Bakso Ayam

Bakso is definitely one of Indonesian most favorite food. Popular meatballs include bakso ayam (chicken meatballs), bakso sapi (beef meatballs), and bakso ikan (fish meatballs). The method of making meatballs are more or less the same, so I will just share how to make bakso ayam (chicken meatballs) and hopefully you can experiment with other meat of your choice.

What you need to make homemade bakso ayam

There isn’t a whole lot of ingredients needed when you want to make your own homemade bakso ayam. These are what I usually use in my bakso:

• chicken breast meat, I ground it myself in my food processor, but you can buy ground chicken too
• garlic, grated
• salt
• sugar
• baking powder
• tapioca starch or corn starch
• oil
• plenty of ice-cold water, best if you can use just melted ice cubes

Preparing ground chicken mixture for bakso ayam

It is very simple to prepare the ground chicken mixture for bakso ayam. The first secret to getting juicy and bouncy meatballs is the use of ice-cold water when mixing the ground chicken. Here’s what I do:

1. Place ground chicken in a large mixing bowl, slowly add 5 tablespoons of ice-cold water, one tablespoon at a time, stirring until fully incorporated with each addition.
2. In another bowl, whisk together grated garlic, salt, sugar, baking powder, tapioca starch (or corn starch), oil, and another 4 tablespoons of ice-cold water. Slowly pour this solution to the ground chicken, stir until fully incorporated.
3. Wrap the bowl with a saran plastic, and chill the chicken mixture in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Now you have your ground chicken mixture that is ready to be turned into bakso ayam.

Boil ground chicken mixture to make bakso ayam

The second secret to creating juicy and bouncy bakso is cooking the meatballs in a pot of just barely simmering hot water. Here are the steps:

1. Boil water in a large pot.
2. Fill a large mixing bowl with ice-cold water and plenty of ice cubes. Make sure you have plenty of additional ice cubes to add to the mixing bowl as needed.
3. Once the water boils, reduce the heat until water is just barely simmering. Drop tablespoonfuls of ground chicken mixture into the pot of hot water. Wait until meatballs float to the surface, then wait for another 30 seconds and then scoop out from hot water and plunge into the prepared mixing bowl filled with ice-cold water and ice cubes.
   TIPS: You may want to keep adding ice cubes as more and more cooked meatballs are added into the bowl to keep the temperature as cold as possible.

At this stage, our bakso ayam is fully cooked. You can enjoy them as is if you want, but my favorite way to enjoy my homemade bakso is to make sup bakso ayam (chicken meatballs soup).

Freezing bakso for longer storage

If you don’t plan to eat/use the bakso ayam straightaway, you can freeze them and use them later. I usually simply arrange the cooked bakso in a baking sheet and freeze until solid, then transfer the frozen meatballs into a freezer-safe ziplock bag.

Other than soup, I also love adding my own homemade bakso when I cook some ramen or other instant noodles. I simply add the frozen meatballs directly into my ramen/instant noodle soup and cook until they become soft again.