Rendang Chicken

Look at this beautiful and flavorful dish, it is called Rendang Chicken ** (see extracts from Wikipedia). This is my version of Rendang Chicken aka dried spicy chicken with fried grated coconut. There are many versions of recipe for preparing Rendang and as long as the key ingredients are used I believe it would taste just as good the homecook way, sure we cannot beat the ones served commercially.

A friend of mine onced shared with me that the Rendang Beef sold at the Nasi Kandar stalls are cooked over those balanced and kept for days...no wonder it taste so good! hahaha....

Rendang Chicken dish is a little spicy and creamy to taste with a beautiful aroma from the kaffir leaves (daun limau perut), lemon grass (serai) and fresh turmeric (kunyit) plus coconut milk and a good blend of fried grated coconut to make it complete.

Extracts from Wikipedia :

Rendang is made from beef (or occasionally chicken, mutton) slowly cooked in coconut milk and spices for several hours until almost all the liquid is gone, allowing the meat to absorb the spicy condiments. The cooking process changes from boiling to frying as the liquid evaporates. The slow cooking process allows the meat to absorb all the spices and to become tender.

Look at those herbs n ingredients that were used for this dish :

All you need : for 1/2 chicken

• 10 shallots
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 pcs of lemon grass (serai)
• 1 thumbsize turmeric (kunyit)
• 5 pcs red chilli
• Blend all the above together to form a paste
• some kaffir lime leaves (daun limau perut) ** a must!
• 1 box coconut milk 200 gms
• 1/2 grated coconut - fried it till golden brown (kerisik)

** I have omitted galangal (lengkuas) to prevent it from "overshadowing" the beautiful aroma of lemon grass, kaffir leaves and tumeric

Simple Process

1. Heat the wok with some oil and saute the grounded paste till fragrant
2. Add in the chicken and mix well with the grounded paste, add kaffir lime leaves
3. Add the 1 box coconut milk and let it simmer over low heat for next 30 minutes
4. Allow the meat to slowly absorbed the coconut milk and its ingredients
5. Keep stirring and when gravy starts to evaporate, add in the fried grated coconut and give it a good coat all over
6. Ready to serve with steamed rice

Have a Happy and Enjoyable Meal....