Yati’s Ramadan Recipes (Part 3): Sambal Simple with Chicken - August 2025

By now, anyone who has been following Yati’s recipes will know she loves hot and spicy styles such as Sambal, Asam Pedas, Gulai and all those dishes that set you on fire. Her Telur Mayong Asam Pedas was featured recently but the base of Asam Pedas can be used on fish and other seafood with a few minor adjustments to the base ingredients. Oh Sambal! A traditional manner of grinding the chilies, shallots and so on to make sambal is by using a stone mortar and a pestle. (Image Credit) Sakurai Midori. As for Sambal, what is it actually? According to Wikipedia: “Sambal is a chili sauce or paste typically made from a mixture of a variety of chili peppers with secondary ingredients such as shrimp paste, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, and lime juice. Sambal is an Indonesian loan-word of Javanese origin.” So now we know! Sambal originates from Indonesia and apparently there are as many as 300 varieties of sambal prepared in a range of different ways in the Indonesian archipelago. But as they always say, something that tastes and smells so good can never be kept a secret, and it is for this reason the recipe for the fiery paste with the powerful aroma has travelled places, such as to Malaysia. Our own version, adapted to suit the national palate, includes the famous Sambal Belacan (a must-have side dish or hot dip for any meal) and many others such as Sambal Jeruk, Sambal Petai, Sambal Kicap, Sambal Goreng, Sambal Manis, Sambal Kacang (for satay) and of course, Sambal Tempoyak ─ a super potent and extra pungent preparation made from fresh chilis, dried anchovies and fermented durian (tempoyak). (From left) Sambal Tempoyak can be eaten both ways ─ raw and cooked. (Image Credit) Syukri Abd Rahman. The best sambal, as people say, always tastes better when the ingredients are pounded by hand using traditional tools such as the mortar and pestle. However, sambal in its many varieties can be store-bought today, along with prepackaged base ingredients such as ground chili or cili giling as called for in Norhayati Abd Aziz or Yati Aziz’s Sambal Simple. She calls her dish “simple” because it is easy whip up and can be cooked in a jiffy. Perfect for those who are busy. Yati’s Sambal Ayam Simple Ayam Sambal Simple can be prepared for Buka Puasa or eaten as Sahur. Ingredients Chicken Breast: 2 pieces (cut into small pieces) Curry Spice or Kunyit Salt Large Red Onions: 3 Belacan Melaka: 1.5cm piece Limau Purut or Kaffir Lime Leaves: 2 pieces Cili Giling (Ground Chili): 2 tablespoons Asam Keping or Dried Asam: 1 piece Brown Sugar: 1 teaspoon Cooking Oil (From Left) Asam Keping (Image Credit) Padian Foods, and Limau Purut (Image Credit) Gernot Katzers. Method A Heat Wok and Oil Mix or marinate Chicken pieces with Curry Spice or Kunyit and Salt Fry Remove from wok B Dry blend or pound the onions together with the belacan In a heated wok with a little oil, stir fry the belacan blend with the Kaffir lime leaves Add in the ground chili but don’t put in full tablespoons or the dish may turn out too hot Lower the heat to medium Stir fry and add in the Asam piece and salt until the sambal is properly fried Add in the sugar Then add in the fried chicken pieces Lower the fire and continue stir frying and tossing the chicken until coated, aromatic and done Serve hot What else is in Yati’s Garden? The interesting thing about Yati is that her talent lies not just in cooking but also in nurturing. What does she nurture? Well, her children and her husband of course, her international champion line of pedigree British Shorthairs (a breed of blue cats) as you will see in her first recipe feature here on Aloe Vera Desserts, and her wonderful lush garden from where a lot of what she cooks for her family comes from. (The Aloe Vera came from her garden). Yati has an obvious green thumb! Motherhood has been taking a look around her garden and featuring some of the vegetables she grows and uses in her cooking. Here are a few more fruits and vegetables in her garden that she often harvests to cook or eat straight off as Ulam. Sweet basil grows profusely in Yati’s garden. Great for Italian food or any other food that requires the piquant flavour of basil. The Ayam Sambal Simple, for instance, has been garnished with sweet basil. Butterfly Pea flowers or Bunga Telang grows in Yati’s garden. Bunga Telang is often used as a natural blue food dye in Nonya cooking, most noticably in Kuih or dyeing glutinous rice, nasi kerabu and so on. It can also be drunk as tea and is said to be a memory enhancer. Everybody knows this one ─ it’s Kobis or cabbage. Yati actually has a cabbage patch and here you can see her cabbages in their various stages of growth. She also has Passion fruits or Markisa and as you can see, the trees are fruiting profusely.

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