Recipe: chicken rendang

Rendang is one of most popular dish in Indonesia, you can find even a meat cut called “rendang” in supermarkets. Rendang is a kind of curry, drier than Indian curry and cooked with beef. Or, if you have not a couple of hours to spend in kitchen cooking the beef, you can use chicken. Way much faster. (Qui in italiano)

I learnt this recipe during a cooking class organized by Bima group-Ihs at Abu Molina home. She is an Indian woman living in Jakarta with her husband for over 30 years and owner of Tamarind, a catering for traditional Indian food. Among spices and show cooking Ibu Molina teached us secrets of chicken rendang, so here is the recipe. I tried to cook by myself last Sunday and we liked it: not too spicy, it will suit everybody’s taste.

Ingredients (3 serving)
400 g chicken cubes
200 ml coconut cream
100 ml water
1 teaspoon coriander seed
5 pcs shallots
5 pcs candlenuts
2 pcs garlic
5 big chillies (3 big red and 2 big green, the kind not much hot)
1 teaspoon palm sugar (or brown sugar)
3 cm galangal
2 kaffir leaves
1 bay leaf
1 lemongrass
a pinch of salt
2 tablespoon of oil

In the original recipes you should use tamarind leaves; bay leaves are hard to find even in Indonesian pasar but in Italy it is easy to find them. Kaffir is a kind of lime and if you cannot find kaffir leaves you can substitute with lime or lemon leaves. If you cannot find lemongrass or candlenut skip this part.

Note about Indonesian chillies. The rule is: if it’s big then it’s not so hot, the smaller are the hottest. The red ones are hotter than green chillies, but the smallest chillies don’t follow this rule: the hottest are the smaller green chillies. But they are really, really, really hot, so I’ve never tried them (and I will never try).

Let’s start!

In a wok or in a pan roast coriander seeds until the fragrance will spread. Now prepare the paste: you can go traditional and use one of that beautiful stone mortar or stay modern and use a food processor. We used the last one. Deseed and chop the chillies, then mix in the food processor along with shallots, garlic, coriander seeds, palm sugar (in Indonesia you can find palm sugar in blocks, but you can substitute it with the same amount of brown sugar or cane sugar), candenuts and salt. Mix to form a past. If you have some problem mixing it you can add a tablespoon of oil or two tablespoon of water.

In a wok or in a pan heat two tablespoon of oil then add the paste. Stir and put in the pan other ingredients: bay and kaffir (or lime/lemon) leaves bruised to spread the fragrance; if you have fresh lemongrass bruise the withe part and tie in a knot; wash and peel the galangal then add to the pan. Cook stirring often until you can feel the spice smell spreading all over your kitchen.

Add chicken cubes. You can choose to let the chicken cook with spices or to cook the chicken before and add to the pan altredy cooked. We chose the second option because we need some “plain” chicken for Leo. Stir the chicken in the spicy paste then add coconut cream mixed with water. In the traditional recipe you should use a whole grated coconut soaked in water to get coconut milk. You can use a coconut jar, it’s easier but it’s a thick cream then you have to mix with water.

Add coconut milk in the pan and mix with chicken. Stir often until it boils. Let the coconut sauce reduce until it became creamy and keep stirring to avoid the coconut milk from breaking. Serve with steamed rice. It will help to tone down the spicy rendang and it’s lovely to eat rice with this curry. Enjoy your chicken rendang!