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Red Cooked Chicken or Ayam Masak Merah is one of the famous red curry or red chili dishes in Malay cuisine. It is one of those curry dishes that doesn’t use coconut milk. The specialty about the Ayam Masak Merah is the chicken pieces are pan fried till golden brown and cooked in the red hot and sweet tomato sauce. The sauce is made freshly from tomatoes, red chilies, herbs and spices. It adds a hint of spiciness to the sweetness of the sauce. Great for those who don’t like too spicy.

Ayam Masak Merah is a popular dish among the Malay communities. You can usually find it serving with nasi tomato (tomato rice) or nasi lemak (coconut milk rice) in the Malay stalls. Some people may think this is something similar to Italian spaghetti tomato sauce as it uses mainly tomatoes as the main ingredient but the difference is the Malay style has a more spicy hot kick to it and different spices that made it so special in taste.

Ingredients:

1 Chicken thighs and 1 Chicken breast (cut into pieces)
2 tbsp turmeric powder ( young ginger spices)
1 tsbp salt
2 Red onions (cut into rings)
4 Tomatoes (cut into pieces)
1 6 oz can Tomato Puree
2 tbsp Ketchup
1 tbsp dark sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
2 cups water
1 tbsp sugar
Zest of lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

For the chili sauce (ground to paste):
6 dried chilies
3 red chilies
5 cloves garlic
8 medium shallots
4cm ginger

Cooking Method:

1. Coat the chicken pieces with turmeric powder and salt, marinate for half an hour.
2. Finely grind the dried chilies, red chilies, garlic, shallots and ginger in a food processor into paste.
3. In a pan or wok, heat enough oil to pan fry chicken. Fry the chicken in three batches until they turn slightly golden brown. Drain with paper towel and set aside.
4. Heat remaining 3 tbsp oil in a pot at low heat, cook the chili paste until it oozes from the oil surface.
5. Add the red onions and tomatoes until fragrant and slightly soft.
6. Pour in the tomato puree, tomato ketchup, dark soy sauce and sugar, stir to combine. Add in water bring to boil and reduce to low, simmer for about 10 minutes.
7. Add the pan fried chicken, mix well with sauce. Bring sauce to rapid boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for another 30 minutes covered till the sauce thickens.
8. Add in some lime juice and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with steamed rice, nasi lemak or nasi tomato.