Grilled chicken filét with andaliman

Horas Dongan!

or in translation Hello and bless you my friends! How did you like yesterday’s recipe? I hope it wasn’t too hard to follow. Today, I will give you a rather simple recipe. I guarantee your whole family will love this. My son Óliver is not the kind of boy who would eat so much meat or chicken. But when I made this, he was eating like he hasn’t eaten anything for several weeks. Luckily I made enough for my family 🙂

Andaliman or also known as Rempah Tuba is the most popular spice in Batak Tribe. There is sentence that says ”Don’t claim yourself as a Batak if you don’t know what andaliman is”. You will find andaliman in almost every authentic Batak food; Ikan arsik, saksang, sambal tuktuk etc. Batak are just so crazy about andaliman. So I was thinking(seriously thinking); giving  the fact that Batak ancestors were cannibals, where cannibalism itself was just a part of the culture to show how strong the power of the law was to those who break the law. They did not just jump and chew anyone that are passing by or if cannibalism was their way to survive the hunger. Anyway, I asked my mother if they probably sprinkled some andaliman over their ”prey” right before ha ha ha.. I deserved that little smack ha ha ha..

Because andaliman is a bit hard to find, Some would recommend you to use Sichuan pepper instead. But trust me, it won’t taste the same. You won’t be getting that special tingling, citrusy taste, and that lovely smell!!

Before, I always thought that andaliman must be mixed with chili and other strong spices/herbs. It should be spicy! But nah! Lately, I’ve done a lot of experiment with this spice and I could say that everything tasted so great even without chili in it. With this spice you are actually taking the food to the higher level. Like today’s recipe, that simple chicken filet turned into something very luxurious. The spices I used are just simple ones, but adding andaliman to it…Oh my!!!!… So, get the tissue ready as you will be drooling to try this recipe.

Grilled chicken filét

serves 4

Ingredients:

800gr of chicken filét (pad dry with kitchen towel)1 tb anda liman pepper (grind)

4 shallots2 garlic

sea salt

and a drizzle of olive oil

How to:

 Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Ground shallots and garlic and mix them with olive oil. brush the mixture to the chicken(I also brushed the under part). Sprinkle some sea salt and top everything with ground andaliman. Place the chicken on an oven tray, cover with aluminum foil and grill for approximately 25-30 minutes(this is so your chicken will remain juicy). Take the tin foil off and increase the heat to 200 Celsius so you will be getting slightly crispy surface. Grilling process will take approximately 35-40minutes(depends on thickness of your filét and your oven too)

If you’d like, drizzle some lime/lemon juice before eating.

Selamat Makan!