Ayam Limau Purut

• servings: 4 servings
• active time: 15 minutes
• total time: 1 hour

Ingredients

750 g chicken portions on the bone (500g/1.1 lb boneless)

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

500 ml very hot water for soaking chillies and tamarind (just put the kettle on, you'll not need all of it)

2 heaped Tbsp tamarind pulp (or 2-3 Tbsp shop bought paste, depending on the strength)

1 lemongrass

125 ml coconut milk

¼ cup water (or more for a wetter curry)

6 kaffir lime leaves

½ tsp salt

1 - 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice (half - 1 lime)

20 dried red chillies

1 medium onion (about 120 - 150g, 4-5 oz pre peeled weight)

5 medium cloves garlic

5 stalks lemongrass (6 if they're on the thin side, or 4 tsp shop bought paste)

5 cm galangal (or 2 tsp shop bought paste)

½ tsp turmeric powder

Directions

Soak the Chillies

cut

Put the kettle on. Then, using a pair of scissors, cut the chillies up into 2-3 pieces, straight into a bowl.

soak

Pour the hot water onto the cut chillies, leaving a little for the tamarind below. Cover with a side plate and leave to soak for at least 15 minutes, while you get everything else ready.

Soak and Prep the Tamarind

pour

Place the tamarind pulp into a small bowl and pour the hot water over it, ensuring that it's covered. Leave it aside until you need it during cooking.

mash

When it's time to use it, all we're going to do is mash the now soft pulp with our fingers, grab the pulp, seeds and any fibre and throw them away.Then we'll just pour the tamarind juice over the sambal. You could strain it, but it has to be a medium mesh strainer, so you don't miss out on all the good stuff.Click here to read up on how to use tamarind.

Make the Spice Paste

chop

Peel the onion and quarter it.Peel the garlic.Top and tail the 6 lemongrass stalks and thinly slice 5 of them in rings.Bruise the other one and set aside, don't add it to the food chopper.Scrape the galangal skin off and slice into thin rings.Click here for how to prepare lemongrass for its various uses.Or watch me showing it on YouTube.Place everything into a food chopper, except for the bruised lemongrass.

drain

Drain the soaking dried chillies and give them a quick rinse, shaking out the seeds if you want to. Tip the drained chillies into a blender.

blend

Add the turmeric powder to the chopper too. Chop everything until you have a fairly fine paste. Don't worry too much about the odd piece of chilli.

Let's get Cooking

heat

Heat the oil on medium heat in a wok or saucepan and fry the spice paste and bruised lemongrass for 2 minutes until fragrant.

coat

Add the chicken portions and coat them with the spice paste.

mix

Pour in the coconut milk, water and tamarind juice. Tear the lime leaves once on each side and drop 4 of them into the wok/saucepan, along with the salt.Mix well and bring to a simmer.

cook

Cover and cook for 30 minutes until the chicken is done. Boneless chicken will only need 20 minutes, chicken legs will need 45 minutes.Add the last 2 kaffir lime leaves 5 minutes before the end of cooking time.

season

Check seasoning and add more salt if necessary. Turn the heat off and finish with stirring in the lime juice. How much lime juice is up to you. Add 1 Tbsp, taste and add more if you like. I use all of it.Leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving hot.

Nutrition

• Calories: 438 kcal
• Total Fat: 32 g
• Saturated Fat: 12 g
• Unsaturated Fat: 18 g
• Trans Fat: 0.2 g
• Cholesterol: 94 mg
• Sodium: 388 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 13 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1 g
• Total Sugars: 3 g
• Protein: 25 g