Ayam betutu (Balinese spiced chicken)

"Ayam betutu is one of our must-have dishes during family ceremonies...My mum makes this dish for our family and, until now, it has been a well-guarded secret recipe from my grandma. This dish comes from Kedewatan, Ubud, and we love it. We hope you will too." I Gusti Ayu Wahyuni Mustika

Ayam betutu is a famous Balinese dish.

• serves

  4

• prep

  12 minutes

• cook

  1 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
• 250 g cassava leaves
• 3 lime leaves, fresh and thinly slices
• 3 salam leaves, fresh and thinly sliced
• Banana leaves
• Coconut oil 

Bumbu

• 7 large red chillies
• 10 g red shallots
• 4 g garlic
• 5 g candlenut
• 1 tsp shrimp paste
• 30 g ginger
• 20 g kencur
• 20 g galangal
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp coriander seed
• ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp tamarind water
• 10 g lemongrass (use the white part only)
• 2 tsp white sugar
• Salt

Instructions

1. Boil the cassava leaves until tender.

2. The time needed to cook these leaves depends on the age of the leaves - young leaves are best and cook quickly.

3. Butterfly the chicken by cutting through its backbone, then wash and dry it with a paper napkin.

4. Blend all the spices with a little coconut oil.

5. Cook in a heavy wok or pot until the mix becomes aromatic and the oil separates. This will take about 60 minutes.

6. Once ready, divide into two - half of the spice paste is for the chicken seasoning and the other half for seasoning the cassava leaves.

7. Rub the spice paste all over the chicken and mix the other half of the spice paste with the cassava leaves.

8. Lay the chicken out flat and put the cassava leaves on top, roll the bird up so it looks like a whole chicken again.

9. Top the chicken with lime leaves and salam leaves.

10.Wrap the chicken with banana leaves then wrap again with aluminium foil.

11. Put the chicken overnight in the refrigerator to allow the spices to fuse into the whole chicken.

12. The next day, bake the chicken at 200ºC for about one hour. Rest then remove the foil. 

13. Serve wrapped in the banana leaves to unwrap at the table.

This recipe is from Our Bali, Your Bali cookbook.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.