I bring you a recipe for slow-cooker beef rendang, a popular dish in Southeast Asian countries, including my home country of Malaysia. I created this slow-cooker version of the delicious rendang to make it more accessible and easier to prepare for everyone compared to the laborious traditional way.
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This simplified recipe still preserves the fantastic essence of an excellent rendang, and you will love it! Cook this delicious rendang traditionally with my family’s beef rendang recipe.
Other simplified recipes that are equally fantastic are my easy beef pho, easy Pad Thai, Malaysian-style fried rice (nasi goreng kampung, and Penang asam laksa.
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Recipe Highlights
Texture and flavor—Tender beef in creamy curry sauce with a wonderful citrusy flavor and a touch of heat. Rendang curries have a significant amount of lemongrass, which lends a citrusy touch.
Level—Easy, the slow cooker will do all (well almost) of the work!
Size—Perfect for 6.
Occasion—Whenever you want. Great idea for Asian theme parties or gatherings, your guests will be impressed.
Why This Recipe?
This recipe will enable you to enjoy delicious beef rendang without slaving yourself to make it or going crazy looking for difficult-to-get ingredients. Sounds good? Of course!
Still preserving the essence of amazing rendang, this recipe, however, is simplified in 2 ways:
- easier-to-get ingredients - no need to go crazy or deprive yourself of rendang just because you don't have galangal or toasted coconut paste.
- easier cooking method - equally delicious like a traditional way of cooking beef rendang but this simplified way you don't need to babysit your rendang for hours, it will cook itself *wink!*. We've also simplified yet still preserved the essence of pho in our easy beef pho recipe!
I also have a slow cooker chicken rendang, which is slightly different in the sense of the number of spices used and also the cooking time. It's super yummy!
Lets Talk Ingredients
Beef—Try to choose a cut that's not too lean or fatty. Think of meat cuts for beef stew. Chuck is the best for this rendang and my amazing beef korma, although you could also use meat stew (sometimes it could be a tad lean and might need more cooking time).
Lemongrass— It's the most essential ingredient. Rendang differentiates itself from other curries because it uses lots of lemongrass, resulting in a more citrusy curry. You can find lemongrass in the fresh or frozen section in Asian stores. There's also lemongrass paste. Use ¼ to ⅓ cups. Be mindful of the salt, as the paste usually comes salty.
SUBSTITUTION: Although it won't exactly be the same, you could use the following:
- 1-2 lemon zest
- 2-3 lime zest
Add together with the coconut milk mixture.
Curry powder—I use mild curry powder. Use Madras curry powder if you like it hotter.
Cayenne pepper powder—Just for the heat. Skip or adjust to your liking.
Keffir lime and turmeric leaves—They add that citrusy hint and wonderful aromatic to rendang. You can find them mostly in the frozen section in Asian stores but if you're lucky, maybe they're available in the fresh section also.
SUBSTITUTION: Again, although it's not the same, lime or lemon zest would work. Add ½ lime or one lemon zest to the coconut mixture. There is no need to add it if you're already using zest to substitute lemongrass.
Do This To Make It Super Tasty
Spend 10 minutes to sautee the base; you will not regret it. Trust me on this.
I know you might be tempted to just dump everything inside the pot but don't because you'll be lacking that umph kick. I know because I did dump everything inside, and yeah.. no, you don't want to do that.
If you want to make this, make it good. Right?
How To Serve
With whatever your heart desires. Think of something that can soak up the sauce and carry the amazing flavors.
Any rice, quinoa, or any type of bread. Do you get me? Good!
In our family, we just love to have it with steamed glutinous rice. It could be just steamed plain or with turmeric.
More Curry Recipes
- Quick 30-minute Thai massaman curry
- Baked chicken curry puff
- Easy homemade chickpea curry with spinach
- 30-minute vegan lentil coconut curry
Recipe Video
📖 Recipe
Slow Cooker Beef Rendang Curry
Equipment
Ingredients
The Paste
- 6 lemongrass, the white part , thinly sliced
- 1 onion , roughly chopped
- 2 inch ginger , roughly chopped
- 6 garlic cloves
Spices
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
- 4 cardamom pods
- 4 cloves
- ¼ cup curry powder (25 g)
- ½ tablespoon cayenne pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
The Main
- ½ cup water (125 ml)
- 2 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 4 turmeric leaves , thinly sliced
- 10 kefir lime leaves , thinly slices
- 2.2 lb beef chuck (1 kg), cut into 2 inch (5 cm) pieces
Seasoning And Thickening
- 1 cup coconut milk (250 ml)
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- ½ lime , squeeze the juice
Instructions
The Base
- Blend all the paste ingredients in a grinder into a fine paste. Use a splash of water if needed to help the blending process. You might need to do this is batches, depending on how big your grinder is. Set aside.
- We'll start with the spices ingredients. Heat a pan on medium heat with some oil. Add in bruised cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamoms and star anise. Cook until the spices release their fragrances.
- Add in the rest of the spices ingredients together with the blended paste and continue cooking for 10 minutes, until the paste becomes thick. Stir now and then.
Cooking
- Spray the inside of the slow cooker pot with some oil. Add in cooked base and the all of the main ingredients except meat. Mix everything well. Now add in the meat and coat the pieces well with the mixture.
- Close the lid. Cook on high setting for 4 hours. Gently give everything a mix with a spatula after 2 hours.
Seasoning And Thickening
- Add coconut milk and corn starch into a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
- Remove the slow cooker lid. Pour the coconut milk mixture into the pot together followed by lime juice. Gently mix everything well. Continue cooking for another 20-30 minutes on high setting without the lid, until the sauce thickens. Adjust seasonings if needed. Serve with some steamed glutinous rice or white rice. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
The nutrition facts provided are an estimate per serving. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Paula says
Lovely recipe. Thank you.
Alex says
This was great! We didn't have lime leaves or tumeric leaves. We also added 2 tbsp of brown sugar.
Peter Riesz says
This looks amazing! I'm about to give it a go. I'm in Barcelona and I see your living in Spain so I have to ask where do you find tumeric leaves, fresh kafir lime leaves or fresh lemon grass? I love these flavours but I have to suffice with dried karif lime leaves, frozen lemon grass and couldn't even find tumeric leaves.
Bea says
Hi Peter, the turmeric leaves I planted myself. Once I bought the turmeric roots in Makro and planted them to get the leaves. I also bought in Makro the fresh kafir lime leaves and lemongrass. I have also 2 plants of lemongrass, they are easy to keep. But if Makro is not an option for you, the frozen versions will do, I use them all the time too when I ran out of fresh ones.
Lina Hassan says
Hello Bea,
I just want to say thank you to you for this rendang recipe. I made it for our Aidilfitri celebration recently and my parents loved it so much.
It was my first time cooking rendang in a slow cook. 1 thing I changed was adding more cili powder because our family loves spicy.
Bea says
Hi Lina! I'm excited to know that you gave it a try and your family liked it. Yes, adjust the spiciness to your liking, no problem at all. Do check out more simplified Asian recipes here if you're interested. Thank you so much for your feedback! ❤️🙌