Ayam Masak Merah is a Malay dish with chicken and red chillies. Although fiery in colour, it’s not always as spicy and goes great with fluffy white rice. Here’s an easy-to-follow recipe!
Jump to RecipeAyam Masak Merah is the food of my childhood, along with many other classic malay dishes. Growing up in Singapore means you can have a different cuisine (easily) everyday for lunch or or dinner if you so decide. This chicken dish was the mainstay at my favourite Nasi Padang shop in Yishun where I grew up. I can’t find this place anymore, but man this dish still gets me.
Translated literally, Ayam Masak Merah means cooked red chicken. The sauce base for this dish (otherwise known as rempah) is headily aromatic, filled with earthy ginger and galangal and citrusy lemongrass. Making this dish can be easy, but it’s undoubtedly labour intensive. Well, not really, but by today’s cooking standards this does take quite a bit of time. Here are my shortcuts:
- Marinate the chicken in the roasting pan itself
- Roast the chicken instead of frying it (less oil, less fuss and you get to kid yourself into thinking it’s healthy. Which it is!)
- Get all ingredients chopped and at the ready to blend
- Use the juices from the chicken for added flavour
- Add tamarind paste – you get the desired tang without having to chop up tomatoes
Having said all this, I will say that mine is not quite a traditional recipe. I always create shortcuts and make my life easier in the kitchen (or in general) where I can. This dish is no exception.
The rempah
Ayam Masak Merah requires fresh Asian ingredients, and a damn good blender. You’ll need to visit the market for staples such as:
- galangal
- ginger
- lemongrass stalks
- large red chillies
- chilli padi
- garlic
- large red onions
- dried chillies
These ingredients make the rempah, or spicy sauce, that forms the base of this dish. When cooking this rempah, you’ll want to cook it down till the oil starts splitting from the paste. I know ‘splitting’ is a term forbidden in western cooking but we embrace this here in Asia, and this dish is a perfect example. If you prefer, you can cook this paste down till it goes a deep, dark crimson. I like fresh-looking things, and I’m always short on time so I added my chicken when I was happy with what I saw.
The chicken
Yes, I roast my chicken instead of deep frying it. Look, if you want to get out your large pot and fry a kilo of chicken pieces a few at a time I will not stand in your way. However, baking it just takes the stress and mess out of the kitchen and hence, my method of choice in this recipe.
I will say this now— I do not enjoy cutting up chicken. I can do it and have on many occasions but if there’s someone who can do it for you, let them. Buy your chicken from NTUC or the wet market and get the butcher to slice up the chicken for you. They can even remove the innards, head and feet if you’re not into using them (I don’t).
That’s enough chatter from me. Are you ready for some Ayam Masak Merah? Let’s go!
Ayam Masak Merah Recipe
Course: Main4
servings40
minutes30
minutesYou’ll need;
1kg chicken, cut into about 12 pieces
1 – 2 tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger + garlic paste
- For the rempah
30g galangal
30g ginger
3 lemongrass stalks, chopped
10 large red chillies, chopped
4 chilli padi, chopped
10 cloves garlic, peeled
3 large red onions, chopped
7 dried chillies
125ml water
- To make Ayam Masak Merah
3 – 4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 star anise
1 stick cinnamon, broken into 2
4 cloves
1 dried bay leaf
10 – 15 shallots, peeled
1 stalk curry leaves
2 blades of pandan leaves
1 tsp palm sugar (I used Thai palm sugar cos’… duh)
1 tbsp tamarind paste dissolved in 50ml water
1 – 2 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric powder
You’ll need to;
- Prepare the chicken
- Marinate chicken with all the ingredients above, then bake in a 200°C preheated oven for around 25 minutes. Once baked, set aside, DO NOT discard the liquid.
- Make the rempah
- Blend all the ingredients together to make a coarse paste. You can go finer if you prefer—I just like it rough. Set aside, and let’s get cookin’.
- Make Ayam Masak Merah
- On a medium skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil with the whole spices. When bubbles start to form around the edges of the spices, add the shallots and cook until lightly browned (adjust the heat if it’s browning too quickly). Add the curry leaves and cook for a further 30 seconds, before adding the prepared rempah. You’re going to need to cook this down, till the oil separates from the mixture – this took me around 20 minutes on high.
- When the mixture is thick, add the pandan leaves, palm sugar, salt and turmeric. Stir everything to combine, then add the cooked chicken and its juices. Stir everything together, make sure the chicken pieces are well coated with the rempah. Reduce the heat, cover and leave for the flavours to penetrate the chicken, around 5 to 7 minutes. Remove the lid, stir through and test the chicken thigh to see if it’s cooked (the breasts are for sure ready at this point). Once cooked, turn off the heat, and place ayam masak merah atop a steaming plate of rice. Then, face forward, friends!
Notes
- The chicken juices go a long way in making this dish incredibly flavourful. Do not discard it.
- You don’t have to use shallots, a regular red onion that’s sliced into half moons will be perfect, too!
- The ingredients in the rempah are non-negotiable.
- If you want it to be more redder and tangy, add tomato puree.
- Want more heat? Add more chilli padi – the large red chillies merely give colour.