How to Make Chef John's Ayam Bakar (Indonesian Grilled Chicken)

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Chef John brings bold, smoky flavor to the table with his take on Ayam Bakar, Indonesia’s iconic grilled chicken dish. In this video, he shows you how to marinate the chicken in a fragrant blend of garlic, shallots, lemongrass, and spices, then grill it until beautifully charred and caramelized. Served with sambal or your favorite spicy condiment, this dish is rich, aromatic, and packed with sweet-savory depth.

Transcript

00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with I.M. Bakar.

00:07That's right, there are hundreds of different versions of this Indonesian char-grilled chicken,

00:12and the one I'm going to show you isn't any of those.

00:16My take is a very simple version, using only easy-to-find ingredients,

00:20but despite that, this is still going to be incredible, and I believe the soul of the dish is intact.

00:26So with that, let's go ahead and get started by prepping our chicken,

00:30and I'm going to be using these bone-in skin-on chicken thighs,

00:33which are perfect for braising and grilling, and since we're doing both of those things, it's the ideal cut.

00:39And once we figure out exactly where the bone is, we'll take a sharp knife

00:43and cut right in the center all the way down to the bone at a 90-degree angle,

00:48and then we'll make two more cuts on either side, about a half inch away,

00:52and that will allow for our thighs to cook faster, and for that flavor to penetrate deeper.

00:58So I did that to six thighs total, and once those are set, we can move on to the grinding of the aromatics.

01:05And for this, we'll use a whole bunch of sliced shallots, although any other onion will work,

01:10but if you can, shallots are best.

01:12And then we'll also want to include some garlic, as well as some lemongrass,

01:17and we're only going to slice up the lighter, more tender parts.

01:20And then we're also going to want to use a generous amount of fresh ginger,

01:23as well as something called kefir lime leaves, which I don't have, but I do have a Mexican lime tree,

01:30so I pulled off a few of the smallest, tenderest leaves, and I'm going to try to use those.

01:35And if you don't have either, they say we can use a little bit of lime zest.

01:39But anyway, what we'll do is toss all that in a food processor or a blender,

01:43and we will grind that into a very fine puree.

01:46And of course, you're going to want to stop a few times and scrape down the sides with a spatula,

01:50which I didn't show, but I did.

01:53And then what we'll do is transfer that mixture into a skillet, set over medium-high heat,

01:57in which we have a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil.

02:00And we'll go ahead and spread that out, and let it start to caramelize.

02:04And while it does, we'll toss in the next set of ingredients,

02:08and those will include some ground coriander, some ground cumin,

02:13a touch of turmeric, followed by some ground pepper,

02:17and I'm going to use white pepper, since that seems to be a common choice.

02:20And then we'll finish up with some salt.

02:23And then what we'll do is cook this stirring for like three or four minutes,

02:27until those shallots and veggies start to soften up,

02:30and everything, including our spices, start to toast onto the bottom of the pan.

02:34And if someone walks into your kitchen while this is happening,

02:37they're going to say something like,

02:38Wow, that smells incredible.

02:40And you'll say, Yes, wait until you taste it.

02:43And once we've finished chatting, and our mixture is looking something like this,

02:47we will stop, and we'll toss in the rest of the ingredients,

02:50including a nice big spoon of sambal, which is basically a ground chili paste.

02:55And yes, you can, if you want, instead use fresh red chilies.

02:59And then we'll also need some brown sugar in this, followed by some soy sauce.

03:03And those two things are replacing a sweet, thick Indonesian-style soy sauce,

03:07which you might have trouble finding, but this works beautifully.

03:11And then we'll finish up with a couple of bay leaves,

03:13as well as a couple of cups of chicken broth,

03:16or water if times are tough.

03:17And we'll go ahead and stir all that together.

03:21And by the way, some recipes call for coconut water.

03:24And then there's others that use coconut milk.

03:27But like I said, there's many, many different versions of this.

03:30And since I find this to be kind of a rich dish,

03:32I think the broth is just fine.

03:35And what we'll do is wait for this to start to boil.

03:37And we'll give it one more stir with our spatula

03:39to make sure the bottom is in fact deglazed

03:42and we don't have anything sticking.

03:45At which point we're going to transfer our cut chicken in,

03:48skin side down,

03:49and we'll reduce our heat to low,

03:52or somewhere between low and medium low.

03:55And then before we cover this and let it simmer,

03:57I'm going to go ahead and baste these with a spoon,

03:59which is probably not necessary since we're going to turn these over.

04:03But it does feel right.

04:05And I find cooking is all about trusting your feelings.

04:09Or if you're not going to trust your feelings,

04:10what are you going to trust?

04:12And that's it.

04:13Once basted, we'll cover this

04:14and let it simmer gently for 15 minutes,

04:17at which point we'll uncover and flip them over

04:20and then we'll let it simmer for another 15 minutes or so.

04:25Although this time and for the rest of the cooking process,

04:27I'm going to leave the cover off

04:29so we can see exactly what's going on.

04:32And while this continues to cook,

04:33we can once again baste it with a spoon

04:36or simply flip the pieces back and forth

04:39and coat them with the sauce like that.

04:42And also, if you really like to play with your food,

04:44and you know I do,

04:46we can always rearrange those if we want

04:48so that the pieces are rotated into different spots

04:51and turned into different positions.

