Chicken Rendang (Rendang Ayam)

Some people think that cooking rendang is a big deal, only for festive season but in actual fact rendang is almost like any other Malay cooking .. Especially if you use chicken instead of meat! 

These are exactly what I needed to cook my pot of rendang.. It's not as spicy as I would like but any hotter, the kids would kill me!

5 medium size onions

4 cloves of garlic

An inch of kunyit hidup

A thumb size ginger

2 thumbs size lengkuas

8 stalks red chilli 

5 stalks cili padi (more if you want it spicy!)

the mid part of 2 lemongrass that's soft

(Keep the bottom root part for perfume)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1/2 cup water

Blitz all the above ingredients in a blender and sauté in 1 cup of oil until fragrant. 

1 daun kunyit

1 bay leaf

2 kaffir lime leaves 

2 bruised lemongrass root 

Add the aromatics and continue sautéeing. 

1 whole chicken cut into 10 pieces

2 tablespoons of kerisik

100ml of santan (I used Kara)

1 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoon sugar

Salt to taste 

Add your chicken and coat it with all the spices on low heat. Add the kerisik, santan, water, salt & sugar and simmer for about 20 minutes until the sauce has thicken and the chicken is cooked. The colour of the sauce will also be of a brownish hue. Rendang always taste better the next day after the chicken has absorbed all the yummy spices and the sauce will darken as well. 

Serve with hot rice, pineapple salsa and papadoms.. Enjoy!