Any Hari Raya would not be complete without the flavourful and irresistible chicken rendang. While many inexperienced cooks assume that the dish is hardly beginner friendly, we are here to prove them wrong with this recipe. Are you ready to impress your guests? Refer to this recipe of chicken rendang for the coming Hari Raya!
Chicken Rendang Recipe:
Prior to cooking the chicken rendang, there are 2 different pastes that you need to prepare. They’re labelled Paste A and Paste B in the recipe below. While cooking chicken rendang, you’ll need another set of ingredients, some of which overlaps with the ingredients of the pastes. Hence, we suggest preparing the ingredients separately, or in three sections as shown below.
Ingredients:
Paste A:
- 5 red chillies, seeded
- 20 dried chillies, soaked and seeded
Paste B:
- 20 shallots, peeled
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled
- 5 candlenuts
- 1 galangal, peeled
- 1 ginger, peeled
- 1 turmeric, peeled
- 3 stalks lemongrass
When cooking:
- 1.5kg of chicken
- 1 cup of grated coconut
- 1 cup of thick coconut milk
- 30g of palm sugar
- ½ cup of vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp of salt
- 1 galangal
- 3 stalks of lemongrass
- 2 turmeric leaves
- 4 kaffir leaves
Instructions:
- Paste A: Remove the seeds from both the dried and red chillies. Soak the chillies in hot water to soften them. Drain the water, blend the chillies into a paste and set it aside.
- Paste B: Dice the shallots, garlic, candlenuts, galangal, ginger, turmeric, and lemongrass. Place all the diced ingredients in a blender and add in some water before blending them well.
- Clean the chicken under running water and cut it into bite-size pieces. Then, season the chicken pieces with salt before setting them aside.
- Clean and crush 3 stalks of lemongrass and a piece of galangal. Add cooking oil into a wok that is heated with medium-low heat. Next, saute the crushed lemongrass and galangal until fragrant.
- Stir fry the lemongrass and galangal with Paste A, until the delicious spicy smell greets your nostrils. Then, add Paste B into the mixture. Mix all the ingredients together and continue to saute them for about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Place the chicken pieces into the paste and stir fry them until they turn slightly brownish. Make sure that they are all coated with the sauce.
- Next, pour in the thick coconut milk, followed by the palm sugar as well as the crushed kaffir and turmeric leaves. Stir continuously until the paste bubbles and boils.
- Lower the heat and let the chicken pieces simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Occasionally stir the chicken pieces to make sure every piece is cooked evenly.
- While waiting for the chicken to be cooked, prepare the kerisik by dry frying the freshly grated coconut under medium-low heat. When it turns brownish, ground the kerisik until it becomes a paste. Set it aside to cool.
- When the chicken is cooked, add kerisik, finely shredded kaffir, and turmeric leaves into the dish and stir well.
- After adding some salt to taste, continue to cook the dish for another 10 minutes, and the dish is ready to be served!
There you have it—the ultimate recipe of chicken rendang for you to prepare during Hari Raya. Wondering what else to prepare for your Hari Raya celebration? Check out our recipes on lemang and lontong! If you find it a hassle to cook at home, download the foodpanda app and have your Hari Raya dishes delivered to you!