Chicken Rendang
You’ve probably heard about or even had it in your latte, milk, cereal or tea. If you see fresh turmeric in your store, which looks like some gnarly orange stem, get hold of some and cook this delicious recipe at home. This deeply flavourful dish originates from Malaysia and Indonesia and is a slow-cooked chicken stew with spices and coconut milk.
Ingredients:
- 100g shallots
- 5 garlic cloves
- 4 stalks fresh lemongrass, bruised
- 20g fresh turmeric (or half teaspon ground turmeric)
- 20g fresh gigner
- 15g fresh galangal
- 40g fresh red or green chillies (optional)
- 50g cooking oil
- 4 kaffir lime leaves (if available)
- 100g coconut milk
- 1 dried tamarind piece rinsed (if available)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1200g chicken thighs with skin and bone (cut into pieces, if possible)
Preparation:
- Place shallots, garlic cloves, 2 stalks lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, galangal and chillies into a blender and blend until a smooth paste forms. This is your rendang paste.
- Add cooking oil in a dutch oven or cocotte, add the rendang paste 2 stalks of lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, sauté for 8 minutes at medium heat. Add a bit of water if the paste sticks to the cocotte.
- Add coconut milk, dried tamarind piece and salt and cook for 5 minutes at medium heat.
- Add chicken, cook for 20 minutes at medium heat and put the lid on. Let it stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Tip:
- You can make the rendang paste in a bigger batch and divide them into portions and freeze. When you want to cook it, simple add the frozen paste (without thawing) into hot cooking oil in a cocotte and follow instructions n° 2 to 4 above.
- Omit the chillies if you are serving to children. By leaving out just this one ingredient, your children would be more willing to learn and enjoy this delicious dish.
