The KING OF ALL CURRIES is here!!! Beef Rendang has incredible depth of flavour, with complexity and many layers of spices. It’s straight forward to make, though it does take time and perhaps a trip to the Asian grocery store (though Sydney-siders will find everything at Woolies). Watch the video and drool!
Beef Rendang
This Beef Rendang recipe is from a payroll lady at a company I used to work for. It’s her Malaysian mother’s recipe. I still remember, so many years later, how we used to bond over food at the water cooler!
I actually first published this recipe a couple of years ago but I’ve made some minor improvements that will make your life easier without changing the flavour at all. Plus I made a recipe video!
Beef Rendang is the king of all curries!
What is Beef Rendang?
Beef Rendang is a Malaysian curry and is considered by many to be the king of all curries! To say it’s extravagantly delicious is an understatement. There are very few curries in this world with such amazingly complex flavours.
Originally from Indonesia though now more well known as a Malaysia curry, the sauce is made with aromatic spices like cinnamon, cardamom and star anise as well as fresh aromatics including lemongrass, garlic, ginger and galangal.
Unlike many curries, Beef Rendang is a dry curry which means there is not loads of sauce. However, the meat is so ridiculously tender and has a thick coating of sauce on each piece, so when the meat literally falls apart at a touch, it mixes through rice, flavouring it like saucy curries.
If you love South East Asian curries, Beef Rendang is without a doubt one of the best!
Here in Sydney, you can get all the ingredients for Beef Rendang at Woolworths and Coles. Seriously!
How to make Beef Rendang
Though there’s a fair few ingredients in this, some of which may not be familiar to you and are certainly not everyday ingredients even in my world, it’s actually quite a straightforward recipe:
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Blitz curry paste ingredient in food processor;
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Brown the beef;
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Cook off the curry paste – releases amazing flavour!
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Add everything else in and slow cook until the beef is ultra tender.
An interesting cooking method with Beef Rendang is the way it gets the deep brown colour. All throughout the video, right up until the very end, you will notice that the sauce is a pale brown colour. It’s not until the very end when the sauce reduces right down and the oil separates that it turns brown, essentially the browning of the beef in the oil of the sauce.
This Beef Rendang can be made in a slow cooker, but I find it easiest to make it all on the stove. Especially given it starts on the stove with the browning of the beef and spice paste, then finishes on the stove with the reducing of the sauce and browning of the beef (this part cannot be done in a slow cooker).
This is one of those recipes that just gets better with time. So whenever possible, I try to make this a day or two in advance. It also freezes extremely well.
I serve this with my Restaurant Style Coconut Rice because it’s my copycat of the coconut rice you get at the posh modern Asian restaurants! – Nagi xx
PS You see those bits stuck on the beef that could be shredded coconut?? It’s not. It’s bits of shredded BEEF. Because it’s so tender by the end, when you’re stirring it, some bits do flake off. YUM!
MORE GREAT CURRIES OF THE WORLD!
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Biryani (it’s amazing!)
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Dal (Indian lentil curry)
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Browse the Curry Collection
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Beef Rendang recipe video!
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Beef Rendang
Ingredients
Spice Paste
- 12 dried chilies, rehydrated in boiling water, or 12 large fresh (Note 1a)
- 1 small onion, finely chopped (Note 1b)
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 lemongrass stalks, white part only, sliced (Note 2)
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh galangal, finely chopped (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
- 2 tbsp oil (vegetable, canola or peanut oil)
Curry
- 2 lb/ 1 kg chuck steak, or other slow cooking beef, cut into 4cm / 1.6" cubes (Note 4)
- 1 tbsp oil (vegetable, peanut, canola)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/4 tsp clove powder
- 3 star anise
- 1/2 tsp cardamon powder
- 1 lemongrass stick, bottom half of the stick only and smashed (Note 5)
- 400ml / 14 oz coconut milk (1 standard can)
- 2 tsp tamarind puree / paste, or tamarind pulp soaked in 1 tbsp of hot water, seeds removed (Note 6)
- 4 large kaffir lime leaves (or 6 small) , very finely sliced (Note 7)
- 1/3 cup desiccated coconut (finely shredded coconut)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar or grated palm sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Place Spice Paste ingredients in a small food processor and whizz until fine. NOTE: If using dried chilli and you know your food processor is not that powerful, chop the chilli first.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large heavy based pot over high heat. Add half the beef and brown, then remove onto plate. Repeat with remaining beef.
