet soy sauce
- Salt to taste
- 1 big red tomato, chopped
- 2 bird’s eye chillies, halved, remove the seeds (optional)
- 700 ml water
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
Instructions
- 1
Grind or blend into a fine paste: shallots, garlic and ginger.
- 2
Heat the oil over medium high heat in a wok, and then sauté the ground spices and lemongrass until fragrant, around 3 minutes.
- 3
Add the chicken pieces, and fry for about 4 minutes.
- 4
Add salt, nutmeg and white pepper powder.
- 5
Add water.
- 6
Add sweet soy sauce. Mix and bring to boil.
- 7
When the soup boils, add the potatoes. Turn the heat to medium low and simmer for around 20 minutes.
- 8
Add the chopped tomato and chillies, and continue cooking for around 5 minutes.
- 9
Turn off the heat and let the semur rest for a while before serving.