Chicken in Coconut Milk (Ayam Opor)

Chicken Opor, Indonesian’s tra­di­tion in Idul Fitri (Ramad­han Fes­ti­val) is iden­ti­cal with the pres­ence of Chicken Opor as appe­tizer when being together with fam­ily. Even, Indone­sians who live abroad say that Chicken Opor is an oblig­a­tory meal in Idul Fitri, just like tra­di­tion of Chicken Turkey on Thanks­giv­ing Day. As a part of feast, it is accom­pa­nied by ketu­pat and fried liv­ers sam­bal as complements.

The his­tory is Chicken Opor was claimed as Javanese cul­ture, espe­cially Jawa Ten­gah and west­ern Jawa Timur. But, this meal is also much known in other regions. Actu­ally, Chicken Opor is thick spicy boiled chicken that the spice made from squeezed coconut and added by sev­eral spices such as serai (lemongrass/citronella), ken­cur (grater galin­gale), and so on. Because the fla­vor is not hot and deli­cious, this food is closed on either children’s tongues or old peo­ple one. It is very suit­able for you who like food with squeezed coconut. If you are bored with chicken as the prime ingre­di­ent, you can change it with tofu, pota­toes, or eggs. It is cheap enough but it is still deli­cious. If you wanna shake your tongue with this, let see the recipe below.

Chicken Opor

Chicken Opor Recipe

Ingre­di­ents:

• 1 free-range chicken or domes­tic poul­try, cut into 8 pieces, clean and smear with salt and lime, let it for about 15 minutes
• 1 liter squeezed coconut or 1 small box of Kara coconut milk, add for more thick soup
• 1–2 cloves (preferred)
• 1–2 stalks of serai, crushed
• 3–4 cm of galan­gale, crushed
• 1–2 lau­rel likes
• 1–2 cit­rus leaves
• A half of medium pan of water, mix with coconut cream
• Cook­ing oil
• 1 tbsp salt
• Sugar
• Chicken stock (from chicken’s soaking)

Grinded Spice:

• 5 grains kemiri (fruits of can­dlenut tree), fried with­out oil
• 1 tbsp corian­der, fried with­out oil
• 2 cm turmeric
• 3–4 cloves garlic
• 5 onions

Direc­tions:

1. Con­sum­ing free-range chicken doesn’t need to be fried because the flesh will be tough. But, it is sug­gested to fry domes­tic poul­try until it is skinny (not too dry), removed.
2. Cook grinded spice in lit­tle oil, then add cit­rus leaves, serai, galan­gale, lau­rel likes, cloves. Cook until it is fra­grant. Put fired chicken in and add coconut milk.
3. Stir occa­sion­ally in order that the coconut milk doesn’t cur­dle, espe­cially the coconut milk has boiled. Medium fire and stir­ring occa­sion­ally is sug­gested. Add salt, sugar, and stock. Cook about for 1 hour because usu­ally spice has absorbed into domes­tic poul­try. Free-range chicken needs more times to be well-done. Serve with sow­ing fried onion. Lon­tong, ketu­pat, or rice is preferred.