SHAH ALAM, Aug 30 — Who can resist fried chicken, especially a well-prepared one with juicy tender meat and a crispy golden skin from iconic Lim Fried Chicken who has ruled the game for the past 30 plus years?
No one bats an eyelid that it’s past lunch time, as their stall located in a corner coffeeshop at SS14 Subang Jaya used to only open after 2pm. Everyone quietly joins the long snaking line to wait for their turn to order the food, laid out chap fan style.
This humble fried chicken stall was propelled to fame by its many college student supporters who frequent this area due to its proximity to their place of study. This June, the stall moved to its own premises at Glenmarie, Shah Alam. They still maintain a second outlet at SS15/4 in Subang Jaya, a few doors away from the colleges.
Opened since 1983, it is run by Lim Kim King, 58, his wife and their three sons. Originally from Malacca, Lim had ventured across the Causeway to make a living as a cook in the 1970s.
Later, he returned to Malaysia and decided to try his luck in Kuala Lumpur. The couple ended up in Subang Jaya, after an introduction to open their stall at Restoran Wong Soon Kee along Jalan SS14/1 by friends.
In the beginning, the stall sold all sorts of things, like chee cheong fun, grilled fish, cockles and even prawns, testing the market’s reaction to their food. It was their golden fried chicken that became a fast crowd favourite.
Frying chicken may sound like an simple task. What makes it difficult is to nail the perfect fried chicken where the meat is hot and juicy with a crisp golden skin that lasts. It’s a delicate balance, where a few seconds too short or long in the hot oil can tip you towards disaster. Undercook the chicken and it’s bad for the stomach. Overcook the chicken and it’s inedible with none of the much sought-after juiciness.
When frying the chicken, Lim ramps up the heat until the oil is rapidly boiling with huge bubbles. With his many years of experience, he is a master in controlling the heat so the fried chicken is not soggy with oil but the skin is a golden shattering crisp when it’s ladled out.
What also makes the difference is they insist on using freshly-slaughtered chicken every day. It’s marinated for 30 minutes in a special mixture before it’s dropped into the hot oil.
The fried chicken is served in large whole leg pieces, rather than the more easy to handle smaller pieces. According to Mrs. Lim, they stick to this way of presentation at the request of their customers who like the large chunkier pieces. You can if you wish, also request for other parts of the chicken, like breast and wings, as the kitchen can prepare this upon order.
You can enjoy the fried chicken paired with their version of nasi lemak, which uses plain rice versus coconut rice. The choice to serve plain rice was a nod to their customers who prefer a healthier alternative, since many Chinese believe coconut milk gives “wind to the stomach.”
The nasi lemak is served with a choice of vegetables; plain stir fried white cabbage or crunchy long beans stir fried with preserved soybeans. It’s always accompanied with a dollop of their bright red sambal with chopped onions, which is not too spicy. If rice is not for you, eat your fried chicken with their chee cheong fun which is paired with their fragrant curry.
In mid-May, the original SS14 stall closed following difficulties with the owner of the restaurant who refused to rent the premises to them, as told by Lim’s wife. Moreover, with their growing popularity, the space was also too small for all their dishes. They decided to try a new area in Shah Alam, a place convenient for them to still manage their second shop at SS15. Here, the crowd is mainly workers from the nearby offices and factories that pepper the Shah Alam area.
Now there’s no need to wait for 2pm for the stall to open, as the shop operates longer hours, starting from as early as 8am onwards to serve breakfast like fried economy beehoon. While fried chicken is not prepped ahead in the early morning, you can order this and it’s fried for you on the spot.
Most of us would just order the fried chicken and ignore the rest of the shop’s offerings, but think again! Lim’s cooking skills honed during his days in Singapore, working at a tai chow is definitely on display here with the spread of mutton curry, sotong curry, chicken curry and even a dish with stir fried mussels.
The mussels (or what Mrs. Lim calls ho in Chinese) is a crowd favourite as it’s superbly prepared. Each mussel is perfectly cooked. It’s paired with a bright orange sauce with hints of spiciness from the bird’s eye chillies. What makes it appetising is the underlying tanginess in the sauce that makes you reach for more and more of the sauce with your plate of rice.
The origins of the dish is an interesting story. By chance, Mrs. Lim had spied fresh mussels in the market and being inspired she had bought a batch and fried it up with chillies. Within two hours, the mussels sold out. Regulars clamoured for the return of the dish, saying it’s unique with its appetising mild chilli taste and the texture of the mussels was also perfect since it’s not overcooked.
You will find that it’s the same with all their other dishes found in the daily spread. Their cooked sotong is cut into thick pieces but each one is perfectly cooked with none of the rubbery texture that often plagues this dish. The mutton curry also has tender mutton cubes. You can also pick up economy rice favourites, like fried ikan kembung. Another version of fish, the stall does is known as lat jiu yee where the fried fish is cooked with chillies and soybean paste.
Most of their dishes are not spicy, as the stall wants their dishes to appeal to children and even old ladies who cannot accept it when it’s too tongue numbing hot.
What’s important to the Lim family is the freshness of their ingredients. Take, for instance, their fried tofu. It’s just a humble and simple dish, but in the hands of Lim’s top class frying skills, we reckon it can beat any Japanese agedashi tofu with the creamy soft centre encased in a crispy golden skin.
Lim Fried Chicken
No. 26, Jalan Jurureka U1/40
Seksyen U1, Hicom Glenmarie
Shah Alam
Open daily: 8am to 5pm
No. 47, Jalan SS15/4
Subang Jaya
Open daily: 10am to 9.30pm.
