Easy Chicken Rendang

The "Must Food" for Hari Raya in Malaysia.

Lebaran di KL nggak afdol tanpa rendang ayam dan ketupat nasi.

Yes, Hari Raya is not complete without rendang, lemang, and ketupat. That is how the local celebrate their Hari Raya.

Me and my sucks cooking skills, 

I have to find a way to make the Hari Raya still festive-ful  but not makes me hating myself *lol

EASY CHICKEN RENDANG

Hari Raya eve we went for a bit grocery, 

yes… just a bit.

Since only two of us, we only make rendang from half chicken.

1/2 chicken, cut into several pieces

1 box coconut milk

1 pack rendang paste (cheating) , 

1 Onion, 2 garlic, bit of ginger => slices nicely

1 lemongrass, bruise several time with the back of knife

1 kefir lime leaves

don't ask me to make rendang paste, Waaaayyyy too many ingredients.

And I never really have confident in cooking Sumatran - Malaysian food.

Well, maybe if we move to the other country  and we couldn't find any Asian store selling rendang paste, I might need to force myself to learn how to make a good rendang seasoning from scratch.

The main hero for the day

I purposely pan fried the chicken before cook to keep the meat in the nice shape.

(I saw many rendang messing up, smashed up and mix together with the seasoning)

Til I don't know which is what.

fried garlic, onion and ginger with 1 table spoon coking oil in small fire until soft.

add in the rendang paste, stir for 5 minutes until the oil separates from the paste.

I always do that to make sure the paste well cook and didn't leave "raw-herbs" taste

add in the pan fried chicken

mix for couple minutes (5-10 min) until you feel the chicken start absorbs the seasoning.

add in coconut milk, lemon grass and kefir lime leaves.

You can add dried coconut (kerisik) to add the texture too, but I found it too rich

stir until the gravy bit dry

Remove the lime leaves and lemon grass

Served with hot rice or rice cake :)