Grilled stuffed glutinous-rice rolls — coconut glutinous rice wrapped around a spiced coconut-and-dried-shrimp (or fish) filling in banana leaf, then grilled over charcoal until the leaf chars and perfumes the rice.
Pulut panggang is a grilled glutinous-rice snack found across Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia, the rice wrapped around a savory inti filling and charred in banana leaf.
Unwrap a charred pulut panggang and the banana leaf has smoked the sticky coconut rice; inside is a savory, spicy coconut-and-shrimp filling. Bite: the rice is chewy and coconut-rich, the inti hitting with chili, belacan funk, and sweet toasted coconut, the whole thing perfumed with grilled banana leaf. A smoky, savory-sweet handheld snack — the Bornean market favorite.
Steaming the rice in coconut milk makes it rich and sticky enough to wrap a filling; the dry-fried inti concentrates chili, belacan, and coconut into a punchy core. Grilling in banana leaf chars the leaf, whose smoke and aroma penetrate the rice — the defining flavor.
Variations
With a fish-floss filling. Sweeter (with a sweet coconut inti). Spicier. With a serunding filling. Grilled darker. Larger party size.
On the Palate
Where Pulut Panggang sits in the Bruneian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
8 steps · 45 min active + 55 min waiting
- 140 min
Soak 400 g glutinous rice 2 hours, then steam with 200 ml coconut milk and salt until cooked.
- 212 min
Make the inti filling: fry shallots, garlic, chili, and belacan; add grated coconut and dried shrimp; cook down dry.
Watch outFry the inti until it looks dry and sandy and the coconut turns golden — any wetness left and the parcels steam soggy instead of holding a punchy core.
- 38 min
Cut banana leaves into rectangles and soften over a flame.
- 44 min
Spread a layer of coconut rice on each leaf.
- 56 min
Place a line of inti filling down the center and roll the rice around it.
- 64 min
Wrap tightly in the banana leaf and secure.
- 79 min
Grill the parcels over charcoal 8-10 min, turning, until the leaf chars.
Watch outGrill until the banana leaf blackens and smells smoky — that char is the flavor, so let it go past just-warm and turn the parcels as they scorch.
- 82 min
Unwrap and serve warm.
