Name: Ayam Masak Hitam (Zen Chicken)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Malaysian
Ingredients: 450 g (1 lb) chicken breast meat; ½ tsp salt; 1 tsp turmeric powder; 1 medium white onion, peeled and sliced; 250 ml (8 fl oz) vegetable oil; 1 tsp tamarind juice; 1 Tbsp honey, or to taste; 1 large white onion, peeled and cut into quarters; 250 ml (8 fl oz / 1 cup) water; 2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, roughly chopped; 2 candlenuts; 4 Tbsp dried chilli paste; 7.5-cm (3-inch) knob ginger, peeled and sliced; 4 cloves garlic, peeled; 2 Tbsp ketchup; 8 shallots, peeled; 4 Tbsp sweet soy sauce; 5 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

My Rendang isn't Crispy

By Zaleha Kadir Olpin

Published 2019

About

This is one of our family favourites! Calling it Zen chicken may seem a little odd, but we chose the name to reflect the perfect balance of flavours — sweetness from the honey, tanginess from the ketchup, spiciness from the chillies and a refreshing citrus flavour from the kaffir lime leaves. We enjoy using chicken in this dish, but these flavours are also great with fish, beef or tofu.