Manadonese Style Grilled Chicken ( Ayam Rica-rica )

This speciality comes from Manado, North Sulawesi. Rica means chilli in local language. This region is well-known as their delicious spicy food. So it's not unusual for them to cook the meal with lot of chillies. Like this one.Really Yummy

Category: Poultry (Chicken)

Difficulty: Medium

Preparing time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken or 1 kg chicken, cut into 4 or 6 small pieces
- 1-2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 small fresh tomatoes, cut into small pieces
- 2 fresh kaffir lime leaves
- 1 stalk of lemongrass (sereh/serai), take the white part only
- 2 stalks of Basil Leaves (Lemon, Thai or European basil)
- Salt and sugar to taste


Spice Paste
- 10 red chillies
- 5 bird's eyes chillies
- 5 shallots or 1 small red onion
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 3 teaspoons grated ginger

Directions
1. Marinate the chicken with salt and lime juice and leave them for 30 minutes.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons vegetables oil in a wok over medium heat and sauté the spice paste until fragrant then add the tomatoes, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, salt , sugar and around 200 water. Add the chicken and cook half-done. Take the chicken from the sauce. Then add basil to the sauce and cook until the sauce is absorbed. Set aside.
3. Grill the chicken on a barbeque grill or in an oven over moderate heat until done. When it's done serve with the rest of sauce.
4. Serving suggestion: can be eaten with plain rice (nasi putih), cooked vegetables with grated coconut (urap-urap sayur), crispy rice flour cracker (rempeyek)