Ayam Goreng Kunyit Recipe [Turmeric Fried Chicken 炸黄姜鸡]

Hello everyone, today I am going to share the recipe of a dish that I really love: Ayam Goreng Kunyit! When I was still studying in secondary school, my grandma used to cook this dish for my family and I every other week and we will finish it in a matter of minutes. After I moved to Kedah, I had many meals in Malay restaurants where they serve this dish too, but none of them taste even half as good as the one my grandmother made. Those that are sold outside are just so bland in taste and texture... and I blame that on using turmeric powder instead of using real pounded turmeric. I have been longing for my grandmother's turmeric fried chicken so I decided to make them for my family and myself last weekend when I was home. It was a last minute decision so I did not manage to consult my grandmother beforehand... but it turns out to be 90% similar. Hehehe, maybe I should cook this dish again for my grandma to try one day and see if she approves.

Can you see all the crunchy fried turmeric at the top? How to get this if you use
turmeric powder only? Impossible! Good food requires hard work too!

Ingredients: Serves 4-5 people

4 whole chicken leg

6-7 bulbs of turmeric

3 tbsp of salt

Cooking oil

Click to read more!

STEP 1: PREP THE CHICKEN

Clean the whole chicken leg. Remove any blood clots and trim excess fats.

Chop up the chicken legs and marinate evenly with 3 tbsp of salt.
Thanks to my mom who helped me chop up the chicken. I am just so bad at it.

STEP 2: POUND THE TURMERIC

This is approximately how much turmeric I used. Wash clean.

Carefully scrape off all the skin. I used a knife to slowly scrape them off.

In case you all don't know, turmeric is really one of the most staining plant ever.
It stains everything it comes in contact with, so be careful while handling it.
I covered my left hand with a plastic bag first before touching the turmeric as
I didn't want to stain my hands too much. It would be good to wear gloves.

Mince the turmeric, as fine as possible.

Put the minced turmeric in a mortar and pound them carefully. Be careful, the
juice might splash all over your shirt, walls, etc so wear an apron too if you have it.

Once it is pounded to about this consistency, you can stop. Kind of like, a little paste
with bits and pieces of turmeric.

STEP 3: MARINATE THE CHICKEN WITH TURMERIC

Put the chicken pieces and the pounded turmeric into a plastic bag. Due to the
highly staining yellow color, I think using a clean plastic bag is the safest option.
You don't want to go around staining all your bowls yellow, LOL.

Just squeeze around the contents of the bag to mix it evenly. My bag broke
because I was mixing too roughly. But its okay, just pop it in the fridge for
at least 30 minutes to let it marinate properly.

STEP 4: TIME TO FRY EM'!

Heat a generous amount of oil in the wok.

Gradually fry the chicken pieces in batches. Fry until the insides are well-
cooked and the outside are golden brown in color. Set aside the fried chicken.

Once all the chicken pieces are fried, drain away the oil and scrape up all
the turmeric bits from the wok. This is really yummy! Scatter the turmeric
pieces over the fried chicken and serve hot ☺♥

Hope you enjoy this recipe! It is actually quite a lot of messy work especially when we need to pound the turmeric... but good food requires time and patience! I was quite delighted that my family loved it and finished every single piece hehehe. Makes me feel that all my hard work pounding the turmeric and getting yellow fingers oh so worth it.

Last but not least, all hail my grandmother who first made me this wonderful yummy fried chicken ♥

Happy cookin' ☺