How Many Calories in Ayam Percik?

Grilled chicken coated in spiced coconut sauce from the east coast, 360 calories per thigh piece and genuinely one of the more protein-friendly lauk options at the stall.

360kcal / 1 piece (chicken thigh with percik sauce)

One piece of Ayam Percik (a thigh, bone-in, with the percik sauce) comes in at around 360 calories. That's 32g protein, 21g fat, and 10g carbs for a 220g serving. Not a bad trade for how satisfying it is, honestly. The coconut-based percik sauce adds most of the fat, but the chicken itself is doing real work on the protein front. Fair deal.

Nutrition facts

Per 1 piece (chicken thigh with percik sauce) (220g)	Amount	Per 100g
Calories	360 kcal	164 kcal
Protein	32 g	15 g
Carbs	10 g	5 g
Fat	21 g	10 g

Where the calories come from

Grilled chicken thigh with skin (bone-in, ~160g edible meat)160g

265 kcal

Percik coconut-spice sauce (santan, lemongrass, chilli, turmeric, palm sugar)50g

80 kcal

Rendered fat and caramelised glaze from grilling10g

15 kcal

The real talk

Ayam Percik is genuinely one of the better lauk options if you are watching your calories, and that surprises a lot of people. You get 360 calories and 32g of protein in a single piece, which is a pretty solid ratio. The main drivers here are the percik sauce, made with santan, palm sugar, and spices, and the chicken thigh skin. Without those two things this dish would be quite lean. With them, you get that rich sticky glaze that makes Ayam Percik worth travelling to Kelantan for. Honest caveat though: the numbers on this page are a genuine ballpark estimate. Hard nutritional data for traditional kampung-style Ayam Percik is basically nonexistent, and every mak cik's recipe is different. Treat 360 as your working number, not gospel.

What actually changes the maths is which piece you order and how sauce-heavy the stall is. A drumstick runs about 290 calories versus 360 for a thigh, so if you are at a buffet or a festival stall and want two pieces, go for the two kaki option instead of one peha and save yourself 70 calories. The half chicken serving at about 700 calories is really a sharing portion, bro, not a solo meal. At home, if you swap full-fat santan for the light version in the percik sauce, you can probably shave 30 to 40 calories off the sauce portion without destroying the flavour. The protein is the star here. 32g from one piece is excellent for a lauk, easily on par with ayam bakar, and it keeps you full enough to not raid the kuih tray afterward.

Ayam Percik variants, ranked by calories

Variant	Calories	Notes
Drumstick (kaki)	290 kcal	Smaller piece, less meat, less sauce absorption; common cheaper option at stalls
Thigh (peha)	360 kcal	Standard hawker serving; fattier cut with more sauce; most common order
Half chicken (half ayam)	700 kcal	Festival or event serving; full breast + thigh half, double the sauce
Thigh + drumstick quarter piece	580 kcal	Premium serving at some Kelantan/Terengganu stalls; bone-in quarter with extra percik glaze

How to eat it lighter

Order the drumstick instead of the thigh and you save about 70 calories per piece.
Ask for less sauce or eat around the heaviest glaze patches, the percik coating is where most of the fat lives.
Skip the skin. Yes it tastes good. But the skin on one thigh adds a noticeable chunk of fat and maybe 40-50 calories.
Pair it with plain white rice or nasi kerabu instead of nasi lemak or nasi minyak. Your side dishes matter.
If you are cooking at home, use light coconut milk for the percik sauce. The flavour difference is smaller than you think, and the calorie difference is real.

Common questions

How many calories in Ayam Percik?

One standard piece (chicken thigh with percik sauce) is around 360 calories. A drumstick drops to about 290 calories, while a half chicken serving can hit 700 calories.

Is Ayam Percik good for weight loss?

It can fit into a weight loss diet. The chicken thigh gives you 32g of protein which keeps you full, and 360 calories for a main is totally manageable. The issue is portion size, how thick the sauce coating is, and what you pair it with. Eat it with plain rice and some vegetables and you have a solid meal.

What makes Ayam Percik so high in fat?

Two things: chicken thigh skin, and the percik sauce made with santan (coconut milk). The skin alone contributes a chunk of the fat, and coconut milk is naturally high in saturated fat. Drumstick has slightly less, but you cannot really get away from the sauce if you want authentic Ayam Percik.

Calorie and macro figures are estimates for a typical hawker or kopitiam serving. Actual numbers vary by stall, recipe and portion size. Use them as a guide, not gospel.

New to all this? Read how I went from 128kg to 86kg without cutting rice →