A defining Banjar dish from South Kalimantan: chicken braised in a glossy, deep-red sweet sauce built on dried red chilies. The chilies are soaked and ground with shallot and garlic, fried until their colour blooms, then sweetened and reduced around the chicken until the sauce clings and shines. 'Habang' means red in Banjarese, and this masak habang method colours much of the local table, from chicken to fish to eggs. It is usually eaten with rice, often the Banjar yellow rice.
Masak habang is one of the signatures of Banjar cooking in South Kalimantan, where 'habang' is the Banjarese word for red and names a whole way of braising in a sweetened dried-chili sauce rather than one fixed recipe. The same method is applied to chicken, to freshwater fish such as haruan, and to eggs, and turns up wherever Banjar food is served, including alongside nasi kuning Banjar. It is a regional everyday tradition; no single origin point or date is documented, and the dish is best treated as a settled local method.
The sauce reads sweet and round before it reads hot — dried chili gives a warm, fruity depth and a deep brick-red colour more than a fierce burn. The chicken is tender and well-glazed, its surface lacquered with the glossy reduction so each piece carries a sticky, savory-sweet coat. Underneath the sweetness sits the mellow earthiness of fried shallot and garlic, and a faint smoky edge from the chilies. With plain or yellow rice to soak up the sauce, it is comforting and quietly bold.
Drying the chilies is the key move: it concentrates their sugars and red pigment while softening the sharp, volatile heat of fresh ones, which is why habang reads sweet-and-warm rather than searing. Soaking rehydrates them so they grind into a smooth paste, and frying that paste in oil blooms the fat-soluble carotenoid pigments and aromatics, deepening both colour and flavour. As palm sugar and a little water reduce around the chicken, the sugars thicken and gloss the sauce while gentle browning rounds it, leaving the lacquered, clinging finish.
Variations
The same masak habang sauce is made with snakehead or other fish (iwak masak habang) and with hard-boiled eggs (telur masak habang); chicken is the most common. Cooks vary the heat by adjusting the share of dried chili, and some add a little tomato or tamarind for a brighter edge. It is most often served with rice, and pairs especially with the Banjar yellow rice, but also appears as a lauk in mixed-rice plates.
On the Palate
Where Ayam Masak Habang sits in the Indonesian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
8 steps · 35 min active + 20 min waiting
- 115 min
Soak dried red chilies in hot water until soft and pliable.
Watch outSoak the dried chilies until fully soft and pliable — only then do they grind into a smooth paste; still stiff and they leave gritty flecks and won't release their colour.
- 28 min
Grind the soaked chilies with shallots and garlic into a smooth paste.
- 38 min
Fry the chicken pieces in oil until lightly golden on all sides, then set aside.
- 47 min
Saute the chili paste in the same oil over medium heat until the colour deepens to brick-red and the raw smell is gone.
Watch outFry the chili paste until the colour deepens to brick-red and the raw smell is gone — that's the aromatics blooming in the oil; the whole dish's warmth builds here, so don't add liquid too soon.
- 52 min
Add palm sugar, a splash of water, and a little salt, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
- 618 min
Return the chicken and turn to coat, then simmer gently, basting, until the sauce thickens and glazes.
Watch outSimmer, basting, until the sauce thickens to a clinging, glossy glaze — the palm sugar has to reduce down to lacquer the chicken; pull it while still thin and it just runs off.
- 74 min
Adjust the sweet-salt-heat balance and let the sauce reduce to a clinging glaze.
- 82 min
Serve hot with rice, garnished with fried shallots.
