Ayam Rica-Rica

Manado's chicken in a pounded paste of red chillies, shallot, ginger, and lemongrass, cooked down until the oil splits out and finished with lemon basil

Origin: Manado & the Minahasa Peninsula, North Sulawesi

From the journey of Chilli Pepper.

Rica is the Manado word for chilli, and it is also the Manado word for hot. Doubled, rica-rica names not a single dish but a treatment: anything cooked in a fried paste of chillies, shallot, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and lime leaves is rica-rica, whether it is chicken, fish, prawns, or, in the city's more notorious warungs, meat that visitors are advised to ask about first. The chicken version travelled furthest and is on menus across Indonesia. Minahasan cooking is the hottest in the archipelago by a distance, and it has three pillars, all built on the chilli. Rica-rica is the fried paste; woku is the fragrant version of it, loaded with lemongrass, turmeric, pandan, and lemon basil and either simmered in a pot or wrapped in leaves; and dabu-dabu is the raw salsa of chopped chilli, tomato, shallot, and lime juice set beside grilled fish. A Manado table generally has at least two of the three on it. The chilli reached this corner of Sulawesi early, because the Portuguese were at Ternate, a day's sail away, from 1512, and because the Maluku spice trade drew ships of every flag past the Minahasa coast for the next two centuries. A cuisine that had built itself on ginger, lemongrass, and the peppery local forest fruits took up the American plant and pushed it further than its neighbours did.

Ingredients

Chicken

  • 1.2 kg chicken, jointed into small pieces on the bone
  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • 1.5 tsp salt

Paste

  • 15 large red chillies, seeded if you wish
  • 15 red bird's eye chillies
  • 10 shallots, peeled
  • 6 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 4 cm fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

To Cook

  • 4 tbsp coconut or groundnut oil
  • 3 lemongrass stalks, bruised and knotted
  • 6 kaffir lime leaves, torn
  • 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
  • 300 ml water
  • 1 tsp salt

To Finish

  • 2 handfuls lemon basil leaves (kemangi)
  • 1 tbsp lime juice

Method

  1. Rub the chicken with the lime juice and salt and leave it for 20 minutes.
  2. Grind the red chillies, bird's eyes, shallots, garlic, and ginger to a coarse paste in a mortar or a blender, using as little water as you can.
  3. Heat the oil in a wide pan and fry the paste with the lemongrass and lime leaves over a medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes, until it darkens and the oil separates out at the edges.
  4. Add the chicken and turn it in the paste until every piece is coated and has lost its raw colour, about five minutes.
  5. Add the tomatoes, water, and salt, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes, turning the pieces once.
  6. Uncover and raise the heat until the sauce has reduced to a thick coating and the oil has come back out.
  7. Take off the heat, stir through the lemon basil and the lime juice, and serve with hot rice and a bowl of dabu-dabu.

Notes

Thirty chillies is the Manado quantity and is not a misprint. Seeding the large red ones keeps the colour and cuts the heat by roughly half. Lemon basil is sold as kemangi in Indonesian shops; Thai sweet basil is the nearest substitute and is not quite the same scent.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.