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Home Collections Curries

Beef Rendang

By:Nagi
Published:26 May '17Updated:12 Nov '21
549 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

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!

The King of all Curries, Beef Rendang is straight forward to make and has incredible deep, complex flavours. Quick recipe video provided! recipetineats.com

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!

The King of all Curries, Beef Rendang is straight forward to make and has incredible deep, complex flavours. Quick recipe video provided! recipetineats.com

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!

Beef Rendang Spice Paste

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:

  1. Blitz curry paste ingredient in food processor;

  2. Brown the beef;

  3. Cook off the curry paste – releases amazing flavour!

  4. 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.

The King of all Curries, Beef Rendang is straight forward to make and has incredible deep, complex flavours. Quick recipe video provided! recipetineats.com

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!

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The King of all Curries, Beef Rendang is straight forward to make and has incredible deep, complex flavours. Quick recipe video provided! recipetineats.com

WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT

Beef Rendang recipe video!

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The King of all Curries, Beef Rendang is straight forward to make and has incredible deep, complex flavours. Quick recipe video provided! recipetineats.com

Beef Rendang

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats
Prep: 20 minutes mins
Cook: 3 hours hrs
Total: 3 hours hrs 20 minutes mins
Curry, Slow cooking
Asian, Malaysian
4.97 from 166 votes
Servings6
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RECIPE VIDEO above. Beef Rendang is a Malaysian curry and is an extravagantly rich dish that is easy to prepare but takes time and patience to slow cook. Unlike many curries, this is a "dry" curry which means the beef is not swimming in sauce. Though you may think that the sauce is often the best part of a curry, the beef is "fall apart at a touch" tender and covered in a thick, saucy curry which then mixes through the rice so it is not in the least bit "dry"! This can be made in a slow cooker (see notes) but I recommend making this on the stove for best results.

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:

1a. Chillies - 12 dried chillies or long red fresh chillies (cayenne pepper) (seeds in) makes a fairly spicy curry but it's not "blow your head off" spicy because the long cook time tempers the spiciness. You can adjust the level of spiciness to your taste - use 6 for a mild curry. To reduce spiciness, you can deseed the chilli - I do not do this. 
If using dried chillies, rehydrate in boiling water (use lots, ignore the measly splash I used in the video, that was a mistake).
1b. Onion: Use a brown, white or yellow onion about the size of a tennis ball. Or half a large one  or 6 shallots/eschallots chopped
2. Lemongrass: to prepare, peel the reedy green shell to reveal the softer white part on the bottom half of the lemongrass. Slice the white part and very pale green part only - the green part is too reedy.
If lemongrass is hard to come by, you can use PASTE: 2 tsp in the spice mix and add an extra teaspoon when you add the coconut milk etc. 🙂
3. Galangal is like ginger but it has a more sour and peppery flavour. If you can't find it, just substitute with more ginger and a grind of black pepper.
4. Beef - You can use any slow cooking cut of beef for this recipe but chuck is best. As with all slow cooked beef recipes, the fattier beef, the juicier the meat will be when cooked. Gravy beef and beef cheeks are also good. Brisket will work but has less fat throughout so not as juicy.
It is best to buy one piece and cut it yourself into large cubes about the size of golf balls. Larger cubes are better for this dish because this is not only slow cooked but also cooked down to reduce the sauce to almost a "paste" like consistency and if you use small pieces of beef, they may fall apart and shred in the pot when you stir the curry. It is much easier to handle larger pieces.
5. Smash the lemongrass to help the flavour infuse into the curry. Use the side of your knife, a meat mallet or a tin.
6. Tamarind puree is made from tamarind fruit. It is quite tart, but not as sour as lemon. You can buy tamarind puree from the Asian section of large supermarkets in Australia (or Asian grocery stores). If you are using tamarind pulp (sticky block of dried tamarind), soak it in 2 tbsp of hot water and remove the seeds, then use as per recipe directions.
You can substitute the tamarind with 2 tsp of vinegar (white or brown, but not balsamic) or lemon juice.
7. Kaffir Lime Leaves - there is no substitute for the earthy lime flavour you get from fresh kaffir lime leaves so I really recommend buying fresh ones. They freeze well and last for ages and are commonly found in many South East Asian dishes. You can substitute with dried kaffir lime leaves. As a last resort, you can use 1 tbsp of lime juice + the rind of 1 lime, but the flavour will not be quite the same.
8. Slow Cooker - To make this in a slow cooker, do the steps up to searing the beef in a pan then pour the contents in your slow cooker. Pour 1/2 cup water into the pan and bring to simmer, making sure to scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan to mix in with the water, then pour the water into the slow cooker (make sure you scrape in as much of the brown bits as you can!). Slow cook on low for 6 hours. Then pour the curry into a pot and follow the recipe steps to reduce the sauce.
Pressure cooker / instant pot - follow slow cooker steps but cook on high for 30 minutes, allow to depressurise naturally for 10 minutes before releasing steam.
9. This is what happens when the Sauce reduces: Once the sauce reduces right down, the oil will separate (see photo in post). Then you end up browning the beef in that oil - this is where the deep brown Rendang colour comes from. Rendang is not a wet, saucy curry, it all reduces down into a sticky paste that coats the beef. 
By this time, the beef should be "fall apart at a touch" and there will be bits of shredded beef that looks like coconut that stick to the beef.
10. Simple Lightly Pickled Cucumber Side that goes with this well: Slice cucumbers on the diagonal and place into a bowl. For each cucumber you are using, sprinkle over 1 tsp of rice wine vinegar, a small pinch of salt and white sugar (each). Leave to lightly pickle for at least 20 minutes, up to 24 hours.
11. STORING: Rendang, like other slow cooked things, just gets better with time. Great on the day it's made, fantastic the next day and the next. Freezes well too.
12. Originally published in November 2014, updated to improve as follows: original recipe used whole cardamon and cloves, these are impossible to pick out and I don't like crunching into them. So I now use powder. Also, in authentic recipes, the curry paste goes in first then the beef is added. Doing it this way, the beef does not brown. I like browning beef first because you get that gorgeous caramelisation that adds flavour.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 323gCalories: 675cal (34%)Carbohydrates: 10.9g (4%)Protein: 63.4g (127%)Fat: 42.1g (65%)Saturated Fat: 24.7g (154%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 17.4gCholesterol: 179mg (60%)Sodium: 847mg (37%)Fiber: 3.1g (13%)Sugar: 5.4g (6%)
Keywords: beef rendang
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

