Ayam Masak Merah
30 minutes min
30 minutes min
5 Per
As a child, this was one of my favourite dishes because when my mother was introducing me to spicy food, she would cook ayam masak merah. It is spicy, yet sweet, with a slight tinge of sourness coming from tomatoes added to the rempah. When my mother cooks this dish on regular days, she usually skips the step of frying the chicken separately, opting to simply let the chicken simmer in the rempah paste. My hack for avoiding the tedious frying process is to use the oven’s grill.
- Prepare chicken pieces by cleaning and patting them dry with paper towels. Place in a large bowl and rub with a teaspoonful of salt, then let them rest for about 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200ºC on the grill setting.
- Drain the excess water and pat chicken pieces dry again. Add ground turmeric and a tablespoonful of oil and mix to coat the chicken well. Arrange on a baking tray and grill for 15–20 minutes. The chicken does not need to be fully cooked, as the grilling here is meant to give it a crispy texture. Set aside.
- In a blender, blend chillies, onion, garlic and ginger together until a smooth paste forms. You may have to add a dash of water to help in the blending.
- Heat 3 tablespoonfuls of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Fry cinnamon, cloves, star anise and cardamom for about a minute. Add the paste and cook for about 10 minutes over medium-low heat until well tempered, or when the oil starts to separate from the spices.
- Stir in chilli sauce, diced tomatoes, sugar and the remaining salt. Cook for another 5 minutes before adding the chicken pieces and letting it simmer over low heat for an hour. Serve with nasi minyak or white rice.
1 whole chicken, about 1 kg, cut into 12 pieces
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric
Vegetable oil as needed
15 dried red chillies, cut, soaked in hot water and drained
1 medium red onion, peeled
5 cloves garlic, peeled
5-cm knob ginger, peeled
1 stick cinnamon
4 cloves
2 star anise
5 green cardamom pods
2 Tbsp chilli sauce
411 g (1 can) diced tomatoes
1 Tbsp sugar
