You won’t be able to see the sauce in this wonderful Indonesian curry, but you will know it is there. The water evaporates as it decreases, leaving behind the fat and flavor that give this meal its distinctive and irresistible flavor. Originally, in Indonesia’s hot and humid climate, cooking meat in this manner helped preserve it. It turns out that humans kept manufacturing it after refrigeration became commonplace. If preferred, top with cilantro and lime while serving over steaming rice.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 4 hrs 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 ½ pounds beef chuck
- 4 shallots, sliced
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 (1 1/2 inch) piece ginger, peeled and sliced
- 1 ½ inch piece galangal, peeled and sliced
- 2 serrano chile peppers – stemmed, seeded, and sliced
- 1 Fresno chile pepper – stemmed, seeded, and sliced
- 1 tablespoon Korean red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 (14 ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
- 2 teaspoons tamarind paste
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ½ stalk lemongrass, light part
Instructions
- Cut beef chuck into 2-inch pieces.
- Combine shallots, garlic, ginger, galangal, serrano and Fresno chiles, salt, red pepper flakes, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, and nutmeg in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until paste is very finely ground, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides with a spatula.
- Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the curry paste. Cook and stir until it starts to dry out, then stir in the beef. Add coconut milk, tamarind paste, and brown sugar. Stir to combine. Fill up the empty can of coconut milk with water and pour it into the pan. Increase heat to medium-high; bring to a simmer.
- In the meantime, bruise lemongrass with the back of your knife. Cut into 1- to 2-inch pieces and add to the curry. Reduce heat to medium. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until beef is fork-tender and sauce is fully reduced, about 4 hours. Stir more frequently as water reduces; add more water or lower the heat if sauce is reducing faster than beef is softening.
- Remove lemongrass to serve. For best results, let cool and serve the next day.
- Feel free to use a fattier cut like beef shank or short rib in this.
- Substitute red onion for the shallots and ginger for the galangal if desired. If you don’t have tamarind paste, use zest from a lime and lemon, plus juice from 1 lime.
- If you do want some sauce to serve with it, simply add more water during the cooking, or cover for part of the time. If you cook this the day before, as recommended, you’ll want to add a big splash of water when you reheat it. Cover until heated through, then uncover, crank the heat, and cook until it’s as dry as you like.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 380 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 10 g |
| Cholesterol | 65 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 19 g |
| Saturated Fat | 16 g |
| Sodium | 61 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 30 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Wow…that’s a lot of flavor! This is a totally unique flavor profile. I thought it would need sauce or something but it did not. I made as written except for adding some fresh tumeric since it was on hand. It just took a long time to cook but it makes a lot and good for leftovers. The husband gobbled it up. It was a perfect comfort dish for these colder evenings.
Absolutely my favorite recipe! It is rather complicated but as long as you follow Chef John it will turn out great!
I’ve made this twice now, and it’s delicious! Some tips: I can’t see salt in the recipe, but I added salt and fish sauce to taste. Both times I made this, I started it on the stove, but then put it, uncovered, in a 275 degree oven set on convection to cook. Not sure if the convection is mandatory, but the fan kept the oven from steaming up and might have helped reduce the sauce. I pulled it out and stirred every hour or so till it was done (took 4 hours, so similar to stovetop time, but less demanding on the cook). I did cut the beef in very large chunks the second time–fully two inches square–to prevent premature shredding. Result was shreddable, but still juicy and intact at 4 hours, and it took the full 4 hours in the oven for the sauce to reduce to dry. Btw, I learned during the pandemic that all those SE Asian aromatics freeze well. No more last minute trips to the store–we always have the ingredients for this on hand in the freezer. Thanks for a wonderful recipe, Chef John!
Made as is, I never had Beef Rendang before so nothing to compare it to. The smell while cooking is amazing. I might not cook down all the sauce next time.
This was absolutely incredible and restaurant-quality. I didn’t have galangal, so I upped the ginger. I excluded the Fresno because I didn’t have that either. It didn’t matter — it was amazing and I will definitely make again. I used Chef John’s tip to cover and add water to preserve a sauce, and that was totally worth it.
The flavors were wonderful. This was an amazing dish with flavors that would sneak up on you and make you say “Wow”! It was fairly easy to make and just took some to prepare. I used my InstantPot and it cooked for 2o minutes on high with 15 minutes natural release. Cooking in the pressure cooker doesn’t allow evaporation so I had more sauce which allowed me to slather the dish over Asian noodles and it was great.
Holy moly. I’ve been trying to find a restaurant quality South East Asian curry for many years. This one hit the spot. It’s seriously impressive.
It tastes best when you are actually cooking it because of all the juices. I recommend saving some sauce or sludge from the pan to pour over the meat because it dried a little to fast on top of my rice. Still even after that it was super flavorful, tender and my mom and dad thought it was delicious. I would make this again. Awesome smells and flavor. I did not use Korean red pepper flakes or galangal. I substituted by using a little chili powder, red pepper flakes, and paprika. Just a tiny bit.
This dish was amazing and so flavorful. I didn’t have tamarind paste so I used the substitute that Chef John recommended on his website and used lime zest and the juice of 1 lime instead. I also used thai chili peppers since I had that lying around instead of the fresno and serrano chili pepper. It takes a long time to make and you have to watch the food carefully so the beef doesn’t get burned, but the end result is definitely worth it.
Was a great recipe. Didn’t have lemon grass so I searched for a substitute and found lemon zest. Definitely will make again- love Malay food ! X
I’ve made this, and it’s fantastic! Very rich, too – a little goes a surprisingly long way. In the video, and on Chef John’s own website, there’s also a tablespoon of kosher salt in the curry paste, which seems to have gotten lost in the transfer to the AllRecipes site.
Except for the time to make, I love it
This dish is incredible. My husband and I have made it three times and it still knocks our socks off when we get to have that first bite. Watch the video!! It’s the best way to make sure you’re interpreting the recipe correctly and he gives little verbal tips as well. If spicy isn’t your thing go jalapeño instead of Serrano and leave out the chili flakes. I do recommend cilantro on top, personal preference. Thank you, Chef John!
This one is a keeper. I’ve made it 3 times now and I’ve done a few edits each time but overall it’s a great recipe. What I normally do is reduce the salt to just about 1/2 tsp and half the recipe but still add all the coconut milk in lieu of the water. I like my food spicy so it’s easy to add extra chili.
it’s an excellent recipe. Great taste Everytime I made it.
Easy to shred the beef if you aren’t careful. Otherwise I love this dish when not over mixed!
Not a fan. I love spicy. I have always roasted and ground my own spices, I even grow as much as I can myself. Unfortunately My wife has a LEGIT medical issue that prohibits her from eating spicy food so I only used 1 Serrano pepper for this dish. The heat was still farrr to high as all these flavors concentrate as it reduces. I wasn’t impressed with this.
Since you basically dump everything into the pan, it was easy to prep. But I had to baby it too much while cooking because the beef kept sticking and burning. Probably shouldn’t have used a cast iron. But it still tasted amazing…the next day! Also all my lemongrass broke down and was hard to find.