Chicken cooked in a paste of fresh red and bird's eye chilli, shallot, garlic and ginger, finished with lemongrass, lime leaf and lemon basil.
What makes it ayam rica-rica
Fresh chillies — red and bird's eye — in quantity.
Ginger, lemongrass and lime leaf.
Lemon basil at the end.
Cooked down until the paste clings, not a curry.
Where it comes from
Rica is chilli in the Minahasan language, and rica-rica is the way of cooking it's named for: a coarse paste of fresh chillies, shallot, garlic and ginger fried until fragrant, then the meat cooked in it with lemongrass and lime leaf until the sauce clings.
Chicken is the usual meat, but pork, fish and many others are done the same way. Lemon basil, thrown in at the end, is what makes it Minahasan rather than simply hot.