Pekan's Roasted Chicken~ Ayam Golek Pekan - MFF Pahang #1

Ayam Golek literally means, rolled around chicken. Something like rotisserie chicken. Pekan is the royal town of Pahang, of which is the current Prime Minister’s hometown. So, this is Pekan’s Rotisserie Chicken.

I got this recipe from Pekan Municipal’s website. It’s a recipe from Pahang’s Palace, from the Sultanah’s cookbook. There are lots of recipes there, do visit it and see if there's anything you like.

If you like roasted chicken, moist roasted chicken with an aromatic coconutty gravy, do give this a try. It seems like you need to do a few things to get it done, but it’s actually quite easy. With just 4 major steps, don’t talk about peeling and brushing ok. There’s no sautéing, no browning and no spit fire involved. Oh yes, and I didn’t impale the chicken. LOL.

The 4 major steps are.
1. Blend the ingredients.
2. Boil the chicken in gravy.
3. Roast the chicken
4. Reduce the gravy.

Ayam Golek Pekan

Recipe modified by : WendyinKK
Original source: Pahang State Palace

1 whole chicken (1.5-1.8kg)
10 shallots, peeled
5 cloves garlic, peeled
10 dried red chillies, seeds removed
20gm ginger (clean weight)
20gm galangal (lengkuas, clean weight)
10gm turmeric root (kunyit hidup, clean weight)
1 tsp fenugreek (halba)
1 candlenut (buah keras)
2 lemongrass, smashed
300ml coconut milk
50gm tamarind pulp (with seeds) + 1 cup water
*1 cup water or more
1 tsp salt
3-4 tsp sugar (may need more, I used 4)
Banana leaf for lining the tray

1. Soak tamarind pulp with water for 10 minutes. Rub the tamarind pulp to wash the seeds clean. Strain the tamarind water and discard the remnants. Save the tamarind water.
2. Place tamarind water, shallots, garlic, chilli, galangal, ginger, turmeric and candlenut into a blender and blend until fine. Pour this into a wok.
3. Put lemongrass, fenugreek, coconut milk, 1 cup water, salt and sugar into the wok. Bring to a boil.
4. Place chicken into the boiling gravy (breast side down) and bring to a boil. (gravy should be half way up the chicken, if not add more water) Lower to medium low heat, cover with lid and cook for 15 minutes. Flip the chicken to back side down and cook for another 15 minutes, this time, watching closely so that it doesn’t burn. Bathe the top with gravy and try to scoop some of the boiling gravy into the cavity.
5. Line baking tray with banana leaf (about A4size, can use broken pieces, it’s ok). Remove chicken from the wok, let the gravy drip off and place onto the lined tray.
6. Bake at 180(fan)/200C for 30 minutes (I didn’t preheat the oven) or until the chicken is beautifully golden.
7. Meanwhile, reduce the gravy until it looks thick like satay sauce. Taste it, if it’s too sour, add more sugar (I had about 1 cup)
8. Remove chicken from oven and generously brush on the reduced gravy (I brushed 2/3 of the gravy).
9. Return chicken to oven and bake at the same temperature for another 10 minutes.

the amount of gravy I got before brushing onto the chicken

Verdict:
It tasted almost like Ayam Percik, only much much better! Our household actually hates chicken breast, but this Ayam Golek Pekan has tender juicy breasts : ). It looked just like in the source. Something not usual in roast chicken. Maybe it's due to the boiling. My husband told me to make this again someday, haha, someday I will.

How I served it? I didn’t chop it, I don’t want to mess with the baked gravy coating. I broke the limbs with scissors and placed them whole on the serving platter. Tore the breast out and thickly shredded it. And I placed the remaining gravy next to the shredded breast for dipping.

Option:
You can use preferred chicken parts with similar weight. Prepare raw gravy without *water. Boil the chicken in gravy for 10 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce gravy and then brush on gravy and bake for another 10 minutes. But a whole chicken gives more wow factor : )
I tried marinating the parts for 2 hours, bad move. The chicken flesh turned slightly mushy due to being in contact with the raw ginger and galangal for too long.

I am submitting this to Malaysian Food Fest Pahang Month Hosted by Abbygail of Abbygail's Kitchen