 

LIFE OF DOZER

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Let’s not feel too sorry for him though. He’s been pretty pampered.

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549 Comments

  1. Shahji Spices says

    October 9, 2023 at 6:58 pm

    5 stars
    At Shahji Spices, we take pride in our commitment to delivering the finest and most flavorful spices to your kitchen. Our manufacturing process is a labor of love, rooted in generations of tradition and a dedication to quality. From sourcing the freshest raw ingredients to the final packaging, every step is meticulously crafted to ensure purity and potency. Our state-of-the-art facilities are equipped with cutting-edge technology and adhere to stringent quality control measures.
    From the fiery allure of Tandoori Masala to the aromatic wonder of White Pepper Powder, our collection offers a diverse array of spices to suit every palate. We take great care in selecting, blending, and packaging our spices to ensure they reach you in their purest form. With Shahji Spices, you’re not just seasoning your dishes; you’re embarking on a flavorful journey that brings the world’s finest spices to your table. https://shahjispices.com

    Reply
  2. pae says

    August 27, 2023 at 11:16 pm

    Can you use beef brisket for this recipe instead of the chuck steak?

    Reply
  3. Barbara Ritchie says

    August 16, 2023 at 11:01 am

    5 stars
    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.

    Reply
  4. Carmeline says

    August 8, 2023 at 5:52 am

    Loved the recipes

    Reply
  5. John Healy says

    August 7, 2023 at 3:34 pm

    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!

    Reply
  6. Ingrid says

    August 6, 2023 at 8:41 am

    5 stars
    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

    Reply
  7. Agatha Belinda says

    July 31, 2023 at 3:25 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Rea says

      November 10, 2023 at 6:20 am

      What would you do differently for an authentic Indonesian rendang? Also, would you ever use the paste for a vegetarian version, and if so, which veg would you use (I don’t eat meat)?

      Reply
    • Altie Metcalf says

      October 11, 2023 at 7:50 pm

      Well! I’m glad you got that off your chest!

      Reply
  8. Chels says

    July 10, 2023 at 7:46 pm

    5 stars
    Delicious! One of those “did *I* really cook this?!” meals. Thanks Nagi!

    Reply
  9. Anita says

    June 28, 2023 at 8:56 pm

    5 stars
    This is the best thing I’ve ever cooked. And perhaps the best thing I’ve ever eaten

    Reply
  10. Odie says

    June 15, 2023 at 7:25 am

    5 stars
    So easy and sooooo good

    Reply
  11. Margot says

    April 28, 2023 at 5:54 pm

    5 stars
    A-MAZING!

    Reply
  12. Chris Hughes says

    April 27, 2023 at 7:14 pm

    5 stars
    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!

    Reply
  13. Monica Seet says

    April 17, 2023 at 7:56 pm

    5 stars
    Even my fussy peranakan husband loved it. Will definitely make again. Hopefully next time the innocent looking chillies will not be devil chilli. ❤️

    Reply
  14. Jennifer Jansen says

    April 10, 2023 at 10:52 am

    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!

    Reply
  15. James says

    March 25, 2023 at 6:19 pm

    5 stars
    Made this beef rendang tonight Nagi – the depth of flavour was incredible. Thank you for such a spot on recipe.

    Reply
  16. Connie says

    February 13, 2023 at 9:00 am

    5 stars
    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

    Reply
  17. Tracy Wilkinson says

    February 8, 2023 at 7:07 pm

    5 stars
    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 ❤️

    Reply
  18. Philip says

    January 10, 2023 at 8:33 am

    5 stars
    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!!!

    Reply
  19. Dimitri says

    December 31, 2022 at 8:44 am

    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.

    Reply
  20. Robyn says

    October 11, 2022 at 8:56 pm

    5 stars
    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

    Reply
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