Mother, Baby & Kids

Peranakan Dish: Candlenut Chicken Recipe

Merryn Tan
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Let’s get to know each other better today. Which state are you from? I am from Malacca and currently residing in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

My mother is a Peranakan Nyonya so needless to say I grew up eating a lot of delicious home-cooked Peranakan cuisine.

Don’t ask me for recommendations on Nyonya restaurants though as I seldom eat out when I am in Melaka—my mum will cook me a feast each time she knows I am coming to visit.

We had not been able to travel interstate for the longest period ever though so this means I have been deprived of my mum’s home-cooked dishes for almost a year now. The good thing is, humans adapt.

When the craving for home-cooked Peranakan dishes kicks in, what do I do? I try to cook them myself; even if I can’t get it to be 100% like my mother’s but at least I tried.

Candlenut Chicken aka Ayam Satay Buah Keras

I’ve tried cooking Chicken Pongteh with success but that’s not the dish I am sharing with you today. The dish I am sharing with my lovely readers today is Candlenut Chicken or better known as Ayam Satay Buah Keras.

Don’t let the word ‘satay‘ fool you as this dish is not chicken meat on skewers. This dish uses candlenut or buah keras as one of the main ingredients. This nut has high oil content therefore we do not need to use oil to cook this dish.

Like all Nyonya recipes, everything is just ‘agak-agak’ (estimation). I never dare to ask my mum the exact measurements for the ingredients used unless I want to be smacked with her spatula.

This is why even though I know the exact ingredients used in a particular dish, I can never get it done as good as my mum’s.

Ingredients for Candlenut Chicken: Red chilli, onion, lemongrass, turmeric (fresh or in powdered form), roasted shrimp paste (belacan) and of course, candlenuts. Kaffir lime leaves are also used for added aroma.

What I like about cooking this extremely simple dish is:

1) We do not need to fry the paste or in Malay we call tumis. Yes, we do not need to tumis the paste.
2) No oil is used to cook this dish because candlenut has high oil content.
3) If cooked using multi-cooker, I do not even need to monitor it. Just dump everything (chicken and paste) into the pot, switch it on and it is done in no time.

All it takes is to blend the ingredients into a paste and cook together with the chicken.
Print

Candlenut Chicken Recipe

A popular Peranakan Nyonya dish
Course Mains
Cuisine Asian, Malay
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Equipment

  • Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

  • chicken drumsticks
  • 5 candlenuts
  • shrimp paste dry roasted
  • 2 red chilli deseed if you want less spicy
  • 6 onions
  • 3 lemongrass use only the white part
  • 4 kaffir lime leaves
  • turmeric powder or fresh turmeric

Instructions

  • Blend candlenut, shrimp paste, chilli, onion, lemongrass and turmeric powder into paste.
  • Pour paste into a pot. Add chicken and kaffir lime leaves and leave to stew until chicken is cooked.
  • If cooked using multi-cooker, it usually takes about 45 minutes.
  • Cook until the paste has thicken.
  • Serve.

Video

My boys love this Candlenut Chicken very much that they too can cook this dish on their own now.

Watch how easy it is to dish out this famous Peranakan dish. Try it out and soon you can boast to your family and friends that you, too, can cook Peranakan cuisine!

For more insightful stories and fun recipes, stay tuned to Motherhood Story!