Easy Chicken Dishes : Malaysian Buttermilk Chicken

Welcome to day 1 of 5 Easy Chicken Recipes

The Malaysian Butttermilk Chicken is unlike what you may think, Indian Butter Chicken, or Buttermilk Fried chicken. This is quintessentially, a chicken dish popular in Malaysia and Singapore. The crispy fried chicken and a silky creamy butter sauce with a hint of spicy that makes this dish. You may think you need buttermilk for this BUT, there is NO buttermilk in the recipe.

This Buttermilk Chicken goes perfectly well with rice and it is, served as it is usually in restaurants and food kiosks. This dish can also be made using prawns or tofu to make it vegetarian friendly. The recipe consists of two parts. First, to batter and fry the chicken. Second, to make a sauce and toss chicken until it coats evenly.

Ingredients for Buttermilk Chicken

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

The ingredients are quite simple but it may require a quick grocery run to get evaporated milk.

• Evaporated milk makes an important part of this dish. Evaporated milk is a form of concentrated milk and has approximately 60% of water content removed. The difference between this and Condensed milk is that Evaporated milk is unsweetened and Condensed milk contains sugar. The use of evaporated milk in this recipe adds to its creamy texture without adding any sweetness.
• Condensed Milk. Can be replaced with some sugar or honey to give the dish a little sweetness and to thicken up the sauce.
• Chicken. I used chicken breast for this recipe but the chicken thigh can be used instead for a more tender mouth feel. Prawns and firm tofu may be used in this recipe alternatively.
• Curry leaves and Bird’s Eye Chili (chilli padi). Traditionally Malaysian cooking ingredients and are widely available here. If you can’t fid it in your supermarket you can use regular chili as an substitute.
• Butter and garlic. The base of the buttermilk sauce is butter and garlic. It will provide a fragrant, milky taste to the finished dish.
• Rice flour and Corn Flour. Both these flour are use as batter to coat the chicken pieces. Rice and corn flour gives a more crispy texture after frying. If unavailable, plain flour can be used.
• Curry powder, optional. Marinade the chicken with some curry powder to give it a kick of flavour.

HOW TO MAKE MALAYSIAN BUTTERMILK CHICKEN

• Cut chicken to equal pieces. Marinade with curry powder, white pepper and salt. Marinating with curry powder gives it a more flavourful aroma and a yellow-ish tone to the dish
• Prepare batter. Mix equal portion of rice flour and corn flour. This combination creates a crispier batter than just using regular plain flour.
• Add egg to marinated chicken, mix well. Dip chicken into flour until coated evenly on all sides and dust off any excess flour.
• Fry chicken. Heat enough oil in a deep pan and fry chicken in batches, for about 3-4 minutes or until golden brown on all sides. Be sure not to overcrowd the pan as it will not crisp up and turn soggy.
• Dish out the fried chicken pieces and drain on a paper towel.
• Cook sauce. Using a seperate pan on medium high heat, fry butter, chopped garlic and chili padi for 1 minute. Remove curry leaves from stalk and add into pan. Add in salt and pepper.
• Add in evaporated milk and condensed milk and let it come to a simmer for 1 minute.
• Add in fried chicken pieces and toss chicken so it coats evenly with sauce. The sauce will be thick as the dish cools. Add 2 tbsp water if you want to make it saucier.
• Dish out and serve on rice.

Check out other dishes from this series:

• Easy Chicken Curry with Potatoes
• Korean Cheese Buldak (Fire Chicken with Cheese)
• San Bei Ji (3 Cups Chicken)
• Steamed Chicken with Essence of Chicken

Did you try this dish?

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