Recently, there was a huge rendang controversy caused by Master Chef UK judges who said that chicken rendang should have crispy skin, which enraged the entire country of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and the incident turned into a social media warfare.
As a Malaysia food blogger, I wanted to tell you that chicken rendang, or any rendang, for example: beef rendang, lamb rendang should never have crispy skin. And the rendang sauce should be on the skin!
Here I have just the perfect chicken rendang recipe for you. Rendang originated from Indonesia but they are very popular and well loved by many in Malaysia.
Chicken rendang is slow cooked and stewed in the rendang sauce and my chicken rendang recipe yields flavorful and tender chicken, with complex structure of flavors, with the intense aroma of the exotic spices.
I love making chicken rendang at home. While it takes some time to prep and make the dish, the end result is so rewarding.
When I sink my teeth into the chicken, the taste immediately transports me back to Malaysia, my home country. Enjoy!
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Chicken Rendang Recipe
Chicken Rendang – amazing Malaysian-Indonesian chicken stew with spices and coconut milk. Deeply flavorful. The best rendang recipe ever!
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 lbs. boneless and skinless chicken breasts or thighs cut into cubes
- 1/3 cup cooking oil
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cloves
- 3 star anise
- 3 cardamom pods
- 1 lemongrass white part only, pounded and cut into strips
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1 cup water
- 5 kaffir lime leaves bruised
- 5 tablespoons toasted grated coconut kerisik
- 1 tablespoon sugar or to taste
- Salt to taste
Spice Paste:
- 6 shallots
- 1- inch piece galangal
- 3 stalks lemongrass white part only
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1- inch piece ginger peeled
- 10 dried chilies chili arbol, seeded
Instructions
-
All all the ingredients of the Spice Paste in a food processor. Blend well.
-
Heat the oil in a skillet, add the Spice Paste, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and cardamom pods and stir-fry them until aromatic. Add the chicken and lemongrass, stir to combine well with the spices. Add the coconut milk, water, and simmer on medium heat, stirring frequently until the chicken is almost cooked.
-
Add the kaffir lime leaves, toasted coconut, stir to blend well with the chicken. Lower the heat to low, cover the lid, and slowly simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender and the liquid has dried up. Add more sugar and salt to taste to taste. Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
To make beef rendang, check out my recipe here.
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Linda J
I lived in Malaysia for 2 1/2 years and Beef Rendang was my favorite dish. This is amazing! Definitely takes me back to Shah Alam days with my students! Thank you.
Raleena
Love making your recipes. Can I buy your recipe book in Srilanka? Where?
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Raleena, you can buy my ebook here: https://rasamalaysia.com/easy-asian-takeout/
Ornika
Good recipe I will try to make it in my home
rachel
This is a delicious recipe..Thank u! I have made the chicken rendang three times now and my family love it :)
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks for trying my chicken rendang recipe. :)
Sam
Hi! I made this tonight and it was delicious! However it was really pale, had no way near the depth of colour in your picture. Any advice?
Rasa Malaysia
Use more red chilies and more oil.
kavitha
The key to the colour for rendang is to make sure you cook the paste down until it’s a lovely golden brown before adding the meat etc. Rending is a dish that takes a lot of patience and time to make.
mary grace reyes
hi am very excited to try your chicken rendang recipe. i tasted it once but i have loved it from the first try. am so happy ill be able to make one.
Gin
I would like to try this chicken rendang, but I’m unable to get kaffir lime leaves. Can I substitute with lemon leaves? Besides from the leaves, can I use any kind of dry chilly or is has to be chilly arbol? Thank you!!
m
Rasa Malaysia
Skip the kaffir lime if you can’t find. Any kinds of dried chilies should be fine.
Gloria
Use lime juice and grated lime peel.
Fatima
I’m trying this soon! Are cardamom seeds okat to use instead of pods? Thanks!
First time cook
I just made this and it was delicious! We added 5 more cili kering for extra spiciness. amily loved it’s. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Mel
My husband looked everywhere for a great recipe and it looks green? Do you know where we went wrong? What shallots did you use? The spice paste was bright green?
