Soulful Spicy Honey Chicken

Soulful Spicy Honey Chicken (Ayam Masak Merah Madu)

Ingredients :

1/2 chicken (you can choose to use only drumsticks or thigh about 6 pcs)
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp corn flour
pinch of salt to taste
2 cups oil for frying the chicken
4 tbsp oil for the gravy
1 to 1 1/2 cup of tomato paste
3 to 4 tbsp ground red chili paste ( from dried chilies or you can get the ready mixed chili paste from the supermarket )
honey to taste (2 to 4 tbsp depending on what type of honey you use)
2 cloves
1 cinnamon bark or 2 tbsp cinnamon powder
1 star anise
2 cardamon pod
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground garlic
2 tsp ground shallots
1 sliced onion

Note: you can always do "damage control" if the taste is not something that you expected just adjust the taste according to your taste.

Method :

1) Marinate the chicken pieces with turmeric, corn flour and salt, set aside about 20min to an hour.
2) Deep fry or pan fry (deep fry is the original way of cooking this dish) the marinated chicken pieces until the skin is slightly crispy, set aside.
3) Heat the wok/ pan / skillet and in oil and stir in the cardamon, clove, star anise, cinnamon bark / cinnamon powder until fragrant, add the ground ginger, shallots, garlic and onion in, continue stir-frying until fragrant and onion is soften.
4) Add in tomato paste, honey, ground chili paste, and simmer until the gravy is thickened and boiling, toss in the fried chicken pieces.
5) Dish up and serve with Nasi Lemak (Fragrant coconut milk rice) or white rice.

In Malaysia usually this dish is serve with Nasi Lemak at the food stalls.