- Lower heat to medium low. Add Spice Paste and cook for 2 - 3 minutes until the wetness has reduced and the spice paste darkens (don't breathe in too much, the chilli will make you cough!).
- Add remaining Curry ingredients and beef. Stir to combine.
- Bring to simmer, then immediately turn down the heat to low or medium low so the sauce is bubbling very gently.
- Put the lid on the pot and leave it to simmer for 1 hr 15 minutes.
- Remove lid and check the beef to see how tender it is. You don't want it to be "fall apart at a touch" at this stage, but it should be quite tender. If it is fall apart already, remove the beef from the pot before proceeding.
- Turn up heat to medium and reduce sauce for 30 - 40 minutes, stirring every now and then at first, then frequently towards the end until the beef browns and the sauce reduces to a paste that coats the beef. (Note 9)
- The beef should now be very tender, fall apart at a touch. If not, add a splash of water and keep cooking. Remove from heat and serve with plain or Restaurant Style Coconut Rice.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Dozer’s got a boo boo. i.e. Shredded his paw by tearing manically across a bed of oyster shells in pursuit of a pelican.
Let’s not feel too sorry for him though. He’s been pretty pampered.
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Can you use beef brisket for this recipe instead of the chuck steak?
Absolutely delicious! I did add some turmeric (because I like turmeric and I had some) and drastically reduced the number of chilies as my hubby can’t eat a hot curry sadly (I love them) but it still had incredible depth of flavour which would have been enhance by the fact I made it the day before serving. Also made Nagi’s recipe for baked coconut rice to go with it which also turned out to be the best rice dish I have cooked in a very long time. Fantastic all round. Thank you.
Loved the recipes
Hi Nagi, thank you so much! I have cooked the Rendang exactly to your recipe.
It is for tomorrow night, but just licking the spoon once I’d finished was a glorious experience.
The kitchen smells heavenly just now!
Thanks Nagi for another fabulous recipe! I’ve always found it too hard to do rendang from scratch or flavors never quite right, but this was great!
After researching other recipes, I also added 1 Tbspn coriander powder, 1 tsp fennel seeds, 1 tsp cumin powder, to the curry spices you had.
So tasty! Thank you
First and foremost, rendang IS from Indonesia and Indonesia will and shall always be highly regarded for its rendang. It is a national treasure. Not the NYT Cooking, Unesco, chef Gordon Ramsay, nor a simple Google search say otherwise; not sure how you can make such bold statement as “Beef rendang is a Malaysian curry” and “now more well known as Malaysian curry”. Seems like this is a Malaysian version recipe of rendang, which is totally fine, if you like that better than the Indonesian version. But the rendang debate has been a very sensitive subject between both countries. Please dont make such bold statements without being fully informed.
Well! I’m glad you got that off your chest!
Delicious! One of those “did *I* really cook this?!” meals. Thanks Nagi!
This is the best thing I’ve ever cooked. And perhaps the best thing I’ve ever eaten
So easy and sooooo good
A-MAZING!
Where do you buy your onions? In my world an onion the size of a tennis ball is huge, so finding a ‘large’ onion that is twice as big as a tennis ball would be incredible!
Even my fussy peranakan husband loved it. Will definitely make again. Hopefully next time the innocent looking chillies will not be devil chilli. ❤️
I made this again last night for and as usual, no leftovers. I keep increasing the quantity hoping for some leftovers to freeze but no luck!
Made this beef rendang tonight Nagi – the depth of flavour was incredible. Thank you for such a spot on recipe.
Thank you for giving me permission to use powdered cloves & cardamom 😉 SIL requested rendang for his birthday dinner, this was full of flavour, wonderful. I had a minor emergency after browning beef so ended up using the instant pot to cook, which saved an hour and a bit of fussing. thanks
Still our fav rendang recipe by far. Made this tonight and the whole house and outdoors area smells heavenly, Don’t skip browning the meat or dry frying the coconut. Superb flavours. Thanks Nagi ❤️
My inspiration to try the recipe was a beef rendang my 14-year old ordered in Yogyakarta. Tasted great but was way too hot for him to eat. Here, I had to cook the beef an hour longer but otherwise followed the exact proportion of the spices (except for the chiles) and the taste was amazing! Thank you, Nagi!!!
This is such an overwhelmingly superb dish and recipe. Something to inspire poetry. Every time after having it, I have to sit here quietly for a while in a sort of trance, baffled really, enjoying the long echo of these almost confusingly complex flavours.
Hey Nagi I now have a new you beaut slow cooker which can sear/brown meat and precook veg/spices it is excellent just like your recipes