Spicy Honey Chicken/Ayam Masak Madu

Ayam Masak Madu or Spicy Honey Chicken is a common dish found at Malay food eateries in Malaysia. It has a savory,sweet and spicy sauce made from chili paste, tomatoe paste and spices. This dish goes really well with rice or nasi briyani. The chicken is usually deep fried until golden brown before added into the sauce but this is a healthier version. Instead of frying I baked it in the oven before cooking it.

Ingredient A

6 drumsticks – clean and removed the fats and skin
1 tsp of turmeric powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients B

2 tbsp of ground chili paste (I used sambal Oelek)
3 tbsp of tomato paste
1 big onion – cut into rings
3 cloves of garlic – chopped
1 tbsp of chopped ginger
Some curry leaves (optional)
1 star anise
1 cinnamon bark
2 cloves
½ - ¾ cup of water
Honey to taste
Salt to taste

1. Put all the ingredients A together and marinate for half an hour. Line the chicken on a baking pan and bake in a pre-heated 400 degree F oven for 20 minutes.
2. While the chicken is baking, heat up a wok. Add about 2 tbsp of oil and stir fry cinnamon, cloves star anise and curry leaves until fragrant. Add in ground ginger and garlic and continue to stir-fry until lightly brown.
3. Add in tomato paste, chili paste, honey and stir well for 10 seconds. Add in the water. Bring it up to boil and toss in the chicken and onion rings.
4. Give a quick stir-fry, bring the heat to slow simmer, covered and cook until the sauce thickens and the chicken is done. Check seasonings to make sure that it is the sweetness and saltiness you like.
5. Dish out and serve with warm rice.

Note: You can either deep fried, pan fried or baked the drumsticks before cooking it in the sauce.