Mie Ayam Swikiau - Noodles with Chicken and Sui Kow

Mie ayam (a noodle dish with savoury diced/ground chicken) is a very popular Chinese-Indonesian cuisine in Indonesia. You would find a mie ayam stall in almost every corner of Jakarta (and I believe also in a lot of other cities in Indonesia). Mie ayam is a comfort food for a lot of Indonesians. Spending my childhood in Jakarta, I have had a love affair with this dish since I was just a toddler. It's my absolute absolute favourite food, even until now.

Mie ayam is very versatile, that's why every mie ayam stall would likely have its own version of toppings for the noodles. The most basic topping is diced chicken seasoned with savoury sauce. Some other addition of toppings could include something like savoury button mushrooms, slices of BBQ pork, richly seasoned ground pork, boiled/fried pangsit (wonton), swikiaw (Sui Kow - prawn+pork+water chesnut dumplings), beef/fish balls or soy sauce coated egg. The list would actually go on following the creativity of the mie ayam maker.

I've heard again and again that the most crucial key to make tasty mie ayam is the oil used to zest and aromatise the boiled noodles, and also of course the texture of the noodles itself. I nevertheless assume that everybody has his or her own opinion about good noodle texture. Some like it very curly and chewy, some like it thin and smooth and some like it thick and broad. Whatever kind of shape or texture people like their noodles, I believe very good mie ayam have to use mie basah (fresh egg/wheat noodles) - which I unfortuntely can hardly get here, and even if I could, the quality is often quite disappointing. That's why for my mie ayam today, I resolved to go on and use dried wheat noodles instead, which still don't taste as good as real fresh noodles but fortunately almost as good.

Ingredients (for 1 portion)

Noodles

• 110 gr dried wheat/egg noodles (boil according to package instructions)
  
• 1 tbs pork oil or chicken oil *
• 1 tbs fish sauce
• 1 tbs oyster sauce
• 1/4 tbs sweet soy sauce
• Pepper

Savoury ground chicken

• 100 gr ground chicken/pork
• 1 tbs pork oil or chicken oil *
• 1 tbs cooking wine
  
• 1 tbs oyster sauce
• 1 tbs fish sauce
• 1 tbs sweet soy sauce
• Chopped spring onions
• Pepper

Soy sauced chicken slices

• 50 gr chicken breast
• 1/2 tbs oil
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs cooking wine
  
• 1/2 tbs sugar

Swikiaw

• Use the guo tie recipe, but use ready made dumpling wrappers. Omit the ginger, add 100 gr diced prawns and 50 gr chopped water chestnuts (or more if you like it very crunchy).

* Chicken Oil

• Heat 3 tbs oil, add some chicken skin and 1 tbs minced garlic. Stir under medium heat until the garlic is golden brown and submerged to the bottom of the saucepan. Remove the chicken skin.
  

* Pork Oil

• Heat some pork fat until oil comes out from the lard. (Optional: you can also add a bit of minced garlic).
  

Toppings for mie ayam: boiled swikiaw, savoury ground chicken, soy sauced chicken slices, boiled bok choy.

What to do:

• Boil the dried noodles. Remove when cooked and put in a bowl. Add the pork oil/chicken oil, fish sauce, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce and pepper. Mix well.
• Add savoury ground chicken, soy sauced chicken slices, boiled swikiaw and boiled bok choy on top of the noodles. Serve with chilli of your choice and chicken broth (can be made by boiling chicken bones/ chicken thighs + salt and pepper).
• Garnish with spring onions and fried onions.