Rendang Ayam (Spiced Chicken Rendang)
This flavorful Malaysian-style chicken curry is a braise in reverse: The chicken is cooked in coconut milk flavored with spices and begins to brown when most of the liquid cooks away, creating a beautifully caramelized exterior. This recipe first appeared in our October 2011 issue along with Jayanthi Daniel's article Hungry City.
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Credit: Todd Coleman
INGREDIENTS
1 3–4-lb. chicken, cut into 8 pieces by your butcher5 dried chiles de árbol, stemmed and roughly chopped
3 shallots, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 stalks lemongrass, tough outer layers removed, interior layers finely chopped
1 3″-piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced crosswise
1 2″-piece fresh or frozen turmeric, peeled and thinly sliced, or 1 tbsp. ground turmeric
3 tbsp. peanut oil
6 cardamom pods, cracked open
6 fresh or frozen kaffir lime leaves
4 whole star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
2 ½ cups coconut milk
1 tsp. sugar
Kosher salt, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Cut chicken: Cut each breast crosswise into 3 pieces, and halve each thigh, drumstick, and wing piece, discarding wing tips, to produce 18 pieces total; set aside. Combine chiles, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, and 1/4 cup water in a small food processor, and process until a smooth paste forms; set spice paste aside.2. Heat oil in a 12″ nonstick skillet over medium heat; add cardamom, lime leaves, star anise, and cinnamon, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add spice paste, and cook, stirring often, until caramelized and the oil begins to separate from the paste, 8–10 minutes. Add coconut milk, sugar, and salt, and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring, until reduced by a third, about 20 minutes. Add chicken, stirring to coat in sauce, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is the consistency of thick pea soup, about 1 ½–2 hours.
3. Continue to cook, stirring constantly to prevent sauce and chicken from burning, until sauce and chicken turn a dark caramel color and the sauce coats the chicken, about 20 minutes. Discard whole spices before serving.
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And then: "Continue to cook, stirring constantly to prevent sauce and chicken from burning, until sauce and chicken turn a dark caramel color and the sauce coats the chicken, about 20 minutes."
The flavorings look OK (except too much chili) but surely the cooking times need revision.
There's a reason for the eight-piece cut: more surface area for the sauce to adhere to. Five arbols with their seeds was perfect heat for us. The chicken was fully cooked after 30 min, of course, but the dish wasn't near done until 90 min later. It was an entirely new flavour in this house, and very welcome.