Ayam sisit – Balinese shredded chicken

Ayam sisit is a great dish to make when you are having a lot of guests over because it’s really simple and easy for people to help themselves to as much of it as they want. For this reason, it’s popular food for celebrations in Bali and people will often make a huge bowl of it along with another of sayur urab and loads of steamed rice for guests to help themselves to.

The ayam sisit recipe we have here is also great for using up cooked chicken leftovers from another meal. Although this recipe uses boiled chicken, it works just as well if you shred up leftover roast chicken, too.

Ingredients:
250g chicken
the juice of half a lime
3 tbsp cooking oil

Spice paste: (chop finely then grind in a pestle and mortar)
1 shallot
4 cloves of garlic
2 large red chilli peppers
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 candlenut
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp terasi (shrimp paste)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Boil or steam the chicken until cooked through then leave to cool. Once cool, shred the chicken using two forks to pull it apart.
2. Mix the chicken with the spice paste then add the lime juice and 3 tablespoons of oil. Continue mixing (with your hands is best) until the oil and spices are distributed evenly.
3. Heat a pan with a little oil and add the mixed chicken and spices. Fry until the frayed ends of the shredded pieces of chicken just start to turn crispy.