Chicken Nasi Lemak

📝 Ingredients

• 280 g jasmine rice
• 200 ml coconut milk (½ tin) + 200 ml water
• 15 g fresh ginger
• 500 g boneless, skinless chicken thighs (5 pieces of about 100 g each)
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 4 garlic cloves (2 for the chicken, 2 for the sambal)
• 4 tsp sunflower oil (1 for the chicken, 3 for the sambal)
• 3 fresh red chillies + 2 shallots (for the sambal)
• 1 tbsp tomato purée + 1 tbsp caster sugar + 1 tbsp fish sauce (for the sambal)
• ½ lime
• 4 eggs
• 1 cucumber (about 300 g) + 30 g unsalted roasted peanuts
• Salt

🍴 Utensils

• Saucepan with lid
• Small saucepan
• Baking tray and baking paper
• Stick blender or mini chopper
• Frying pan
• Mixing bowl

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 220 °C. Halve the chicken thighs and put them in a mixing bowl with the turmeric, 2 grated garlic cloves, 1 tsp oil and 1 tsp salt. Massage to coat well and leave to marinate for 15 min. Careful, turmeric stains your fingers.
2. Rinse the rice 3 times in cold water until it runs almost clear. Put it in the saucepan with the well-shaken coconut milk, the water, the thinly sliced ginger and ½ tsp salt. Bring to a simmer, stirring so the coconut milk doesn't catch.
3. Cover and cook for 12 min over a very low heat, then leave to stand for 10 min off the heat without lifting the lid. Remove the ginger slices and fluff up the rice with a fork.
4. Spread the chicken out on the baking tray lined with baking paper and roast for 25 min at 220 °C, turning the pieces halfway through. It's done when golden at the edges and the juices run clear when pierced.
5. Bring the small pan of water to the boil, gently lower in the eggs with a spoon and cook for 10 min. Cool them under cold water, peel, then halve. Cut the cucumber into half-moons and dry-toast the peanuts in the frying pan for 2 min.
6. For the sambal, deseed the chillies (keep a few seeds for more heat), and peel the shallots and the remaining 2 garlic cloves. Blitz them with 3 tsp oil to a fine paste. Without a blender, chop everything as finely as possible with a knife.
7. Cook this paste in the frying pan for 8 to 10 min over a medium-low heat, stirring often, until it darkens, no longer smells raw and the oil separates. Add the tomato purée, sugar and fish sauce, cook for 2 min, then add the juice of the half lime off the heat. Ventilate the kitchen: the fumes sting.
8. Pack a portion of rice into a bowl and turn it out onto each plate to form a dome. Arrange the chicken, two egg halves, the cucumber, peanuts and a spoonful of sambal around it. Serve the rest of the sambal on the side so everyone can choose their own heat level.