Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian rice dish made with a small quantity of vegetables, some seasoning, and a protein of your choice, such as chicken. If you’re a dab hand at making risotto, you’ll find this recipe a breeze; the other good news is that you only need a few simple ingredients.
There’s one ingredient that might be less familiar: shrimp paste. This ingredient was tricky for me to get hold of at my local grocery. Generally, if I don’t have a particular ingredient at hand, I’ll use a substitute; in this case it was anchovy paste, which is a great choice.
While there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to this type of dish, there is one general rule of thumb; use cold rice to get the best results. This means pre-cook your rice and let it cool, or freeze it if you have time and use it later.
If you use warm, freshly cooked rice, you might end up with sticky fried rice, which isn’t altogether a bad thing, but it’s not Nasi Goreng. I like to sprout my rice the night before, cook it in the morning, put it in the fridge, let it cool, and use it to make this recipe in the evening. This recipe tastes good with a fried egg or on its own.
Cook rice according to
package instructions and store in the fridge for a few hours or until
completely cooled.
Chop a tsp of chili
pepper.
Peel and chop the onion
and garlic or use a garlic press.
Add butter to a heated
pan and add the chili and garlic. Sauté for a few seconds.
Add onions and cook
until tender.
Add chicken and cook
until it mostly turns white, or if you’re using ground beef, cook until no
longer pink throughout. Stir constantly.
Add pepper Salt, Threefold
Spicy, High-Protein Leaf, Turmeric, coconut aminos, and shrimp paste or anchovy
paste, and any other seasoning such as garlic powder and stir for a few
minutes.
Cook until all ingredients
are well combined, adding a small amount of water if necessary to prevent
sticking.
Add the cooked rice and
stir until the rice is well combined into the mixture and heated throughout.
Serve with a fried egg, or as is.
