Rendang Ayam

Do you know that based on an online poll by 35,000 people held by CNN International in 2011 Rendang is one of  ‘World’s 50 Most Delicious Foods ? I have no doubt about it.  Rendang is indeed really delicious. When I live in Indonesia, I used to just buy it in Padang restaurants that are spread all over the city and I will have a yummy meals for the day. Unfortunately I can’t do it anymore here in Slovenia. Anyway Rendang is identically with beef. Today I checked the fridge and I had leftover of shredded chicken and 2 pieces of chicken. Couple days ago I saw someone posted Rendang Ayam on Facebook.  It got my attention on how it would be the taste. So I decided to give it a try, plus I am kind of miss ‘Nasi Padang’. The recipe is the same as for making beef rendang (rendang sapi), only I used half of shredded chicken and few chicken thighs. And since my 2 years old son is a big fan of egg, I also added hard boiled eggs to make a special Rendang Ayam 🙂

Category : Poultry

Difficulty : Medium

Cooking time : 45 – 60 minutes

INGREDIENTS

– 8 pieces of chicken thighs or breasts

–  700 ml coconut milk ( made from 1 coconut if using freshly granted coconut)

– 2 kaffir lime leafs

– 1 fresh turmeric leaf (optional)

– 1 piece of tamarind (asam gelugur/asam kandis) – it’s about 2 cm

– 1 stalk of lemongrass

– 5 shallots, thinly slice

Spice Paste

– 100 g red chillies (optional, you can have it less if you want to)

– 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

– 1 teaspoon fresh shredded ginger

– 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh shredded galangal (laos/lengkuas)

– 1 teaspoon of shredded fresh turmeric

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare the spice paste by grinding or blending all ingredients finely.

2. Use the wok, saute the shallot until fragrant then add the spice paste.  After few minutes add  chicken and all other ingredients into a wok and bring slowly to the boil, stirring constantly to prevent the coconut milk from separating. Cook over low heat, stirring from time to time, until the meat is very tender and all the sauce has evaporated. If you want to add hard boiled eggs, add them in the sauce while cooking.

4. Continue cooking the chicken, which will fry in the oil that has come out from the coconut milk, until brown.

5. Serve with warm rice and other accompaniments such as perkedel kentang , gulai nangka padang and sambal lado ijo.

Picture of my ‘Nasi Padang’