Chicken Rendang & Mixed Curry Vegetables aka Sayur Lodeh
At 16, I fell in love with a dish call Ayam Bawang literally mean Onion Chicken when i ate it at Sanur Indonesian Restaurant where i was working part-time there. Shortly after, they discontinued this dish & i never get to taste it again. Since then i have tried many trial & error to replicate the dish according to the taste in my memory but still not very close to it...:(
Chicken Rendang and Ayam Masek Merah may be a very easy homecook dish for malays. the rempah seems to be a basic for them. i am a chinese and i know nothing abt the them until i read up every recipes i came across for these dishes.
What i have here is a dish that incorporates both Ayam Masek Merah & Chicken Rendang recipe.
Preparing the Chicken for Deep Fry
- 1 whole chicken + 2 thigh meat or 6 boneless chicken thigh meat
- Rub the chicken with 2 tsp heaps of salt leave it for 10 mins before washing the salt away.
- Add 2 tsp tsp of chicken stock powder and let it marinate for 30 mins to 1 hr.
- Add 2 tbsp to lightly coat the chicken pieces
- Deep fry in hot oil till it is 75% cooked or crispy on the outside. Set it aside.
2 pack Chicken Rendang Mix from Malay stall in wet market which would usually consist of dried chilli, fresh chilli, chilli poweder, shallots, garlic, ginger,tumeric, galangal etc...
8 big onions (4 minced + 4 cut into quarters)
8 red tomato (5 coarsely chopped & 5 cut into quarters
1 whole clove of crushed garlic
3 stalk of lemon grass (cut into 3 portion & crush the part nearest to the root)
- Fry mince onion in oil lightly , then add in in garlic and fry till it start turning brown and release fragrance.
- Add in rendang mix & lemon grass, continue to fry until everything is well mixed.
- Add in chopped tomato, stir fry the everything in the wok till it become fragrant and well blended.
- Add in chicken parts & then followed by quarters of onion & tomatos
- Pour in 3 rice bowl of water and let it boil & then simmer till the gravy become thick. If you prefer to have coconut milk you may minus 1 bowl of water & replace with 1 bowl of coconut milk.
- Add 1 chicken stock cube or chicken flavoured powder to taste.
- Garnish with coriander and serve.
If you like your chicken rendang really dry, u can use the excess gravy to make mix curry veg and add some extra water and coconut milk according to your preference.