Ayam Buah Keluak

Contributed by: Monica Cheng

Home All Recipes Search By

It is said that Peranakan families breed strong women and I like to think I am no exception. Just like my grandma and my mum, we pride ourselves on being able to cook and organise large dinners for family and friends.

By undertaking such a huge and tedious effort in the kitchen, we hope that when they eat our food and enjoy themselves, they will be able to feel how much we love and care for them.

Ayam Buah Keluak is a traditional dish famous for both its distinctive flavour and the gargantuan effort to prepare it. The buah keluak (black nut) has to be soaked in water over several days to remove its toxicity. The hard shell is then cracked, the nut removed, mixed with a spice paste, and then stuffed back into the shell to be cooked in a special gravy.

Making this dish brings me back to my childhood and connects me to my family’s Peranakan roots in Malacca. Every time I muster the effort to make this dish, I know my grandma and mum will be proud of me.

Portion: 4 pax
Prep Time: 75 mins
Cook Time: 45 mins
Total Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

• 10 pcs of buah keluak (black nut)

• ½ of medium size chicken

• 12g galangal

• 30g turmeric

• 30g candlenut

• 150g shallot

• 55g garlic

• 20g shrimp paste (belachan)

• 25g bruised lemongrass (smash bottom third part only)

• 100g dried chilli

• 250g cooking oil

• 2 tbsp tamarind paste (soaked with water in a medium size soup bowl, using the asam juice only)


Method

Preparation of Buah Keluak (black nut)

1. Soak the buah keluak in water for 5 days changing the water every day.

2. On the 4th day, scrub the buah keluak, then top with fresh water and soak for the last day.

3. After 5 days, scrub the buah keluak again with a stiff vegetable brush.

4. After scrubing and washing the buah keluak, dry it with paper towels.

5. Crack the top shell of the buah keluak to create an opening to remove the flesh of buah keluak.

6. Add ¼ tsp of salt and sugar to the flesh and mix well.

7. Add one egg into the flesh and mix well until it forms a paste.

8. Lastly, stuff the paste into the empty shells.


Preparation of Rempah

Grind all the following ingredients:

a. galangal

b. turmeric

c. candlenut

d. shallot

e. garlic

f. belachan

g. dried chillies


Cook

1. Heat the wok on high fire for about 20 secs and add cooking oil. Add in the rempah.

2. Stir-fry 7 to 8 mins until the rempah is cooked. When the colour darkens and oil exudes, put in the bruised stalk of lemongrass and strained asam juice together with chicken and the buah keluak. The buah keluak will leak out and infuse into the gravy.

3. Keep on boiling at lower heat and simmer for ½ hr until the chicken is tender.


Helpful Tips

Recipes by Category and Ingredients

Dessert Meat Seafood Snack Soup Staple Vegetable
Long Bean Clam Lotus Paste Pineapple Cream Cheese Mushroom Jackfruit Duck Hairy Gourd Dragonfruit Egg Eggplant Stinky Bean Lady's Finger Sea Cucumber Bread Avocado Ham Prawn Carrot Beef Chicken Lamb Mutton Pork Crab Fish Squid Cabbage Mani Vegetable Potato Yam Milk Noodles Rice