Ayam Masak Merah (a Malay Red Chicken Curry)

• servings: 6 servings
• active time: 20 minutes
• total time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

1 kg chicken portions (or use a whole chicken, chopped up)

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp salt

1 large onion

1 lemongrass

5 cm ginger

2 cloves garlic

1 red chilli (mild variety)

1 medium-sized cinnamon stick

3 cloves

1 star anise

1 stalk lemongrass

1 large onion

60 ml vegetable oil

1 tsp white sugar

3 Tbsp concentrated tomato paste (may be called tomato purée in Asia)

3 Tbsp tomato ketchup

250 ml water

Directions

Marinate the Chicken

marinate

Rub the chicken with the turmeric and salt and set aside for about 15-20 minutes while you get everything else ready. Or, if you have the time, leave it to marinate for 1 hour. Be sure to cover it.

Paste

slice

Chop the onion, slice the bottom half of the lemongrass into rings, and slice the ginger for easier chopping.

chop

Place everything into a chopper and chop to a fairly fine paste, adding 1-2 tablespoon of water if necessary. Set aside.

Additional Prep Work

bruise

Cut to lemongrass about halfway up, and lose the top half. Bruise the lemongrass by pounding down on its base with the back of your knife. You can read more about how to use lemongrass here.

slice

Slice the large onion into rings and set aside.

Let's brown the Chicken first

brown

Heat the oil on medium-high heat, in a large saucepan, with the sugar. Brown the chicken in batches. You only want to do this briefly, about a minute each side. We don't want to cook the chicken, just give it some colour.

place

When done on both sides, place the browned chicken on kitchen paper lined plates.

Let's cook the Ayam Masak Merah

fry

We'll use the same saucepan. Pour out most of the oil, leaving about 2 Tbsp still in the saucepan. On medium heat, fry the cinnamon, cloves and star anise for 30 seconds, don’t let them burn.

stir

Add the ground paste and lemongrass and fry for about 2 minutes, stirring regularly. Scrape the base of the pan to incorporate all the sticky bits from the chicken earlier.

add

Add the tomato paste and ketchup and stir well.

coat

Add the chicken, stirring to coat the meat with all that delicious paste. Add the water, stir and let it come to a boil.

simmer

Lower the heat right down and simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked, about 30-45 minutes, depending on size and part. Meat on the bone, drumsticks and legs are going to take longer than boneless breast meat.

add

5 minutes before the end of cooking time, add the sliced onion rings, stir and leave to simmer. If the curry is too dry for you, add a little water, perhaps no more than 125 ml (½ cup). You don't want to dilute the flavours in the curry.

season

When the chicken is cooked, check the seasoning. Add more salt if you think it needs it.

Nutrition

• Calories: 364 kcal
• Total Fat: 27 g
• Saturated Fat: 13 g
• Trans Fat: 1 g
• Cholesterol: 85 mg
• Sodium: 602 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 8 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1 g
• Total Sugars: 4 g
• Protein: 22 g