Mie Ayam

Bakmi Ayam is a popular Chinese-Indonesian dish of yellow wheat noodle (bakmi) topped with diced chicken meat (ayam), seasoned with soy sauce, and usually served with a chicken broth soup. The name is shortened to mie ayam or mi ayam.

The bakmi is boiled in water until it achieves an al dente texture and mixed in a bowl with cooking oil, soy sauce and garlic. The oil (either chicken fat, lard or vegetable oil) coats the noodle in order to separate the threads. The chicken meat is diced and cooked in soy sauce and other seasonings including garlic. The chicken meat might also be cooked with mushrooms.

The seasoned chicken and mushroom mixture is placed on the noodles, and topped with chopped spring onions (green shallots). Bakmi ayam is usually served with a separate chicken broth, boiled Chinese cabbage, and often wonton (pangsit) either crispy fried or in soup, and also meatballs (bakso). While Chinese variants might use pork fat or lard, the more common Indonesian mie ayam uses halal chicken fat or vegetable oil to cater to Muslim eaters.

Additional condiments might include salted preserved vegetables (tong cay), fried shallots (bawang goreng), pickled cucumber and birds eye chilli (acar timun cabe rawit), sambal and tomato ketchup.

How to Make Mie Ayam

Ingredients:
300 g dried egg noodle
100 ml salty soy sauce
300 g chicken breast, cubed and
2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 stalk of spring onions, thinly sliced
200 g Chinese mustard, cut and washed
150 g bean-sprout, washed
2 tablespoon fried shallot
4 garlic clove, peeled
4 shallot, peeled
1 teaspoon coriander
3 cm turmeric, peeled
3 cm ginger, peeled
4 candle nut

Ingredients for the chicken broth:
2000 ml water
½ kg chicken bones
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground white pepper

Ingredients for the chicken oil:
250 ml vegetable oil
100 g chicken skin
4 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 cm ginger, peeled and crushed
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
½ teaspoon ground coriander

Instructions:
1. To make the chicken oil, heat the vegetable oil in a pan and fry the chicken skin until crispy. Add the garlic, ginger, white pepper and coriander. Lower the heat and fry for another 15 minutes. Take out the chicken skin, garlic and ginger. The oil is ready to be used.
2. Boil the water in a pan. When it is boiling add the chicken bones. Lower the heat and let simmer until the nice aroma comes out. Add the ground white pepper and salt.
3. Blend garlic, shallot, coriander, turmeric, ginger and candle nut in a food processor.
4. Fry the spice paste in a frying pan for 2 minutes. Add the cubed chicken breast and fry until the chicken is cooked.
5. Pour 2 tablespoon of chicken oil to each bowl.
6. Boil the noodle with the Chinese mustard and bean-sprouts until just tender.
7. Put the noodle, bean-sprouts, and the Chinese mustard in the bowl and add 2-3 tablespoon of chicken.
8. Sprinkle with the sliced spring onion and fried shallot. Pour 1-2 ladle soup of the chicken broth.
9. Serve immediately.