Smoor (Indonesian Chicken and Rice)

BatiksWindmillsAndTurbans's Note:

My grandmother (see profile) was born in Indonesia and we grew up on recipes that we thought noone else in America ate at their dinner table. Well, now you can eat this dish which I have transliterated as "Smoor." I have no idea what it means, but I eat it! For some reason my grandmother always served it with bread and butter pickles. As kids we poured a little pickle juice on top of the "smoor", but this is probably just a family quirk. We also eat this with "kroepoek" (fried pulverized prawn chips).

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 whole chicken , cut up
• 2 large onions , chopped fine (yellow or sweet)
• ¼ cup ketjap manis (Indonesian soy sauce)
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 1 pinch clove (or 1 whole clove)
• 1 pinch tamarind pulp (about 1/2 inch)
• 2 -3 dashes tomato ketchup
• 1 teaspoon sambal oelek (chili paste) (optional)
• 2 cups jasmine rice

Directions:

1. (NOTE: I have successfully tried this recipe in a crockpot. Simply throw it all in (including raw onions), mix, and cook on high 4 hours. You do not need to add water, but you can add up to 1/2 cup of you want a lot of juice.).
2. Fry onions in a little oil on high until light brown. Add chicken pieces. Mix. Add enough water to cover chicken. Add all other ingredients and mix. Simmer about 45 minutes on medium heat.
3. In the meantime, rinse 2 cups of jasmine rice and cook in the rice cooker.
4. Serve the chicken pieces on a bed of rice. You can add additional sambal if you like it hotter.

Reviews

[Carmen NZ]

I used drumsticks rather than a whole chicken and left out nutmeg. Pretty tasty.

[Sue Lau]

WOW! First off, let me say that this is a very unpretentious looking dish, and that being said, looks can be deceiving! From my first bite there was some warm familiarity, as if I had eaten this as a child, and loved it. Now I can't be sure if I had anything similar, but if I had, I KNOW I would have loved it. Usually, dishes with this amount of soy sauce turn out syrupy from added sugar, and it was a plus that yours didn't have any. Very mild in flavor, young and old adored this, with no one flavor being the dominate one outside of the chicken. What sauce was there gave the chicken and the rice bed a delicate sweetness that rivaled any comfort food. I may not have an Indonesian grandmother to pamper me with this dish, but at least I "feel" that I do, and that is the fabulous nature of sharing foods from other cultures. Thank you. And thank your grandmother. Tell her this was a hit in every way!!!