04:53And once both sides have gotten about 15 minutes each,

04:57I like to turn them back with the skin side down

04:59and let them go for about five minutes like that

05:02before turning them back over

05:04and continuing on the other side.

05:06And as far as our overall game plan here,

05:09what we're hoping to have happen

05:10is that our chicken cooks through

05:12at about the same time that our sauce reduces down to where we want it,

05:16which by the way could be completely reduced

05:18down to a thick sticky glaze,

05:21or as I prefer,

05:22where things get thick

05:23but still stay a little bit saucy.

05:26And if I feel like the chicken's getting close,

05:29but the sauce looks like it still has a ways to go,

05:31I'll just simply raise the heat up to medium

05:33so it reduces a little faster.

05:36So don't forget, you can always adjust the heat.

05:39All right, that is just you cooking.

05:41Oh, and since we are going to finish this

05:43by charring it on the grill,

05:45we do not want this falling off the bone tender.

05:48Okay, tender is fine,

05:49but falling off the bone is not.

05:51And once we think our chicken's done,

05:53we will remove that to a plate

05:55and let it rest

05:56while we let the sauce reduce for a few more minutes

05:58or until it's exactly how we want.

06:01And once we are happy with how that's looking and feeling,

06:04we can reduce our heat to low

06:05and place our chicken back in.

06:08And that's it at this point.

06:10No one would blame you

06:11if you just put this over rice and started eating.

06:14I mean, it really would be fantastic.

06:16But what we're supposed to do

06:17is turn off the heat

06:18and take that chicken out to the grill

06:20and char it fairly severely

06:22over some nice hot coals

06:24and this is only going to take a few minutes,

06:27so do not walk away.

06:29Oh, you'll see.

06:30Things are going to be happening very quickly.

06:33And what we'll do is put that skin side down

06:35for about 60 seconds or so

06:37before we give it a flip

06:39so we can see what's happening.

06:41And at this point,

06:42we're going to be able to see where the hot spots are

06:43and which pieces have been nicely charred

06:46and which ones still need a little bit of color.

06:48Oh, and because of the high sugar content

06:51and the fat in the skin,

06:52you are definitely going to see some flames

06:54and have some flare-ups.

06:57So you really got to stay on top of things

06:59and move things to a safe space.

07:01And with that in mind,

07:02we will move things around

07:03and give a few of those pieces

07:05a little more time on the skin side.

07:07Since according to my most reliable sources,

07:10these pieces must,

07:11they have to,

07:12have a decent amount of charring on them.

07:15In fact, one of the recipes I read

07:16literally said,

07:18make sure the pieces of chicken are black

07:20but not burnt.

07:22And even though that kind of seems impossible,

07:24I knew what they were saying.

07:25So again, pay attention and move quickly.

07:28I mean, you are after all the next Food Network star

07:30of How Much to Char,

07:32your I am Bacar.

07:34And then if possible,

07:35if you want to brush on a little bit of the sauce

07:37and your chicken's not going to overchar,

07:40you might want to try to do that,

07:41like I did here.

07:43And if you didn't have any flame-ups before,

07:45you will definitely have them if you do this.

07:48Which is why as soon as that was applied,

07:50I pulled these off the grill

07:51and I headed back inside to place those on our sauce.

07:55And while this might not satisfy

07:57some of my Indonesian friends,

07:59I am totally happy with how much charring I got.

08:01All right, a lot of folks do go almost all black.

08:04But for me, this is just about perfect.

08:07And while, like I said,

08:08you can just eat this

08:09and not head out to the grill to char it,

08:11that smoky, bitter sweetness it adds

08:13really is what makes the dish.

08:16And that's it.

08:16I'm going to garnish very simply

08:18with some sliced Fresno chilies

08:20as well as a little scattering of cilantro leaves.

08:23And that's it.

08:24My take on I am Bacar is ready to enjoy.

08:27So I'm going to go ahead and serve some up on some rice

08:30and top it with a few spoons of the sauce,

08:33which we could if we want pass through a strainer.

08:36But I don't think it's necessary.

08:38Okay, I've done it before,

08:39but I think I prefer the rustic approach.

08:42And after adding a little more sambal to the top,

08:45I grabbed a fork and knife and dug in.

08:47And that, my friends,

08:48is a piece of grilled chicken

08:49that you really, really do want to be eating.

08:52Like on a regular basis.

08:55Right, the term flavor bomb is overused,

08:58but completely appropriate here.

09:00And as I've already mentioned,

09:02that smoky, bittersweet kiss from that charring

09:04really does amplify all the flavors even more.

09:07And while this is normally done

09:09with a whole cut-up chicken,

09:10I think using all thighs

09:12is much more user-friendly.

09:14And we don't really have to worry

09:15about those drying out,

09:16like we would if we decided to use some breasts.

09:19But no matter what you use,

09:20I think this is a recipe

09:22that has to go into

09:23the regular grilled chicken rotation,

09:25which is why I really do hope

09:27you give this a try soon.

09:29So please follow the links below

09:31for the ingredient amounts,

09:33a printable written recipe,

09:34and much more info as usual.

09:37And as always, enjoy.

09:40Enjoy.

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