The Ultimate Lemper Ayam Recipe

Lemper Ayam is a traditional Indonesian savoury snack that I favoured as a little girl because my mom would frequently buy these from the wet market in the morning. This snack can be described as steamed sticky rice with spiced chicken floss filling. The spiced chicken floss filling is sandwiched inside the steamed sticky rice, and shaped into a rectangular block, then wrapped with banana leaf.

I don’t know what the origin of this tidbit is, but its portability makes it a convenient on-the-go snack that is simultaneously delicious and filling. I can see how as a child, this snack was easy for me to enjoy because sticky rice is chewy and soft while the spiced chicken floss is fragrant and tasty. This snack is also child-friendly because it is not spicy at all, in fact it’s slightly sweet.

Lemper is pronounced with the ‘e’ sounding like proper – in both instances. And ayam is the Indonesian word for chicken. Because Indonesia is such a huge country with numerous ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups, there are variations of Lemper Ayam that people consume but the style I am making in this recipe is the version I know well and have tasted many times.

I have successfully replicated the flavours, even though I do not wrap the Lemper Ayam individually with banana leaf as its presentation. Beyond its function as a packaging material, I find that the banana leaf imparts a pleasant aroma to the overall snack so I use it to line the steamer in which I steam the sticky rice. Nonetheless, I have made it optional in the recipe.

There are three parts to the Lemper Ayam recipe:

Sticky Rice
Lemper Spice Paste
Chicken Floss.

To start, soak the glutinous rice overnight. Whenever I want to cook something using glutinous rice, I always soak the rice on the night before before I go to bed. The long soaking gives the rice more flavor and a softer texture. I have steamed glutinous rice using a rice cooker (it has a steam option), a pot with steamer basket, and a pan/wok; all have produced glutinous rice that’s soft and chewy.

Tip: I don’t throw away the rice water that’s used to soak the glutinous rice. Instead I set it aside and store it in the fridge for other uses. I like to make soup with it, but you can also use it to water plants, polish your glass/mirrors, wash your face, and even make a homemade formula for hair growth!

Now for the spice paste, I went with the traditional way of making that for this recipe, which is using mortar and pestle. Normally I’d have used a food processor but because this Lemper Ayam recipe calls for candlenuts, I decided I’d have a better time crushing and smashing them inside a mortar rather than subject the blades of my food processor to them.

Fortunately the pounding didn’t take too long – maybe 10 to 15 minutes? – because most of the ingredients in the spice paste are soft-ish and the natural juices helped to turn solid pieces into a paste quickly.

Indonesian Lemper Ayam Spice Paste Recipe

Since the spice paste will be incorporated with the chicken floss, as long as there are no more large chunks of ingredients in the paste that’ll be uncomfortable to bite into, you can stop the pounding (or blitzing, if using a food processor). In other words, the spice paste doesn’t need to be ultra fine and smooth.

To be honest, my least favourite part of the recipe is flossing the chicken. As the term “chicken floss” indicates, cooked chicken breast needs to be shredded until it resembles what floss should look like. I highly recommend using a grater (I used a microplane grater, a valuable tool in any kitchen) to make this process easier, but watch out for your fingertips!

There are multiple things going on at once in the recipe, so do read it from beginning to end and prepare a mental blueprint of steps first. Even though it may look overwhelming at first, IMO this is the ultimate Lemper Ayam recipe to try. The result will not disappoint you. Please try and let me know what you think of the flavors.

Lemper Ayam

Indonesian Sticky Rice with Spiced Chicken Floss

Ingredients

Sticky Rice
300 g White Glutinous Rice, soaked in water overnight
225 ml Coconut Milk
6 Kaffir Lime Leaves
4 Bay Leaves
2 Pandan Leaves, knotted
1/2 tsp Salt
Banana Leaf, optional

Lemper Spice Paste
5 pieces Shallots, peeled and sliced
3 cloves Garlic, peeled and sliced
1 inch Galanga, peeled and sliced
3 Candlenuts
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder
2 Tbs Oil

Chicken Floss
300 g Chicken Breast, boiled then shredded
6 Kaffir Lime Leaves
2 Bay Leaves
1 stalk Lemongrass, slightly bruised using back of knife
1 Tbs Tamarind + 3 Tbs Hot Water, seeds and pulp removed to yield juice
125 ml Coconut Milk
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp White Pepper
3 Tbs Sugar

Method

1. Steam glutinous rice for 20 minutes. If using, line steamer with banana leaf for aroma.
2. While glutinous rice is steaming, gently boil coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, bay leaves, pandan leaves, and salt in a pot.
3. Add the steamed glutinous rice into the pot and stir over low heat until all the liquid has been absorbed by the rice.
4. Return rice to the steamer and steam for another 20 minutes until the rice is fully cooked. Discard all the leaves and keep warm.
5. Using a food processor or a mortar + pestle, add all Lemper Paste ingredients and blitz or pound into a fine paste.
6. In a wok, stir-fry Lemper Paste until fragrant. Add coconut milk, tamarind juice, kaffir lime leaves, bay leaves, lemongrass and bring to a simmer.
7. Add chicken breast that has been cooked and shredded to the spice paste mixture. Stir until all the liquid has been absorbed, then season with salt, sugar, white pepper. The chicken floss should be dry and not mushy. Discard leaves.
8. Using a square container or a deep baking pan, assemble by layering glutinous rice, spiced chicken floss, and glutinous rice again – making sure to press down firmly in between layers to create a compact and dense “sandwich”. The coconut milk gives the glutinous rice an oily slip but it is recommended to grease the bottom and sides of the square container/baking pan with a thin coat of cooking oil first for easier, non-sticky removal. If using, line bottom of square container/baking pan with banana leaf for aroma.
9. Wipe on a thin layer of cooking oil to the blade of a knife and cut assembled Lemper Ayam into 2″x2″ squares. Serve immediately.
10. To store leftovers: line a baking sheet with parchment paper or plastic wrap, place Lemper Ayam pieces on it (sides should not be touching) and freeze for 1 hour. Remove individual pieces and store in a freezer bag. To reheat: take out individual pieces and steam until soft.

My personal hack for assembly is using a Oshizushi (pressed sushi) rectangular mold from Daiso. I don’t know if Daiso still sells it because I got it about 4 years ago. The dimensions are approximately 21 cm long x 6 cm wide and I managed to yield 3 rectangular bars from the recipe above. Then I cut each bar into 6 smaller rectangles, I think bite-size blocks are more enjoyable.

The thought of making rice balls occurred to me, so next time maybe I’ll attempt to make these into golf-ball sized circular pops with the spiced chicken floss filling inside.

The last time I had Lemper Ayam was when my mom brought some during one of her visits. They are usually about the size of a bar of soap, maybe even a bit bigger than that, so at most I can eat just one and then call it a day.

The thing with anything made with glutinous rice is that it’s best to consume warm or at room temperature and as soon as possible, because once you store glutinous rice in the fridge it hardens, it dries up, and it can only be reheated by steaming. Can’t use microwave (please correct me if I’m wrong?) or toaster oven. I managed to freeze a batch of these homemade Lemper Ayam though, and when I reheated some pieces via steaming, the quality hasn’t deteriorated too badly.