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Chicken Rendang - amazing Malaysian-Indonesian chicken stew with spices and coconut milk. Deeply flavorful. The best rendang recipe ever!
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!
Chicken Rendang Recipe
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, and serve it with nasi lemak. 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!
Ingredients
Ingredients For Chicken Rendang
- Chicken thighs
- Cardamom pods
- Cinnamon stick
- Coconut milk
- Cooking oil
- Kaffir lime leaves
- Lemongrass
- Toasted grated coconut
- Star anise
- Water
- Cloves
- Sugar
- Salt
Ingredients For Spice Paste
- Dried chilies
- Lemongrass
- Galangal
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Shallots
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make This Recipe
Step 1: All all the ingredients of the Spice Paste in a food processor. Blend well.
Step 2: 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.
Step 3: Add the coconut milk, water, and simmer on medium heat, stirring frequently until the chicken is almost cooked.
Step 4: 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe is only 383 calories per serving.
What To Serve With This Recipe
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Other Recipes You Might Like
- Beef Rendang
- Lamb Rendang
- Malaysian Chicken Curry
- Squid Curry
- Ayam Masak Merah (Chicken in Spicy Tomato Sauce)
Chicken Rendang
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 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.
Video
Notes
- Check out my recipe to make beef rendang
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
wonderful dish full of flavour !
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?
Sounds like your chicken is watery? In this case, you can transfer the chicken out and reduce the liquid before putting the chicken back.
No tamarind in the chicken version? Curious to know why…..
It’s not necessary but you can add.
I cant find whole dried arbol chillies in my supermarket …they have arbol chilli flakes
Can I use those and how much ?
Hmmm, it’s hard to say since I haven’t tried. I would start with 2 tablespoons and adjust per your taste.
Wow chicken rendang like cow rendang the same with indonesian rendang from west sumatera indonesia. I like it.
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!
Whole stick of cinnamon. Cardamom, whole. You can leave the star anise whole. Don’t fish them out.
Ginger is not a substitute for galangal. It will change the taste.
I just cooked the recipe and followed it to the tee. However the dish came out looking like a Thai green curry. Lol.
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.
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
Thanks for trying this chicken rendang.
This recipe looks absolutely delicious. Will try it and tell you how it goes!