Simple Sambal Telur – Eggs in Spicy Sambal Sauce

If you’ve never tried Sambal Telur (Eggs in Spicy Sambal), this South East Asian side dish will blow your taste buds out of the water. Think the satisfying goodness of hard boiled eggs paired with the fiery heat of spicy Indonesian sambal sauce.  

Why We Love This

There’s nothing better than thinking you have nothing to cook and remembering this little number. Only 5 ingredients and ready in 10 minutes. That’s my kind of cooking!

This super snack is so versatile! Serve it as a side with dinner, then mashed on toast the next day for breakfast or as a cold salad for lunch. Use it as a base recipe, adding vegetables and tofu to make it into a full stir fry with rice for dinner. You’re only limited by your imagination.

What is Sambal Telur? 

In Indonesia, there are literally hundreds of different varieties of sambal, and even more when you take into account all the varieties that can be found across Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore and even Brunei.

All these different varieties can be broken down into two main categories – cooked sambal and raw sambal.

Cooked sambal is what you’ll find in recipes like today’s Sambal Telur (eggs) and Sambal Udang (prawns), while raw sambal is a condiment served on the side to add an extra kick of flavour and heat – just the way you like it!

The day we discovered Sambal Telur, it was just one of many platters of Indonesian goodies spread before us as we took a seat on the cosy picnic blanket. Surrounded by friends and the smell of freshly cooked sates and curries, it was an Indonesian feast of epic proportions in the small town of Kagoshima, Japan, of all places.

Here, a bowl of spicy fragrant Kari Ikan (a creamy Indonesian fish curry) sat waiting to be served. There, a stack of freshly fried Bakwan Jagung (Indonesian corn fritters) awaited a splash of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and tempted us with their crispy, crunchy goodness.

In the centre of it all was a steaming bowl of white rice beside a small but aromatic bowl of Sambal Telur.  We could almost taste the tingling zing of spice just looking at the boiled eggs in their coating of the spicy sauce.

I glanced across at our friend who’d brought us to this Indonesian food fiesta and asked ‘How hot are they?’

Her reply was a smile and a giggle, and to that we simply said: “Challenge accepted.”

What You’ll Need

We love making things as quickly as possible in the kitchen, so for this we use sambal oelek in a jar from our local supermarket in the Asian aisle or you can make your own from scratch:

Homemade Chilli Sambal Sauce

Prefer to make your own sambal? It’s definitely going to give you a more intense, fresh flavour. Use either a food processor or mortar and pestle (even better if it’s a traditional Indonesian ulekan+cobek – flat stone mortar and pestle!) and the following flavour-packed ingredients:

• 6 – 8 fresh red chillis
• 2 shallots
• 1 tbsp belacan (shrimp paste)
• 1 clove garlic

All you need is a little elbow grease (or some lazy electricity) to blend them all together until smooth.

Enak sekali! (Very delicious!)

For the kaffir lime leaves, you can purchase these fresh, frozen or dried at your local Asian supermarket or online. We conveniently have a kaffir lime tree growing in our backyard, which comes in handy as we cook this dish and Choo Chee Chicken alllll the time! If you can’t track them down, substitute with a teaspoon of grated lime zest, a splash of lime juice or omit altogether.

How to make Indonesian Eggs in Spicy Sambal:

Boil eggs in a medium saucepan from cold water. Once boiling, cook for 5 minutes for slightly soft yolks or 8 minutes for hard boiled.

Heat up the oil in a medium saucepan with the heat on low-medium and plonk in your onion rings. Saute until lovely and translucent (1-2 mins) but don’t allow to burn as it will change the flavour.

Next, pop in your sambal paste and kaffir lime leaves and stir fry until the mixture has loosened and it’s nice and fragrant. If it starts to burn, turn down the heat slightly and add a little water.

Finally, add your boiled eggs into the pan with the sambal and stir fry until heated through (2-3 mins should do it!).

Serve beside your favourite spicy curries and don’t forget the rice!

Wandercook’s Tips

• You can fry the eggs in a little oil by themselves before adding the sauce, for a slightly different take on the recipe.
• Serve hot as is – we love mashing up the eggs and serving it in hot toasties. 
• Serve cold as a salad. For an extra creamy touch, add some mayonnaise.
• Sambal telur goes great alongside rice and curries.
• Keep your eye on the heat – make sure to turn it down if it starts to stick or add a little water.
• Leftover sambal? Use it up in a big plate of Nasi Gila!

FAQs

Variations

• If you can’t find kaffir lime leaves, substitute with one teaspoon of lime zest or a splash of lime juice.
• Add anything else you like to the sauce, including tofu, chicken, vegetables etc. Make a complete meal out of it.
• Add 1/3 of a cup of coconut milk or cream if it’s too spicy for you, this will make it creamy and tone down the heat.
• If you’re not a fan of onion rings, dice them small instead.

Want more Indonesian treats? These are some of our favourites:

• Creamy Indonesian Fish Curry
• Indonesian Pork Satays
• Indonesian Gado Gado Salad
• Bakwan Jagung – Indonesian Corn Fritters
• Roti Coklat – Indonesian Chocolate Hagelslag

★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment & star rating below!