Spicy Chicken Stir-Fry (Ayam Paprik)
Published Oct 03, 2013
Updated Apr 23, 2024
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Ayam Paprik is a popular Malaysian spicy chicken stir-fry dish. Tender chicken pieces are cooked on high heat with a blend of spice paste, vegetables such as onion, green bean, carrot, and bell peppers. It's best served with steamed white rice.
My college years in Kuala Lumpur (commonly known as “KL”), right after my high school and A-levels in Penang were one of the best times of my life.
It was during those years in KL that I met Mr. Rasa Malaysia, and formed precious and lasting friendships with some of my best friends.
Lots of beautiful memories, laughter, admirers (yep, I had lots of admirers in the college back then), and scrumptious foods.
At least once a week, after the tedious and boring lectures at the college, Mr. Rasa Malaysia and our best friends would descend to the Malay warung (Malay food stall) right outside of our college.
We would always order our favorite ayam paprik—a mouthwatering spicy chicken stir-fry, tom yum, and telur dadar (omelet), to go with the warm and fluffy steamed rice.
It was then that I fell in love with Malay cooking, or in this case, Thai-style Malay food.
There are many Malay warung dotting the streets of Malaysia—a simple set up with gas stoves, fresh ingredients, and 2-3 people manning the stall.
These Malay warung make everything fresh, or on orders placed by patrons.
The menu ranges from nasi goreng (fried rice), tom yum (Thai hot and sour shrimp soup), to various rice plates.
One of the most popular rice plates is probably nasi paprik, a rice plate with a serving of ayam paprik or spicy chicken stir-fry.
The dishes served at these Malay warung are not “pure” Malay food, but Thai-influenced Malay food.
Many of the cooks learned their recipes from northern Malaysia, close to the borders of southern Thailand.
Here is my ayam paprik recipe. The word paprik is derived from Thai words “Pad Prik.”
I asked my friend She Simmers who is a Thai linguist/food blogger and she told me that “pad” means “fry” and “prik” means “chili.”
So this is my spicy chicken stir-fry recipe, or ayam paprik, a very popular and well-loved dish in Malaysia.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 321 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
Spicy Chicken Stir-Fry (Ayam Paprik)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons Thai roasted chili paste, nam prik phao
- 8 oz (250g) chicken breast, sliced into thin pieces
- 1/4 onion, cut into pieces
- 2 oz (60g) green beans, tips removed and cut into 2-inch (5cm) strips
- 1/2 small carrot, peeled and sliced
- 1/4 green bell pepper, capsicum, deseeded and thinly sliced
- 1/4 red bell pepper or 1 red chili, deseeded and thinly sliced
- chilies, lightly pounded, optional
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sweet soy sauce, kecap manis
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
Instructions
- Heat up a wok on high heat and add the oil. Add the garlic into the wok and stir-fry until aromatic, follow by the Thai roasted chili paste or nam prik pao.
- Add the chicken and quickly stir fry, until the chicken is half cooked. Add the onion, green beans, carrot, green and red bell peppers, bird's eye chilies and stir to combine well with the chicken.
- Add the sweet soy sauce and fish sauce, stir to blend well. (If you want your chicken to be a little saucy, you can add two tablespoons of water now.) As soon as the chicken and all ingredients are cooked through, dish out and serve immediately with steamed rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi Rasa, i love your blog and made many of its recipes already.
Can i use Sambal Badjak or Sambal Brandal instead of the Thai Nam Prik Pao?? Or would this be too spicy?
I cannot find the NamPril Pao here.
Thanks for your Blog and keep them recipes coming!
You can use sambal badjak, but yes, use a bit less because badjak is very spicy!
Thanks Rasa,
Could you post some good Sayur recipes. I am also looking for a good Gado-Gado recipe. I usually make it with green beans, mungbean sprouts, cucumber, cooked egg, peanutt sauce and krupuk. Any suggestions to improve ??
Wish I could share pictures of the food. It was great. First time I’ve eaten it or heard of the dish. But the recipe is perfect. We doubled it for our hungry family of 3.
Awesome Mark. So glad you liked it. Please try more recipe on my site!
Thank you for the recipe. Currently studying in the US and craving some real Malaysian dishes.
Awesome thanks for trying!
Oh my god you solved it. I’ve been trying to replicated Mamak-style Ayam Paprik for years in Hong Kong (now London) and all along, I needed this magic chilli paste. THANK YOU. This dish is brilliant.
Hi Emily, thanks, great that you found the secret ingredient! :)
Need a good stir fry vegetable recipe I have the sauce recipe but want one with bean sprouts and snow peas???
Thanks, Nancy
This recipe was WAY too spicy. The excessive chili paste completely overpowered the dish. We ended up throwing the majority of the stir fry in the garbage. Two teaspoons of chili paste would be far more appropriate.
Hi Eric,
What kind of chili paste do you use? I said Nam Prik Pao in the recipe, which is a sweet Thai chili paste and not the overly spicy one (2 tablespoons Thai roasted chili paste (nam prik phao).
I am not sure whether it is the same dish but I loved it most during my stay in Tronoh. Spicy chicken with vegetables and little sauce was fantastic. They used to call it Papri Ayam, maybe I misspelled it but that was what I heard.
i just returned from Malaysia and as goodbye dinner i had this disch at a stall sitting with the locals. it was very nice, loved it! so happy to find the receipe in order to try it out my self! thanks a lot for sharing!! :))
That’s great Jenny that you can try making this dish yourself. :)
Visited KL for 8 days recently and loved the food. I made this and it was delicious! Maybe not as pretty as yours, but tasted great. Love your blog :)