This Ayam Berlado Hijau, roughly translated as Chicken in Green Chili Sambal brings back a lot of memories. I grew up in the East of Singapore (Bedok North) for more than 20 years of my life. It was the first house that my father bought just before I was born. There, we had this amazing Indonesian neighbour who cooked the BEST Indonesian food. Literally the best ever. Till today, I have not tasted a berlado that is better than hers. Then there was my mom’s late good friend was also an Indonesian and she was also someone who cooked amazing Indonesian cuisines. I really miss these two ladies, not just for the food but also for being such a big part of my growing up.
If you are not familiar with Indonesian culinary, sambal is one of the must-haves to accompany sides with their dishes. The dish we are cooking today is called “berlado” which is also another form of sambal but it is made from fresh chillies and not dried chilli. You can use either fresh red chilli or fresh green chilli as there are two versions of this berlado. Green and red!
This is one of my favourite Indonesian dishes and whenever I cook this, I tend to go for seconds. Yup we are looking at a dangerous dish right here!! This berlado goes well on top of fried fish too. In fact, fry some sunny side up and top it with some of this green sambal, grab a plate of rice and you are ready to rock ‘n’ roll.
Watch the recipe video:
- 1kg chicken (you can use any parts preferred. I used a whole chicken)
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 300g green chilli
- 5 green birds eye chilli (optional)
- 2 onion
- 5 garlic
- 2 stalk lemon, bruised
- 4-5 fresh kaffir lime leaves
- 3 tbsp lime juice (I used calamansi lime)
- Cooking oil
- Salt to taste
- Cherry tomatoes for garnishing (Optional)
- In a large bowl mix chicken pieces, lime juice, salt and turmeric
- Pan-fry the chicken in some oil till cooked. Alternatively, you can air-fry the chicken pieces.
- Set aside.
- Blend onion, chillies and garlic
- In a frying pan, heat up 3 tbsp of oil and sauté the blended ingredients.
- Add lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and salt and cook till fragrant for about 15-20 minutes
- Once the sambal is well cooked, add lime juice and the fried chicken.
- Mix well and garnish with cherry tomatoes.
- Serve with white steamed rice.
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