Beef Rendang is a spicy, creamy, comforting Malaysian stew made with flavorful beef, coconut milk, macadamia nuts, curry leaves, and spices.
A meaty, warmly spiced curry dish like Indian Lamb Curry or this Beef Rendang are perfect Dinner Recipe when you comfort food with lots of flavor. Serve this rich Asian Beef Recipe over Steamed Rice for a filling meal with international flair.
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Beef Rendang Recipe
Beef Rendang is primarily a Malaysian and Indonesian dish. However, the popularity of rendang has spread, and like many other favorite Asian food dishes, it’s enjoyed in many parts of the globe. Despite its widespread popularity, it was still a wonderful experience to enjoy an authentic Beef Rendang recipe in the heart of Malaysia.
I’ve created this recipe to cook Beef Rendang that tastes like the amazing dish I had there. The rich beef mixture is thicker than most stews because a majority of the coconut milk liquid cooks away. However, it’s still a rich and creamy mixture that’s perfect for serving over rice so it can absorb all the flavorful curry sauce.
What is Beef Rendang?
Rendang is a traditional Malaysian dish of meat braised and slow cooked in coconut milk and a special rendang spice paste made of Asian flavors like ginger, curry, turmeric, garlic, and lemon grass. You cook it for so long that most of the liquid cooks out so it is basically a slow cooked dry curry filled with rich deep flavor and caramelized, tender beef.
Ingredients
- Spice paste: Beef Rendang gets a majority of its flavor from the delicious and unique spice blend. To make the paste combine red onion, 4 cloves garlic, fresh ginger, chopped turmeric leaves, ground nutmeg, salt, pepper, and macadamia nuts. By blending the nuts and spices together, you can create a smooth paste perfect for marinating the chuck roast.
- Beef: You’ll want 3 pounds of boneless beef chuck roast for this recipe. Cut the meat into 2-inch chunks of beef before marinating.
- Coconut milk: Fresh coconut milk acts as the cooking liquid for this recipe. Most of the coconut milk liquid evaporates during the cooking time, but the rich flavor and creamy texture remain.
- Fresh ingredients: Finish flavoring the Renang curry with makrut lime leaves (also known as kaffir lime leaves), curry leaves, and a stalk of lemongrass cut into 1-inch chunks. Let the leaves and lemongrass stock cook with the dish to flavor it, but be sure to remove them before serving.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Dutch Oven: You’ll want a good sized dutch oven, 5 or 6 quarts, to hold all the beef and sauce ingredients. A dutch oven is great because you can sear the meat and cook it for a long time in the same big pot. If you want to cook it low and slow, you can also pop it in the oven as long as the lid is oven-safe.
- Chef’s Knife: A large, sharp chef’s knife is great for chopping up the herbs, aromatic veggies, and breaking down the chuck roast. It’s easier to cut the meat when it’s cold, so keep it in the fridge while you prep the fresh marinade ingredients.
How to Make
Time needed: 3 hours and 45 minutes.
- Spice Paste
Add the red onion, minced garlic, fresh ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, kosher salt, black pepper, and macadamia nuts to your food processor. Then pulse the spice paste ingredients until they’re smooth.
- Marinate the Meat
Add the spice paste to the beef chunks, and shake to coat. Then cover the bowl in plastic wrap and leave the meat to marinate for 2 hours in the fridge.
- Cooking Process
Add the coconut milk to a large dutch oven. Stir in the marinated beef with the marinade. Turn the stovetop heat to medium. Bring the spicy coconut milk mixture to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low to simmer. Add the makrut lime leaves, curry leaves, and lemon grass. Continue cooking the Rendang for 90 minutes, stirring occasionally. As you cook Beef Rendang, most of the cooking liquid will evaporate.
- Finish and Serve
Following the cook time, remove the lime leaves, curry leaves, and lemon grass from the pot. Then stir the beef until it browns to dark brown and the sauce thickens. Serve the Beef Rendang over steamed rice.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes, you can prep Beef Rendang ahead of time. It needs a couple hours to cook through properly and caramelize the meat, so you can marinate the beef overnight so it’s ready to throw on the stove after work. It is also good the next day, just reheat it on the stove over low heat, adding a bit of coconut milk or broth if the sauce is too thick.
