Terengganu Braised Chicken

This is the first time I prepare this dish and I am very certain that I will be making it very often from now.  What I love about this dish is the warm homely taste it gives ... 很有家的味道.  This is a dish where the whole family will enjoy ... some may prefer the chicken wings, some may go for the pork belly or perhaps the richly-flavoured hard-boiled eggs.    Me?  I love the dark rich sauce the best.... when drizzle over my bowl of hot steamed rice.  

I made some minor adjustment to the original recipe to suit to my own preference.  Thanks Phong Hong, your grandma's recipe is awesome!

Recipe:
(A) Main ingredients
5 chicken wings (cut into drumlets and mid-joints)
1 piece of pork belly (approx 300g, cut into 1/2" thick pieces)
4 hard-boiled eggs (or more if you prefer)

(B) Blend together into a paste:
12 shallots
3 cloves garlic
1.5 tbsp preserved bean paste (taucheow)

(C) Other spices/seasonings
3 to 4 slices of ginger
2 tbsp kecap manis (dark sweet soy sauce)
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 star anise
500ml water (or more if you like more gravy)

Method:

1) Heat up the wok on high heat and add a little oil just to grease the wok lightly.  Add in the sliced pork and ginger slices.  Stir fry briefly for about a minute.  Dish and set aside (this step is not in the original recipe,  but I prefer to wok-fry the pork belly with ginger first for that added aroma).

2) Lower to medium heat.  Add a little more oil to the wok and stir fry the blended paste till fragrant.  Add in the pork belly from step 1 and continue to stir fry till mixture dries up a little.  Add in kecap manis, dark soy sauce, sugar, star anise and water.  Cover, bring to boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.

3) Add in the hard-boiled eggs and chicken wings.  Simmer for another 20 minutes or till chicken is tender.

5) Cover and let the dish rest for another hour before serving.

A quick and easy cabbage stir fry to go with the braised chicken

 I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest , Terengganu Month hosted by Lena of frozen wings .