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How to Make Nasi Lemak

Nasi lemak is Malaysia's best-loved breakfast: rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan, served with a spicy-sweet sambal, crispy anchovies and peanuts, egg and cucumber. This tutorial walks you through making a classic plate from scratch.

Nasi lemak in its basic form: coconut rice with sambal, fried anchovies, cucumber and boiled egg

A basic plate of nasi lemak. Photo: Craig, CC BY 3.0 (see Photo credits).

Serves: 4
Time: about 1 hour 15 minutes

By the end you will have:

  1. Fragrant coconut rice
  2. Sambal ikan bilis (anchovy sambal)
  3. Crispy fried anchovies and peanuts
  4. Hard-boiled eggs and cucumber to finish the plate

Ingredients​

Coconut rice​

  • 2 cups jasmine or long-grain rice
  • 1 cup thick coconut milk
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 pandan leaves, tied into a knot
  • 2 thin slices of ginger (optional)
  • ½ tsp salt

Sambal ikan bilis​

  • 15 dried chillies, deseeded and soaked in hot water for 15 minutes
  • 5 shallots
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp belacan (shrimp paste), toasted
  • 1 large onion, sliced into rings
  • 1 tbsp tamarind paste, mixed with ¼ cup warm water and strained
  • 1–2 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
  • ½ tsp salt, or to taste
  • ½ cup cooking oil
  • A handful of dried anchovies (ikan bilis), about 30 g, rinsed and dried

To serve​

  • 100 g dried anchovies (ikan bilis), rinsed and dried
  • ½ cup raw peanuts
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cucumber, sliced
  • Oil for frying
note

Dried chillies, belacan, tamarind paste and palm sugar are sold in most Asian grocery stores and in the international aisle of larger supermarkets.

Step 1: Cook the coconut rice​

  1. Rinse the rice in a few changes of water until the water runs mostly clear. Drain well.
  2. Put the rice in a rice cooker or pot. Add the coconut milk, water, salt, ginger and knotted pandan leaves.
  3. Stir once so the salt and coconut milk are evenly mixed.
  4. Cook in the rice cooker, or in a pot on low heat with the lid on for about 15–20 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed.
  5. Let the rice rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove the pandan and ginger, then fluff with a fork.
tip

Coconut milk can catch on the bottom of a pot. Keep the heat low and don't lift the lid while the rice cooks.

Step 2: Make the sambal​

  1. Drain the soaked chillies. Blend them with the shallots, garlic and toasted belacan into a smooth paste, adding a splash of water if needed.
  2. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Fry the anchovies for the sambal until crisp, then lift them out and set them aside.
  3. In the same oil, add the blended paste. Cook over medium-low heat for 10–15 minutes, stirring often, until the oil separates and rises to the surface and the paste smells cooked rather than raw.
  4. Add the sliced onion and cook for 2–3 minutes until softened.
  5. Stir in the tamarind water, sugar and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes, then taste and adjust: more sugar for sweetness, more tamarind for tang, more salt for depth.
  6. Return the fried anchovies to the sambal and stir through.
caution

Don't rush the paste. Sambal that isn't cooked until the oil separates tastes sharp and raw.

Step 3: Fry the anchovies and peanuts​

  1. Heat about 1 cm of oil in a pan over medium heat.
  2. Fry the 100 g of anchovies in small batches for 1–2 minutes until golden and crisp. Drain on paper towels.
  3. Fry the peanuts in the same oil, stirring constantly, until golden. Drain and let cool; they keep crisping as they cool.

Step 4: Prepare the eggs and cucumber​

  1. Place the eggs in a pot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil.
  2. Turn off the heat, cover, and leave for 10 minutes for hard-boiled eggs.
  3. Cool in cold water, peel, and halve.
  4. Slice the cucumber.

You can also fry the eggs (sunny-side up or with crispy edges) instead of boiling them.

Step 5: Assemble the plate​

Scoop a mound of coconut rice onto each plate. Add a generous spoonful of sambal, then arrange the crispy anchovies, peanuts, egg and cucumber around it.

Variations​

  • Add a protein. Serve with fried chicken (ayam goreng berempah), beef rendang or fried fish.
  • Wrap it up. For a takeaway version, pack the rice and sides in banana leaf and paper.
  • Vegetarian. Leave out the anchovies and belacan, and add more peanuts and a dash of soy sauce to the sambal for depth.
  • Spice level. For a milder sambal, use fewer dried chillies or deseed them thoroughly.

Nasi lemak with sambal and fried fish on an opened banana leaf wrap

Nasi lemak is traditionally wrapped in banana leaf. Photo: Takeaway, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Northern-style nasi lemak with sambal, next to a bowl of chicken curry

A northern-style plate, served with chicken curry. Photo: Kutubkhanah, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Storing and reheating​

  • Keep the rice, sambal and sides in separate containers in the fridge for up to 2 days.
  • Reheat the rice with a splash of water until steaming hot.
  • Keep the anchovies and peanuts in an airtight container at room temperature so they stay crisp.

Next steps​

  • Make the sambal in a double batch. It freezes well in small portions.
  • Try pairing nasi lemak with a cup of teh tarik for the full Malaysian breakfast.

Photo credits​

The photos on this page come from Wikimedia Commons. They are resized to 960 pixels wide, and the northern-style photo is cropped to a landscape shape.