Nutritional Facts
Cooking Beef Rendang Tips & Tricks
Use a Cheap Cuts of Meat
Recipes where you braise beef then cook it over low heat for hours are perfect for less expensive and tougher cuts of meat like chuck roast, bottom round roast, or top round steak. The longer cooking time, simmering in sauce, allows the meat to break down until it’s super tender. This dish would even be good with cuts like beef lung or beef tongue.
Don’t Rush the Cooking Time
This dish is meant to be cooked for a long time, so you don’t want to increase the heat and try to speed it up. However, you could start it on the stove top and finish it in the oven on low heat, adding an hour or two as needed. Just keep the pot covered so the liquid doesn’t evaporate too quickly.
What to Eat With Beef Rendang
As mentioned above, this Asian dish is traditionally served over steamed white rice. You could also serve the beef curry over basmati rice or Brown Rice. Or change things up a little and enjoy the dish with roasted potatoes or cauliflower. You can also add a side of naan, Cucumber Salad, or Garlic French Fries.
How to Store
Serve: After cooking Rendang, don’t leave it at room temperature for more than 2 hours. To keep leftovers, wait for them to cool, then store Beef Rendang in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Reheat: Reheat the dish over low-medium heat until warmed through before serving. You can add additional coconut milk or beef broth to thin out the curry sauce if you want.
Freeze: You can also freeze leftovers in an airtight container for up to 6 months. Let the meat and sauce cool completely before storing and thaw it overnight in the fridge before reheating.
Frequent Questions
We used chuck roast for this recipe. Chuck roast is perfect for stews, pot roasts, and other slow-cooking recipes like this. As it cooks in the coconut milk liquid, the connective tissue breaks down to make perfectly tender and juicy bites of beef.
Beef Rendang is made of tender chunks of beef, coconut milk, and the signature rendang spice paste called pemasak. The rendang spice paste is made with classic Asian flavors like ginger, garlic, lemongrass, shallots, and chili flakes, plus curry and turmeric leaves.
Although it has curry leaves and many other curry ingredients, Rendang dishes are not traditionally considered curry in Malaysia or Indonesia because they have much less liquid and tend to be a much richer dish.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Marinade mixture:
- 1 red onion , cut into wedges
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup fresh ginger , coarsely chopped
- 2 teaspoons fresh turmeric , coarsely chopped
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup macadamia nuts
- 3 pounds beef chuck roast , cut into 2" chunks
- 3 cups coconut milk
- 6 makrut lime leaves
- 5 fresh curry leaves
- 1 stalk lemongrass , cut into 1" chunks and smashed flat
Instructions
- Add the red onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, salt, pepper and macadamia nuts to a food processor.
- Processor until smooth.
- Add mixture to the beef chunks and cover with plastic wrap.
- Marinade in rerigerator for 2 hours.
- Add the coconut milk to a large heavy dutch oven.
- Add in the beef (with the marinade) on medium heat.
- Bring to a boil then lower to medium-low heat and simmer (do not cover).
- Add in the makrut lime leaves, curry leaves and lemon grass to the pot.
- Cook for 90 minutes, stirring occasionally (most of the liquid will evaporate.
- Remove the makrut lime leaves, curry leaves and lemon grass and keep stirring beef until it browns and the sauce thickens.
- Serve over steamed rice.
Nutrition
Want to save this recipe? Create a free account to easily save your favorite recipes
Beef Rendang Variations
Chicken Rendang: If you don’t want to use red meat, you can leave out the beef and instead make chicken rendang using bone-in chicken pieces like leg quarters, thighs, or a whole chicken cut up.
Vegetable Rendang: You can use the same spice mix to make vegetarian vegetable rendang. To make the vegetable rendang filling, you can add potato cubes and tofu along with other veggies like zucchini and bell pepper. Season the tofu and potatoes with ground turmeric and lime. Then add the potatoes to cook with the coconut milk and Rendang spice mix. Wait to add the tofu until after the vegetable Rendang is mostly cooked. You can also brown the tofu in oil in a separate pan to make it crisper before adding it to the vegetable rendang.
Shredded Coconut: To add to the coconut flavor and give more texture to this dish, you can cook shredded coconut with the spice paste to make kerisik. Toast the coconut in coconut oil or vegetable oil with the spices until golden brown. Then cook with the Beef Rendang and enjoy the delicious fresh ingredients.
Related Recipes
Hearty Asian Inspired Beef Recipes
