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Monday, August 13, 2012

Chicken Rendang - Ayam #1




Yummy! Raise your hands for those don’t like this. Not me.

Rendang is a Malay dish and can be done using beef or chicken. Beef rendang taste best with a sweet end. But not the chicken version. I did not add in any sugar, but the taste is pretty balanced. Although the ingredients are almost the same, the outcome is different.



The ingredients used are very basic ingredients in Malay cuisine, but the taste is fabulous. Coconutty and aromatic. Every bit of the fragrant paste(so thick, it can’t be called gravy) is smothered over rice and eaten, delicious! My 2 cents, cook it until it releases oil, if not it won’t taste good. Use a heavy based pot to minimize the risk of burning the dish.

It’s simple, just blend and simmer. This is my first time cooking chicken rendang, but I think I’ll cook this dish quite often as it’s my FIL’s fav and it’s so simple, plus I can cook extra for 2 meals. Overnight rendang taste fabulous! Although my hubby prefers the beef version, he definitely won’t complain if I cook this.



Chicken Rendang
Recipe adapted from: Hanieliza

1.5-1.7kg chicken (1 bird or 12 pieces chicken parts)
200ml thick coconut milk
2 cups water
130gm freshly grated coconut, to be toasted (original recipe called for kerisik, which is toasted and pounded oily coconut)
1 big piece of turmeric leaf (if small, use 2. Mine was about 1ft long), snipped finely with scissors
2 tsp salt

Grind to a paste
5 stalks lemon grass (4 inch from base)
120gm shallots (10 pcs)
5 cloves garlic
15 pcs dried chilli, seeds removed and soaked for 30 minutes
10-20 pcs bird’s eye chilli (depends on how hot you want it to be)
40gm ginger (3 inches)
20gm galangal (1 fat inch)
15gm turmeric (thumb sized)

*If you have problem grinding in the mill with these ingredients and would prefer using the blender, blend them together with the coconut milk and water. It works the same. But I do not want to stain my blender ‘yellow’ with turmeric. Staining one apparatus is enough for me.

1. Cut whole bird of chicken into 12 pieces.
2. Combine all ingredients except freshly grated coconut. Bring to a boil and lower to medium low heat and simmer for 30 minutes, lid on.
3. Meanwhile, toast coconut until dry, fragrant and golden.
4. After 30 minutes of simmering, put toasted coconut into the pot and bring heat to medium and reduce gravy. Lid should be off at this time.
5. Reduce gravy until almost no liquid is visible, but oil is at the base. The aromatics should still be moist.





The chicken rendang was served with nasi lemak Joonah style. Joonah is the shop where they serve our favourite beef rendang.



I had some 'paste' left unconsumed and I used it make pulut panggang.





I still couldn't finish the leftover paste and finished it off by frying long beans the next day.. a good way to use up all the delicious rendang 'paste'

38 comments:

  1. This must the REAL delicious! Thumbs up to you for not wasting any left over paste.

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  2. Your chicken rendang look so delicious. So nice, the leftover paste can use to cook other dishes.

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  3. Ayam rendang is my favourite, feel so hungry when read your blog..drooling liao..hehe... Thanks for sharing ya..

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  4. Wendy...

    so rajin la you ...belum raya lg dah buat rendang gitu...hehehe.

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  5. If i want to cook pork rendang - which part of pork should i use ? Is the cooking method the same?

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  6. Rendang is my favorite too, I could eat a lot of this without the rice! :D

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  7. YUMMO! i am going to try this VERY soon. Thanks! Good thing you pointed out the turmeric staining part, else i would have jutmblindly chuck it in and then smack my self for staining the mill. ;p if i substitute with turmeric powder, how much would i need?

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  8. This will surely perk me up ! Rendang ! yummy...drooling now !

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  9. Wah, yummylicious... I love your blog and u did a fabulous job. Very clear picture and especially the raw ingredient that shows. Sometime, I get confuse n no idea how the ingredient looks.. The pic clear my doubt :) well done Wendy!!! Bravo!!!

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  10. Woa the rendang chicken looks so delicious, so tempted to try it especially you have provided the images of all spices which I am bad with lol.

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  11. Delicious chicken rendang. And loved your pulut panggang, miss them so much. And salivating now.

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  12. I love chicken rendang! Your rendang looks so yummy! Love your pictures too.

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  13. Your rendang makes me drool for more. It looks so yummy. Can I have more rice pls? lol

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  14. Mel,
    very sayang de lor, cannot discard just like that.


    Pei San,
    Easy right? NCL will want to eat lor, u have no excuse.


