In this video, learn how to make Chef John’s Oxtail Rendang Curry, a rich and flavorful Indonesian-inspired dish! This slow-cooked masterpiece features tender, fall-off-the-bone oxtail braised in a fragrant coconut curry sauce infused with lemongrass, ginger, and spices. Perfect for special occasions or a cozy meal, this rendang is packed with deep, complex flavors.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Oxtail Rendang Curry!
00:08That's right, oxtails are trending!
00:11Which is absolutely horrible news for people like me, who want these to be not popular,
00:16so as to keep the prices down.
00:18But since the tail is out of the bag, I figured I might as well show you one of the most delicious
00:23ways you can prepare them.
00:25And to get started, let's meet the star of the show, which are called oxtails.
00:29Since apparently nobody bought these when they called them cow tails.
00:33And what we'll do after we have these on a foil lined baking sheet, is drizzle them with
00:37a little bit of oil, and then we'll kind of flip them and rub them around to coat.
00:42And then eventually we will spread those out, so they're spaced evenly.
00:46Because before we cook these in our curry sauce, we are going to transfer them into
00:49the center of a 450 degree oven for about 25 minutes, or until they're beautifully browned.
00:56And while the browning of the meat step is always optional, they're definitely going
00:59to look and taste better, so I highly recommend you do this.
01:03And that's it, we'll let those sit and cool, while we move on to build our curry.
01:07And for that, all the ingredients are going to be fairly familiar, except possibly these
01:11two.
01:12Which would be some galangal root, which is a type of ginger that's very fragrant and
01:16very citrusy, and we peel it and slice it the same way.
01:20And then if you can find it, we'll also do one stalk of lemongrass, and we'll go ahead
01:24and trim off the greener top part, before we bruise it with the back of a knife, which
01:29is going to activate all the fragrant goodness.
01:32And then I'm going to trim off the bottom, which is probably not necessary, before cutting
01:36this up into a few smaller pieces.
01:38And those two things aren't hard to find these days, but if you can't, we'll tell you what
01:41to do in the recipe.
01:43And then for our curry base, we will add some sliced shallots, or if you want some red onion
01:48to a food processor, along with a bunch of peeled garlic, and then we'll toss in some
01:53peeled sliced ginger, followed by about the same amount of our galangal root.
01:58And then we're definitely going to want some hot chilies in this, and I used a combo of
02:01jalapeno and red fresno.
02:04And that's it, we'll go ahead and pop on the lid, and pulse this on and off, stopping a
02:08few times to scrape down the sides as we do, until the mixture is fairly finely ground.
02:14And once that's been accomplished, we will transfer that into a pot that we placed over
02:19medium-high heat, in which we've drizzled a little bit of oil, and once our aromatic
02:23vegetables have been transferred in, we will cook those stirring for about five minutes
02:27or so, or until things dry out, and they start to stick on the bottom, and start to brown
02:33up a little bit.
02:34And once our mixture looks a little something like this, we can go ahead and toss in our
02:38salt, as well as our ground coriander, some turmeric, some chili flakes, some freshly
02:45grated numeg, and then last but not least, a little touch of cardamom, and we'll stir
02:51all that together, and we'll cook those spices in for about a minute, before we start transferring
02:56in the liquid ingredients.
02:58Starting with the most important, and that would be a can of coconut milk, and I definitely
03:03think we should use the full-fat one, but regardless, we will follow that with a little
03:07bit of tamarind paste, which is fruity and citrusy, and very tart.
03:12So to balance that, we'll also add a little bit of brown sugar, and we can also at this
03:16point toss in our bruised lemongrass, and we'll go ahead and give everything a stir,
03:21being careful to scrape all the goodness off the bottom, as we do, and once the bottom
03:26has been deglazed, and the mixture has started to simmer, we can go ahead and transfer in
03:30two cups of beef broth, or chicken broth will also work, so that's your choice.
03:36I mean, you are after all the judge and jury of this oxtail curry, but no matter what you
03:41use, we will at this point transfer our oxtails in, and if you're using a similar sized pot,
03:46and you're using about four, four and a half pounds of oxtail, they should just barely
03:51fit in one layer, and of course, if there's any accumulated juices on the roasting pan,
03:56we must insist you add those in, and that's it, we'll finish up by pouring in a little
04:01bit of cold fresh water, just so our liquid level comes up almost to the top of the tails,
04:07and then what we'll do is turn our heat up to high, and we'll wait for this to start to boil,
04:11at which point we'll back our heat down to the lowest setting, and then we'll cover this,
04:16and let it simmer very gently, for at least four to five hours, or maybe longer, at which
04:21point things are probably going to look like this, and as usual, do not worry about the
04:25time, worry about the test, and the test is, these should be very, very fork tender, and
04:32if we wanted to, we could pull that meat right off the bone cleanly, but we don't want to,
04:37okay, we want the meat to stay on the bone for presentation, so what we'll do is very,
04:41very carefully remove those from the pot, and we will set those aside for just a minute,
04:46while we crank our heat back up to high, since the final step here, is reducing this curry
04:51sauce down, until it's as thick as we want, and yes, while that's happening, you can skim
04:56some of the fat off the top if you want, and since our sauce is going to take maybe ten
05:00minutes to finish, what I like to do, is transfer our oxtails into a pan like this, that way
05:05we can pop this into a 150 degree oven, to keep these warm while our sauce reduces, and
05:11yes, I did arrange those with the flat side down, and the pointy tailbone side up, which
05:15I think makes for the most provocative appearance, but anyway, we'll keep those warm in an oven,
05:20while we finish our sauce, which again, simply means reducing this down, until the sauce
05:25is as thick as we want, which for me, is not going to be super thick, okay, I do want to
05:29keep this kind of saucy, because rice, although in a true rendang, the meat is cooked in the
05:35sauce, and reduced all the way down, until it coats the meat, and the pan actually gets
05:40completely dry, but anyway, once we're happy with our sauce, and we've tasted it for seasoning,
05:45we'll go ahead and serve up, and we will spoon that over our hot oxtails, and then after
05:50we've sauced these, as a little bit of a garnish, I like to transfer those pieces of lemongrass
05:55into the pan, since they look kind of cool, and then I finished up with some finely minced
06:00red chili, for a little bit of color, plus some gorgeous cilantro from our garden, and
06:06that's it, my oxtail rendang curry, was ready to enjoy, and that my friends, is without
06:12a doubt, the most succulent piece of meat on the cow, okay, people totally overuse the
06:17word unctuous, which should really only be used for dishes like this, and then as far
06:22as the taste goes, since I'm not exactly sure how to describe how amazing this was, I will
06:27just share what my wife Michelle said, who after taking a bite, described this as one
06:32of the most delicious things she's ever tasted, in fact her exact quote was, this is one of
06:38the most delicious things I've ever had, and I've had a lot of delicious things, which
06:42is very true, and no, you don't have to use a fork for this, feel free to pick these up,
06:48and just suck the meat right off the bone, which I think is really how we should be enjoying
06:52this, and yes, I would have been pretty happy just to eat this out of the pan, but I am
06:56going to finish the video properly, by serving this up on some rice, and while this recipe
07:01does take a little bit of time, as you saw it's very simple, and there's not really that
07:06much work involved, yet we've produced something indescribably delicious, and way beyond satisfying
07:12to eat, which is why, I really do hope you give this a try soon, so please follow the
07:18links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe and much more info
07:22as usual, and as always, enjoy!