Thursday, December 02, 2010

Chicken Rendang/Dry Chicken Curry

I always have a soft spot for chicken or beef Rendang. That is the very first Malay dish I learned to cook from my friend Kak Zuliah mom’s many years ago. Now there are so many ready packed rendang paste but I still prefer to cook it from scratch as most of the ingredients are readily available here. I even plant my own kaffir lime and turmeric plants now. Turmeric can’t survive the winter so I cut all the leaves up and freeze it so that I can use it whenever I want. The ingredients are pretty similar to my beef rendang; the only difference would be the cooking time as the chicken get tender pretty fast compare to beef.

Ingredients:

1 chicken – around 2.5 pounds
3 fresh turmeric leaves – sliced thinly (optional)
3 tbsp of kerisik (coconut paste)
3 kaffir lime leaves (limau purut)
2 cup of coconut milk + some water
Salt and palm sugar/sugar to taste


To blend into paste:

10 shallots
2" of lengkuas (galangal)
2" of ginger
2 stalk of lemongrass
4 cloves of garlic
10 dried chilies (soaked until soft)
10 fresh red chilies
2” fresh turmeric or 2 tbsp of turmeric powder
2 tbsp meat curry powder

For Kerisik (coconut paste)

1 cup of fresh grated coconut

1. In a non-stick pan, dry fry the grated coconut until golden brown.
2. Removed and blend it into paste while it is still hot until it is fine and paste like.


1. Clean, remove skin and fats from the chicken. Cut the chicken into medium size pieces.
2. Heat about 3 tbsp of oil in a wok and gently fry the blended paste for 2 minutes or until slightly dry and fragrant.
3. Add in the chicken and continue to stir-fry until the chicken changes color. Add in coconut milk and enough water to cover the chicken. Bring it to boil. Roughly tear up the kaffir lime leaves and add it into the beef. Reduce heat to simmer.
4. Cover and simmer and stir occasionally and cook until meat is tender. If the dish dries up too fast, do add a little more hot water or coconut milk to it.
5. Add in palm sugar, salt to taste. Add in the turmeric leaves and kerisik (coconut paste) and cook till the sauce dries up. Serve with warm rice.


Note: The level of spiciness can be adjusted to your liking. The same recipe can also be used in the same way for beef and lamb

I am submitting this dish to Muhibbah Malaysia Monday
For more details please refer here

28 comments:

Love2cook Malaysia said...

Can't take my eyes off from that irresistible chicken rendang! It's my fav too...with nasi impit! :D

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

This is one of my favourite! You planted all these local herbs at your backyard?

anymz said...

chicken curry.one of my kids favourite..:)

busygran said...

I love the sight of the chicken rendang. I only cook it once a year, either beef or chicken rendang. So now I'm like drooling!

Elin Chia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elin Chia said...

I know I won't miss Malaysian food when I come visit you :p Gert ,your rendang looks great :)

ann low said...

Gert, You're a great cook! This is also one of my favorites. Wish I can come over ;)

Smoky Wok (formerly Tastes of Home) said...

your rendang looks delicious!

Yati Harvey said...

Gert,
nice! rendang made from scratch is wayyy better than the packets....

Anonymous said...

Your chicken rendang would be especially delicious on a really cold day like today! Very mouth-watering...!

mary-anne

mycookinghut said...

Gert,
Yes please.. it's so cold here and I need a dish like this to keep me warm and make me sweat.. eheeh

Unknown said...

That first picture surely has me drooling, lovey dish and recipe.

Shereen said...

Gert,
You and I gang la...i also tak suka to use all those ready made paste unless i am in a super lazy mode.Maybe our generation is still a bit old fashion.I feel very guilty if I cook anything using packet stuff.I plant my kunyit the second time but still no daun...haiya!..although the kunyit still hidup.Can't get any frozen daun kunyit also.Somehow rendang without daun kunyit macam tak lengkap(old school la ni).Your rendang look so good...moist and succulent...yummy!Wait cook for me,ya!!

Zurin said...

sa great rendang. I feel like cooking some now after reading your post. oh yum!!!

Kitchen Corner said...

Wah!! This one looks absolutely tempting!! Hungry now.....

Michigan Food Blog said...

seriously a great recipe. love spicy things and chicken on the bone

MaryMoh said...

Ooooh...I love this dish. I have always loved rendang but not good in cooking it. Would love to try, Thanks for sharing.

ReeseKitchen said...

Wah...look so nice..:) I like to cook rendang from scratch too...finds that nicer than the ready packed ones.

Little Corner of Mine said...

I also have a soft spot for chicken rendang, in fact any kind of rendang. Soooo good!

tinyskillet said...

Oh this looks so good! I will have to look into planting my own Kaffir lime and turmeric. I've been wanting to plant my own pandan plant too!

ICook4Fun said...

Love2cook, we just had it with pandan rice.

Sonia, yes I plant it in pots and containers.

Anymz, most of us like curry :)

Busygran why only once a year? I cook this very often.

Elin, when you are coming to visit us?

Anncoo, you can come over anytime :)

Jen, thanks.

ICook4Fun said...

Yati, yeap :)

Mary-anne, yes great with rice. We are having some very cold weather here too.

Leemei, here too. It is snowing England, right. Keep warm.

Jennifurla, thank you.

Shereen, yea if I can get all the ingredients I like cooking it from scratch. Try not to cover the kunyit roots with too much soil. I don't think you can get frozen daun kunyit :)

Zurin, :)

Grace, thanks you.

ICook4Fun said...

Mira, me too.

Mary Moh, hope you like this.

Reese, yes especially when we used all the fresh ingredients.

LCOM, sometimes if I have problem thinking of what to cook I just make rendang :)

Lyndsey, I tried planting pandan but it died during winter.

Anonymous said...

I love rendang! Being it chicken, mutton or beef. Yours look really good. Must try it out soon.

shaz said...

That's a fantastic looking rendang! Thanks for joining MM again.

Anonymous said...

Can you please tell me where i can find the seeds or plants for Kaffir lime leaves and turmeric plant? I would love to plant my own in my garden but I have yet to find it anywhere. I live in MA and like you, I was born and raised in Malaysia before moving here eons ago.

Thanks,
Reese

ICook4Fun said...

Reese, I plant the turmeric plant from turmeric roots and I got it from the Vietnamese Supermarket and as for the Kaffir lime a friend gave me the plant. She planted it from the kaffir lime seeds that she brought from Malaysia.

Rita said...

I love rendang!
Cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients esp. aromatic kaffir lime and lemongrass, is the best.
I will try this, thks for sharing!