Home / All Recipes / Chinese / Ayam Goreng Lada Garam - Spicy Chili Fried Chicken
Ayam Goreng Lada Garam - Spicy Chili Fried Chicken
This fried chicken dish is a Chinese restaurant favorite: savory fried chicken pieces with spicy garlic, chili, and toasted shrimp paste seasoning. Great with steamed white rice.
There are many dishes served in numerous Chinese restaurants in Indonesia that I cannot find anywhere else. My top two all-time favorites are ayam goreng lada garam (spicy chili fried chicken) and ayam goreng mentega (fried chicken with buttery sweet soy sauce).
Most children prefer ayam goreng mentega due to its sweet and buttery sauce, but once the kids grow up into adults, most prefer ayam goreng lada garam. So if you have little kids at home, maybe prepare both dishes to serve. :)
What goes into this fried chicken dish
There are two parts to this recipe, the fried chicken, and the spicy chili seasoning.
For the fried chicken, we need boneless skinless chicken breast/thigh, lime juice, garlic, salt, ground white pepper, all-purpose flour, and tapioca starch.
For the spicy chili seasoning, we need garlic, dried red chilies, terasi/belacan/shrimp paste, salt, sugar, and ground white pepper.
For those unfamiliar with terasi/belacan/shrimp paste, you can read all about it from my kangkung tumis terasi recipe.
First part: the fried chicken
Marinate chicken with bruised garlic cloves, lime juice, and salt for 15 minutes.
Whisk together all-purpose flour, tapioca starch, and salt in a mixing bowl. Coat the marinated chicken pieces with the flour mixture.
Heat enough oil in a wok/pot for deep-frying and wait until the oil is hot. Hot oil should look shimmering and runnier.
Finally, fry chicken pieces until golden brown, in batches if necessary. Set aside fried chicken over a wire rack to remove excess oil.
Second part: the spicy chili seasoning
Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Sauté garlic and chili until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
Add scallions, toasted shrimp paste, salt, sugar, and ground white pepper. Mix well.
Return fried chicken pieces to the wok, gently toss to coat. Adjust the amount of salt if necessary.
Turn off the heat and transfer to a serving plate. Serve this fried chicken dish immediately with steamed white rice.
Ayam Goreng Lada Garam - Spicy Chili Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- Fried chicken
- 600 gram boneless skinless chicken thigh/breast, cut into strips
- 4 cloves garlic, bruised
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 100 gram all-purpose flour
- ½ tablespoon tapioca starch (or cornstarch)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper (or ground black pepper)
- enough oil for deep frying
- Spicy chili seasoning
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 5-10 dried chilies, seeded and thinly sliced
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon terasi/belacan/shrimp paste, toasted and crushed into powder
Instructions
- Fried chicken
- Marinate chicken with bruised garlic cloves, lime juice, and salt for 15 minutes.
- Whisk together all-purpose flour, tapioca starch, and salt in a mixing bowl. Coat the marinated chicken pieces with the flour mixture.
- Heat enough oil in a wok/pot for deep-frying and wait until the oil is hot. Hot oil should look shimmering and runnier.
- Finally, fry chicken pieces until golden brown, in batches if necessary. Set aside fried chicken over a wire rack to remove excess oil.
- Spicy chili seasoning
- Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Sauté garlic and chili until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
- Add scallions, toasted shrimp paste, salt, sugar, and ground white pepper. Mix well.
- Return fried chicken pieces to the wok, gently toss to coat. Adjust the amount of salt if necessary.
- Turn off the heat and transfer to a serving plate. Serve this fried chicken dish immediately with steamed white rice.
Comments
Hi Anita, thanks a lot for posting this great recipe! Do you think this recipe still works if we bake, not deep fry, the chicken?
Hm... I have never tried baking this before. But, if you can bake the "fried chicken" part, and then proceed with the rest on stove, it should be doable. My wild guess would be preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit (200 Celsius), line a baking sheet with parchment paper, place the coated chicken strips on it, bake for 10 minutes, flip, and bake again for another 8-10 minutes. I am quite confident it will work, but you know what, I think I will try to execute this myself and report back with a baked version :)
Hi Anita, thanks so much for your reply, and the orange hoisin chicken stir fry (baked version) recipe! I am going to try these recipes soon. Thanks again!
Hi Anita, Enjoy your recipes and look forward to trying many. Can you tell me what type of chilies you reference in this recipe as well as some others? Thank you!
Hi Michael, I use dried Thai red bird eye chilies because that's what available in my Asian markets here :) But you can also use Chinese dried chilies as well. You can also use fresh chilies if you want. In that case, you can use fresh red Thai bird eye chilies (I guess green is also okay, but I prefer red for aesthetic reason). Or, when you want less heat, try using fresh red fresno chilies.
So flavorful! The photos are really helpful :)
This looks like a dish that my whole family will love. Cannot wait to make it. Thank you!
I have never had this but I am making it right away. The flavors sound amazing!
I've never had this type of fried chicken before, but man does it look delicious! I can't wait to make it for dinner this week!
I am really excited about this recipe! It's been a while that we've had Chinese take-out and have been craving it! This looks delicious!
Your step by step directions and pictures will make my first time making Ayam Goreng Lada garam super easy.
I love this fried chicken recipe! I often cook following your recipes. I am afraid of losing skills in my national cuisine:) Moreover, my family is falling in love with Asian dishes! :)
Irina, you are making me blush! I'm very happy my recipes suit your family's taste. :)
So flavorful, this was one of the best recipes I've ever tried. Thank you for sharing!!
This is such a yummy and easy dinner. My family absolutely loved it. I will definitely be making this again. Thank you!!
You made this look so delicious and so easy! I've never seen either of these dishes at Chinese restaurants here in the US - so I'll have to make it at home to try it!
This chicken looks delicious! I love that the chicken is separate, and spicy sauce is separate, and you can make it as spicy as you want.
Anita, this is a very delicious dish. I used a deep fryer to fry the chicken, then coated the fried chicken with spicy chili seasoning in a wok. Thank you for the recipe!
Holy smokes, this is delicious. Props to the belacan, which has to be the secret ingredient for making this super savory. Reminds me of ordering salt pepper shrimp- since this is a crunchy, dry-style spicy fried dish. I'll say this is far more potent- which makes it also more addictive! What's even better is how simple it is, and a rather short ingredient list.
I had to hold myself back from scarfing the entire dish- so maybe "Really strong willpower" should be an essential ingredient lol
This recipe looks very delicious. I love chicken so much, so I'm going to try to make this fried chicken with my mom. Thank you for sharing the great recipe.
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