Kay Hong Version 2.0 (Terengganu Braised Chicken Version 2.0)

OK. Confession time. A few years ago in the midst of preparing to cook Kay Hong, I realised to my horror that there was barely half a tablespoon of taucheow (beanpaste) left in the bottle. Yaarrghh!!!! The pork belly, chicken and other ingredients were all ready including the prized hard boiled eggs.

I couldn't jolly well dash out to Jusco in the hot sun and battle with the weekend crowd just to get a bottle of taucheow. So what did I do? There was a bottle of chilli bean paste (toban djan) in the fridge and I figured out that it's some sort of beanpaste too, so why not use that as a substitute? I went ahead and guess what, the Kay Hong turned out really well. Just as good as the original version with added spiciness. 

Although my little mishap lead to a new version of Kay Hong, next time I may not be so lucky. Lesson learnt. Be sure to do an ingredient check before cooking or baking. The recipe below is taken from my original Kay Hong post with ordinary beanpaste substituted with chilli bean sauce.

Spicy Kay Hong (Terengganu Braised Chicken)
Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :

- 2 chicken legs (cut into bite sized pieces)

- 1 pork belly (cut into 1 inch slices)

- 6 hardboiled eggs

- 15 shallots

- 3 cloves garlic

- 2 tbsp Chilli Bean Paste (toban djan)

- 2 tbsp kayciap (or ABC sauce/sweet soya sauce)

- 2 tbsp dark soya sauce

- Palm sugar (gula Melaka) to taste

- 700 ml water (adjust for consistency, use less for thicker gravy)

Method :

- Blend shallots, garlic and chilli bean paste. Saute the blended paste until fragrant.

- Add pork belly and fry for about 10 minutes.

- Add water, kayciap/sweet soya sauce, dark soya sauce, gula Melaka and hard boiled eggs.

- Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes before adding chicken.

- Simmer until chicken is cooked and tender.