Malaysian Chicken Rendang

Rendang. Such a rich and comforting dish, one that is always synonymous with Malaysian cuisine. But what is rendang, I hear you say? Rendang is a dish, slow cooked in coconut milk, with kerisik, which is toasted coconut added at the end to enrich it, making it the comforting and wonderful dish that it is. Rendang is voted one of the top ten things to eat before you die. Rendang, like many foods in Malaysia, has many varieties. Rendang daging which you know it as beef rendang. We have chicken rendang, we have rendang 'hati', which is a liver rendang. And then we also have the vegetarian version. We have jackfruit rendang. We have rendang fish. So there are many, many varieties of rendang. Then, in every region in Malaysia has its own rendang version, too. I have taken the core spices of the rendang that I know and love and made it into this recipe that is easily created by you in your home kitchen. Rendang traditionally is a laborious dish to me and therefore is a celebration dish, a dish that is worth the effort to celebrate something special. So we always have rendang during Eid, which is Hari Raya in Malaysia. I have had the privilege to watch how rendang was made in a village environment in Malaysia, during my cousin's wedding. I remember arriving to this wedding, and the wedding celebration has gone on about four or five days. Everyone in the village has turned up to help and they have chipped in to buy this cow for my cousin's wedding. The men slaughtered it and the women cooked. And it was a team effort and we have eatten every bit of this cow and it feed the entire village. It was such a joyous occasion as a wonderful way to celebrate the life of a new couple and also we make sure that we celebrate the life of the cow by eating every bit of it to make it wonderful rendang. Let me give you a tip. Eat rendang with plenty of rice as the sauce is to die for and they make such great leftovers. The flavours develop better the next day. So it's a great dish to make in advance as well.