    Phong Hong,
    HAhaha, easy ma for the next meals


    Karen,
    U're welcomed


    kym
    :)


    Kak Nita,
    Ni dah buat berkurun dahulu, skang tiba masanya nak bagi dia timbul jumpa sang suria.


    yuet,
    almost the same, refer to my beef rendang post.
    Use "Chu Jeen Yoke".


    GK Arusavai,
    thanks

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  15. Jeannie,
    Wah... jaga jaga sodium looooo...nanti overdose


    Esther,
    Hmm.... 1tsp maybe.
    But I do find the flavour to be inferior to fresh turmeric. Just stain one apparatus only la. for me, my mill is all scarred from spices milling and yellow with turmeric. Pathetic mill, LOL!


    Elin,
    U've been sleeping at work ah?


    Keenbie,
    I'm glad I helped clear ur confusion :)


    Jes's DC,
    1 chicken can be quite big for ur family :)
    U will need to adjust the recipe


    Jess,
    Easy to do lor, try it la


    Veronica-Minty,
    It's hard to get the ingredients there now during winter right?


    茵茵,
    Thanks, try it one day then :)


    Veronica's kitchen,
    sure can!

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  16. Blend some onions to remove the sappy kunyit stains on your blender blades. Other parts that are stained yellow can be removed by direct strong sun, including chopping boards and dish cloths.

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  17. Looks gooooood! Drools man! But I always so lazy to get all those spices, chilli etc, haha. I usually use ready made curry paste or rendang paste. :P Hope I will finally try it one day...thanks for the recipe though. :)

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  18. Sarah,
    thanks for the suggestion.
    The stains are on the plastic cup, not the blades. I blend onions often, but it never comes off, only after a long long time that I never used turmeric again.



    Bee,
    Yeah I heard it's hard in Singapore.
    I rarely use paste as I can't get the taste I want. Still have to fix the paste, ahh, might as well do it from scratch.


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  19. Would like to try this soon... Any substitute for turmeric leaves? Can't get it here... Thanks.

    Regards,

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  20. looks sooo good! this kind of dishes very dangerous to us..can gain a kilo next day..haha!

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  21. 我最爱的rendang.....看到你煮的真的流口水……谢谢你的食谱哦!找天我也试试……嗯……请问你有ayam masak kicap/hitam的食谱吗?我不懂这个菜名对不对,鸡的味道是带甜的,不懂你吃过吗?

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  22. hi..
    a little correction. Rendang is not Malay dish. Its Indonesian dish, particularly Padang, West Sumatra.

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  23. tried .. very yummy...thank you

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  24. Sonia,
    Thank you for that.
    The Malay I am refering here is the race, not a nationality. In Malaysia the Minangs, Padangs, or even Javanese are considered Malays. There's no other boxes for them to tick. And yes, these ethnic Malay groups do originate from Indonesia.
    Sometimes, it's easy for us to call our dishes as Chinese food whereas it doesn't even exist in China. Maybe it's because the name of the country of our ancestors did not differ with the race tag we have been placed with here.

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  25. aiyoo.....how u know NCL?? hahah he very choosy one lar...

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  26. Hi Wendy! What a wonderful blog you have. I am new to cooking and decided to try out your fairly simple recipe of Chicken Rendang last night. I must say it taste AWESOME! Your detailed pictures of the ingredients and impt step pictures like browning the shaved coconut really help noob cooks like me alot! I think I will try this recipe again in Dec for a family gathering! I couldn't find the tumeric leaf. Maybe markets in little india will have it. Anyway, thanks for inspiring me to try cooking! :D

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  27. Joanna Peng,
    Great to hear that.
    You can plant the unused turmeric in 6 inch pots and they will give you leaves in the future. No need to buy. Don't worry, they don't take much space, the next time u need more turmeric, just dig out and plant back the unused portion.

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  28. Hi Wendy!

    I love your blog :) I always come here for inspiration. I read about turmeric staining your apparatus. Have you used Kao Magiclean Kitchen Cleaner (the green one)? Get rid of the yellow stain from turmeric with just a few spray. It's my must have cleaning detergent in my kitchen :). Even if the stain is dry or old it will still work. What I see is it creates a chemical reaction with the turmeric stain and dissolve it. Try it :)

    po

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  29. Po,
    I'll look out for it the next time I go shopping :)
    thanks.

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  30. Wendy, how much of the paste did you add into your rendang?

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  31. Jeannie,
    I put all, but after eating the chicken, there was a lot of remnants left, that is the 'paste', with the '', heheheh.

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  32. Just looking at the photo makes me feels so hungry!!!

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  33. Thanks for such a lovely and yummy recipe! Yours will be my only chicken rendang recipe whenever I cook. Thank you dear.

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