• Prep Time 20 minutes
  • Cook Time 20 minutes
  • Serving For 4 people
  • Difficulty Easy
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Recipe Description

Joyce Siow’s Tumeric chicken recipe, an Asian delight full with spices and aroma.

This recipe by Joyce Siow is one of four recipes published on Star2.com.

Recipe Ingredient

  • 1 whole chicken (chopped into pieces)
  • For pounding / blending together:
  • 200g fresh turmeric
  • 150g shallots
  • 2 stalks lemongrass
  • 1 tbsp white peppercorn
  • 1 piece cili padi (optional)
  • For marinating:
  • 1 tbsp soya sauce
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • For cooking:
  • 3 tbsp cooking oil
  • 3-4 pandan (screwpine) leaves (cut into 4 peices)
  • ½ cup water

Instructions

  1. In a pestle and mortar or blender, blend all the ingredients for blending/pounding together until it forms a paste.
  2. Marinate the chicken with soya sauce and salt.
  3. In a large wok, heat up the oil and stir-fry the blended paste until it smells aromatic. Add the marinated chicken and pandan leaves and stir well. Add water, cover with a lid and cook on low heat until the chicken is cooked. You can add more water if you want the dish to have more gravy.

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19 thoughts on “Turmeric Chicken”

  1. Jackie M - February 28, 2018 at 6:29 pm

    Thanks, I’m so glad to find this recipe, will definitely make it next week. Yummy!

    Reply
    • Nai - November 5, 2018 at 1:42 pm

      have you tried the recipe Jackie M? how was it? am also interested to have a try. hehe

      Reply
  2. John Isaacs - March 11, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    I am interested in trying out this recipe but we do not get fresh turmeric here in Sydney. Can I substitute with turmeric powder? If so how many tea spooons of turmeric should I use?

    John Isaacs

    Reply
    • JUNN - March 21, 2018 at 11:05 am

      My dad cooks this all the time with turmeric powder. Not sure about the amount, it was “agak agak” all the time, but obviously there should be enough to coat the chicken & to make the sauce orange. 🙂

      Reply
    • Aysha Abdullah - March 21, 2018 at 11:19 am

      You can get fresh tumeric at China town
      Any Asian shop which sells screwpine leaves and lemongrass will have it. U can also add tumeric leaves sliced finely ….

      Enjoy the dish.

      Reply
    • S.Pitchaiappan - April 23, 2018 at 1:32 pm

      Dry turmeric powder is better than fresh turmeric. Fresh Turmeric may have very strong smell and it may spoil the curry taste. Dry turmeric powder is better.

      Reply
      • Jo - October 3, 2018 at 10:00 pm

        Most of the dry tumeric powder that you get is a blend of tumeric and something else. As someone whos been making this dish over the years with both dry and fresh tumeric, fresh tumeric wins hands down every single time. There is such a stark difference between using powder and fresh tumeric. Tumeric powder produces an uninteresting flat flavor while fresh tumeric gives the dish more depth and robustness that tumeric powder can NEVER achieve.
        You can get the fresh tumeric from Asian stores and then plant them like how you plant ginger. Plant them in late winter or early Spring and harvest early fall.

        Reply
    • HH - April 23, 2018 at 3:07 pm

      John, fresh tumeric is easily available in most Asian grocers in Sydney together with most Asian herbs like Thai basil, lemongrass and pandan. I’ve also seen it at IGAs. Good luck with your search. Fresh herbs will open up a new world of flavours that dried herbs just can’t duplicate.

      Reply
    • Sophia - April 25, 2018 at 2:55 pm

      You can get fresh tumeric from fresh fruits and vegie shop in Sydney.

      Reply
  3. Meenakshii - March 22, 2018 at 2:08 am

    I believe this dish should be tagged under Malay cuisine. The ingredients are endemic to Malay Indonesian Cooking.

    Reply
    • Gayathri - April 6, 2018 at 9:10 pm

      Is it not enough that it was tagged under “MALAYSIAN” cuisine? What difference does it make?

      Reply
      • k.flay - April 26, 2018 at 10:20 am

        lol. burnnnn. if it makes no difference and it fills the tummy right, hence let’s just enjoy this recipe without having to scrutinize the labels.. hey this isnt a form you have to fill up to check what state or country we are all in. anyhoo… do i need to fry it first to get the crispy skin… oh you know like… crispy rendang? (still cant get over that….)

        Reply
  4. Jolyn Oh - March 23, 2018 at 5:28 pm

    Tumeric, lemongrass, shallot, peppercorn, screwpine leaf are used widely in asian cuusine like Thailand, Vietnam , Cambodia, Indonesia and more. Its not Malay.cuisine but a Nyonya cuisine transcends from two culture, Chinese and Malay. Its a simple dish Penang folks cook often for the family.

    Reply
    • Vivian - April 10, 2018 at 11:35 pm

      True. Nyonya dish which my melaka nyonya mum cooked often when I was young. I love the dish.

      Reply
  5. Tabitha Moore - March 29, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    This is so delicious and I have been cooking this dish EVERYDAY now. Well, that’s the perk of living alone.

    Reply
  6. Big Fry - April 25, 2018 at 9:12 am

    I made this last weekend and it was pretty good.

    Just wondering… the picture shows two types of leaves, but there is only one in the recipe (pandan). Is the other one bits of the lemongrass? Lime leaves?

    Reply
  7. Windsong33 - May 24, 2018 at 9:41 pm

    I put in some oyster sauce as well to give it better flavoring .

    Reply
  8. Ben - September 22, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    Will try it this weekend

    Reply
  9. Kate - November 21, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    I just cooked this, it smells very good of pandan. I used my homemade turmeric powder, made from all 100% turmeric from my garden 🙂 I agree the turmeric powder from stores do not taste good and mostly added wtih fillers. This is not a Malay dish, it’s nyonya and so are many of the ‘kuih-muih’. They are all Nyonya kuih, I ‘m not a Nyonya but don’t like when others claim what’s not theirs lol !

    Reply

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