Taliwang Grilled Chicken (Ayam Bakar Taliwang)

Tali­wang Chicken, Fol­low­ing the devel­op­ment of Lom­bok, Nusa Teng­gara Barat as a des­ti­na­tion of inter­na­tional tourism, you should know its spe­cial food that is Tali­wang Chicken. It is not said com­ing from Lom­bok when the food is not hot or spicy. They said that the recipe of this food came from a “Papuq” (an old woman) named Mak­nawiyah, a chicken rice seller who came from Kam­pung Tali­wang. Because it was famil­iar for its del­i­cacy in whole Lom­bok, the “Papuq” served buy­ers though she was get­ting old. Her gen­er­a­tion has been con­tin­ued her busi­ness since 1966.

Tali­wang Chicken

Tali­wang chicken has 2 kinds of sea­son­ing. It can be sea­soned with “Pelecin­gan spice” which is com­bined by chilies or “Pelalah spice” which is fried with terasi. Both of them give unfor­get­table hot sen­sa­tion for tongues that taste it. Espe­cially, it only con­sumes free-range chicken which the firm of flesh gives salty and crispy nat­ural fla­vor and well-done when it is eaten. Besides, there is a pro­hi­bi­tion in cook­ing process. That is not to using gas stove, but using first rate of fire­wood such as cof­fee wood or jack­fruit wood. No won­der , that the fra­grance is dif­fer­ent than other foods. If you are not patient to taste this food any­more, you should try this recipe:

the Recipe

Ingre­di­ents:

• 1 baby free-range chicken
• 2 tbsp cook­ing oil, for smearing
• 3 cala­m­ondins get the extract
• Salt as necessary

Grinded spice:

• 8 chilies
• 7 onions
• 4 cloves of garlic
• ½ tsp roasted terasi
• 3 toma­toes
• Salt

Direc­tions:

1. Clean chicken, remove the head and foot, and wash cleanly. Crack chicken breast but don’t cut/break it fully, then press it until it is opened. Or it can be cut into 4 parts.
2. Smear chicken with salt and cook­ing oil.
3. Roast chicken at low ember for 5 min­utes while turned, remove it.
4. Heat 3 tsp cook­ing oil, cook grinded spices in lit­tle oil. Remove and add cala­m­ondins’ extract.
5. Smear roasted chicken with spice and leave it for 15 min­utes. Roast chicken again at ember or oven while smeared with spice and turn it occa­sion­ally till it is well-done and brownish.
6. Serve roasted chicken along with the spice.