Bubur Ayam - Chicken Rice Porridge

Bubur Ayam or Chicken Rice Porridge is a breakfast style of people who live in western part of Java island in Indonesia. I used to consume this once I moved to Bogor.

To get the sense of street food hawkers in Indonesia, I purposely looked for the specific bowl. A bowl with cock's pattern which is widely used for the food hawkers to serve bakso (meatballs soup), bubur (rice porridge) and mie ayam (a noodle dish with savoury ground chicken. I was so happy to see this bowl for purchased at one of Asian grocers in Winnipeg.

I care less about chicken innards sate that is complement for bubur ayam, so my choice was yellow chicken sate as the substitute here. The recipe was adapted from Bubur Ayam Sukabumi - Sukabumi Style Chicken Rice Porridge. Somehow, I played around and not really followed the directions.

Bubur Ayam
-Chicken Rice Porridge-
modified by me

Ingredients:
Rice Porridge
200 g rice
1 L water
2 L homemade chicken stock (I used leftover chicken carcass and veggies to make stock)
1 pandan leaf
2 Indonesian bay leaves

Yellow Chicken Sate:
300 g chicken chunks
skewers

Grind rempah (spices) into a paste:
5 shallots
3 cloves garlic
2 cm length turmeric, roasted and peeled
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tbsp ground coriander seed
3 candlenuts
ground white pepper and salt as desired

Complements:
sambal
emping nut crackers.
tapioca crackers
cakwe (Chinese long donut), sliced => for people who live in western Canada, it can be found at Superstore (bulk bakery section). Also, sold frozen at Asian grocers.
fried soybeans
fried shallots
Chinese celery leaves, chopped
green onions, sliced


Directions:
Rice Porridge
1. Wash and drain the rice. In a pot, mix water and rice. Bring to a boil and cook until soft.
2. Add chicken stock and the leaves. Reduce the heat and continue simmering until porridge is ready. No separation between liquid and rice is the sign that porridge ready. Add salt and ground white pepper to taste and mix.

Yellow Chicken Sate
1. Stir fry rempah until fragrant. Add a small amount of water and chicken chunks. Cook until the liquid evaporates.
2. Thread the wooden skewers onto chicken chunks. Grilled until done.


How to fry soybeans to perfection: (courtesy of Mariena of Resto Mariena)
Soak soybeans in hot boiled water. When the water's temperature is low or colder, drain soybeans. Place on paper surface to speed up the drying process. Fry until golden brown. Drain and store in an air tight container.

Plating the bubur ayam:
Place bubur (rice porridge) in a bowl. Sprinkle fried soybeans and shallots, green onions, chopped celery leaves, tapioca and emping nut crackers. Put sambal on the spoon.