Ajam Pedis

A family recipe of Indonesian Spicy Chicken
I've been making this almost all my life!

(Serves 4 or 2 when you're really hungry)

Ingredients
4 chicken drums, 3 large onions (minimum), 2 cloves garlic, 3 tablespoons neutral cooking oil, 2 tsp. shrimp paste, 2 tsp. tamarind paste, 1 tbsp. sambal oelek (chili paste), 1 tsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. dark soy sauce, 1 cup water
Wash the chicken in water with some lemon juice. Separate the chicken leg from the thighs. Put the chicken in a roasting pan or large baking pan and slide it into a hot, preheated oven (180-200 degrees Celsius.)

* Chop the onions. Would you like lots of sauce, use more onions than the minimum of three. Fry them in the cooking oil in a large ovenproof pan with a thick bottom and add the chopped garlic. When the unions are soft, add the shrimp paste.

* When the onions are brown and the shrimp paste is dissolved, add the sambal. Stir the sambal well into onion mixture, making it a nice red color. If you find the color not being red enough, add some tomato paste. Then add the dark soy sauce and water and stir again considerably.

* To balance the hot taste of the sambal and the sour taste of the tamarind you add palm sugar to taste. Let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes.

* Leave the chicken in the oven for about 45 minutes until the skin gets nice and crispy and golden brown. Remove the chicken from the oven and put the pieces in the pan with the sauce. (Or put the onion sauce with the chicken in a baking dish if you do not have an ovenproof pan that is large enough.) Throw away the grease that came from the chicken thighs.

* Put the chicken in the sauce in the oven. Set the oven a little lower, just to let the chicken simmer in the sauce. Leace the Ajam Pedis to cook for 20 more minutes.

Serve with rice and green beans.

Tip: Add some lemongrass and/or kafir lime leafs to the sauce befor simmering. The sauce keeps for a while and can be seved with hard boiled eggs for a spicy lunch dish.

Note: My mother made this using a whole chicken which she cut in parts and deskinned. She used to crisp up the chicken skins seperately and add the to the sauce right befor serving, keeping them crispy. I really don't bother and use chicken drums with the skin. You can use skinless chicken thighs or chicken wings if you like.