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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.
I’ve had the same experience as others: delicious, but pale and far more liquid than anticipated (using chicken thighs). I turned the heat up and left the lid off to reduce it more quickly (after seeing little change after 30 minutes), but it still wound up very “brothy.” As for color, I wonder whether I needed to brown the paste more at the outset. When you say fry the paste until aromatic (as I thought I did), how long does that take and does it make the paste a deep brown for you? Thanks for the great recipes. I think my Indonesian grandmother would have approved.
Thanks, Roger.
Hi Roger,
I had the same problem…but then I put the temperatur to the maximum heat without covering with the lid. Just wait and stir at the end.
I found the same issue as other commenters – it did not have the same rich colour as the picture. I added paprika to try and make it darker. It was also very liquid – I used coconut cream instead of milk and no water but still needed to remove the chicken and boil for about 15 mins to get it to thicken. It tasted good though. I have some Kashmiri chilli powder that is very red and I might try to use that next time.
I used very bright red dried chilies, you can try Kashmiri chili powder next time!
I bought a rendeng curry paste awhile back and have a bunch left. How would you do it with that?
Just add chicken.
The recipe is delicious, but i have two questions:
1) the cooking time until the liquid was dried up was 2.5hrs, so way longer than the 30 mins in the recipe. The cup measurement, are those US cups? Thought to maybe use less liquid next time
2) the colour of my dish differs greatly from yours, its not dark at all. I saw in a previous reply that it should be brown, but im thinking none of the ingredients would make it brown?
Yes US cups. Different beef has different water content.
It’s a perfect recipe. I blended a piece of fresh turmeric to the spice paste to enhance the taste and aroma!
Yummy!
How come your chicken rendang came out brown and mine was white. I used all the same ingredients.
It shouldn’t be white. The ingredients used won’t make it white.
Same here…
Wouldn’t toasted coconut make it brown?
I noticed that the recipe requires coconut cream for beef rending, and coconut milk for chicken. Any reason?
It’s fine, it’s really up to your preference.
The way I understand the rendang dishes which need to be soft and fluffy, in the chicken version…I would skip using pieces with skin!…The truth is Eating soft skin it’s not appetizing… do you agree?
thank you.
It’s personal preference. We are used to eating chicken with skin.
If i am using 1 whole chicken cut into 16 pieces (with bone), do i use the same amount of ingredients or should i double it ?
Also, i do not have galangal as i live abroad. Is there any substitute or can i leave it out ?
Please weight the chicken and increase the increase the ingredients accordingly. You can skip galangal.
I will use a whole chicken cut into pieces instead thighs. Neck and wings make wonders in the flavor department. Meat curries require to cook longer to get the real authentic flavors. Thighs only good for quickies and not for randang style which requires lengthy slow cooking process over a couple of hours. Beef randang is so much better flavor wise than that of lamb.
Galangal is the posher cousin of ginger. You can substitute.
I don’t recommend to substitute. Different flavour. Besides galangal is cooling, ginger is heating.
Can i use whole choicken with bones
Yes.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I tried making this today but it was runny and pale not dark and reduced like yours even after simmering for 30 minutes.
You just have to keep reducing it for a long time!
I linked to this post years ago on my site and I’d like to add a photo in the post. They still come to you for the recipe. May I have your permission? Let me know. Thanks!
Hi Kelly, that’s great. Thanks for checking!