Rasa Malaysia
Shallots as in red color shallots. The spice paste shouldn’t be green as there is nothing green in the ingredients. The 10 dried chilies should give you the red color (make sure the seeds are removed).
Klozet Kapağı
Thanks for the recipe, I will try it out soon.
klebefolie
Wow that looks delicious, thanks for the recipe.
Sam
Lovely recipe Bee! I went a bit off-piste and added shrimp paste, fish sauce, palm sugar (in place of regular) and thai basil. Not sure if that doesn’t make it a Rendang anymore or not!
Rasa Malaysia
Chicken rendang shouldn’t have shrimp paste, fish sauce and Thai basil.
virya
always the best recipes from Bee Rasa Malaysia
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Virya.
Carolin
Absolutely delicious. Mine turned out pale and without the depth of colour in the photo. Will try to sauté the paste longer next time. Laborious but worth it!
Rasa Malaysia
Carolin, awesome I am so glad that you liked the chicken rendang recipe.
Philip salt
Hi, I have just made this recipe and its fantastic.
Rasa Malaysia
Awesome, thanks for making.
Kevin T
The skin isn’t crispy. I wanted crispy skin on the chicken but after trying the recipe, the skin was soggy. Was left disappointed. Same reason Zaleha Olpin failed Masterchef..
Rasa Malaysia
LOL Kevin, good one! :)
Rachael
Great recipe! Thank you for posting it! I hadn’t heard of chicken rendang until the whole “crispy” thing. I had to give it a try! I love the flavors. Next time I will cook the oil/paste a little longer. I think this one will be a regular addition to our dinners. My husband loved it as well!
Rasa Malaysia
That’s awesome. Thanks for trying my chicken rendang.
Tara
How would you recommend making this in an Instapot?
Rasa Malaysia
You can pressure cook just have to make sure you have enough liquid, 1/2 cup minimum. After pressure cooking, you can use saute mode to reduce the liquid.
Larry Chong
Do I soak the dry chilies first ?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes.
Vaishali Sengupta
This recipe looks absolutely delicious. Will try it and tell you how it goes!
Sha
Just tried this recipe tonight. It was awesome! I had actually reduced the number of dried chillies because we don’t eat much chilli but cooked it on simmer for almost an hour to get the deep red colour. I also added some lime leaves to the paste. Smelled heavenly! Thanks for the recipe
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks for trying this chicken rendang.
Amateur cook
I just cooked the recipe and followed it to the tee. However the dish came out looking like a Thai green curry. Lol.
Rasa Malaysia
You must have done something wrong. There is no way it would become Thai green curry. Number 1, there is no ingredients in the recipe that would turn it green.
Ren Umeda
I have a few questions about the spices.
Should I grind the cinnamon before using or add the whole stick? Also, regarding the cardamom, do I remove the pod and grind the seeds, or add the pod whole? Do you leave cloves and star anise whole?
If you leave them whole, do I have to fish them out before serving?
If I don’t have galangal, can I double the ginger in lieu of using galangal?
Thanks!
Rasa Malaysia
Whole stick of cinnamon. Cardamom, whole. You can leave the star anise whole. Don’t fish them out.
Rasa Malaysia
Ginger is not a substitute for galangal. It will change the taste.
Andy
Wow chicken rendang like cow rendang the same with indonesian rendang from west sumatera indonesia. I like it.
andrea bull
I cant find whole dried arbol chillies in my supermarket …they have arbol chilli flakes
Can I use those and how much ?
Rasa Malaysia
Hmmm, it’s hard to say since I haven’t tried. I would start with 2 tablespoons and adjust per your taste.
Jamtin
No tamarind in the chicken version? Curious to know why…..
Rasa Malaysia
It’s not necessary but you can add.
Jez Corbin
I made this recipe but doubled up all the ingredients – after simmering for 15 mins with the lid on I realised that the sauce wasn’t going to dry up – even after another 45 mins with the lid off and the heat turned up a bit there was still a lot of liquid sauce. Tasted really good anyway!
Where did I go wrong?
Rasa Malaysia
Sounds like your chicken is watery? In this case, you can transfer the chicken out and reduce the liquid before putting the chicken back.