Brunei’s Buttermilk Goodness For Under

The Asian buttermilk chicken that we all know is a very popular dish in Brunei Darussalam.

In fact, it’s so popular that some ‘Nasi Katok’ stalls have included buttermilk chicken into their menu.

Where does buttermilk milk come from, you ask?

I believe that it’s from one of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member countries, specifically Malaysia. (I made this assumption after noticing that most of the recipes that can be found online were from Malaysia.)

These days, most restaurants in Brunei have buttermilk on their menus. (It is clear that Bruneians love this dish a lot!)

Buttermilk chicken from Chill V Kopitiam (Photos: Da’ Food Enthusiast)

The dish’s main components are battered fried chicken, butter, condensed milk, evaporated milk, curry leaves and bird’s eye chili.

Some chefs use either condensed milk or evaporated milk. Others would even use both!

Some would use sugar to sweeten the sauce.

The end result is a sweet, creamy and buttery sauce.

It can be spicy too depending on the amount of chilies that are added to the mix!

Now, let’s take a closer look the different variations of buttermilk dishes that I’ve seen here in Brunei.

1. Madrasah Butter Chicken

Price: $5
Location: Al-Amal Restaurant (same area as GK Restaurant in Jerudong)

This variety is a mix of buttermilk sauce with curry. The curry taste is more pronounced but the sauce is creamy and buttery just like how a buttermilk sauce should be. It has all the essential buttermilk ingredients such as curry leaves and bird’s eye chilies. It’s a yummy Indian + Oriental fusion I have to say!

2. Peanut Butter Chicken

Price: $5
Location: Al-Amal Restaurant (same area as GK Restaurant in Jerudong)

This is one of the most unique looking buttermilk chicken dishes that I have ever seen.

Despite having the word ‘peanut’ in the name, I was made to understand that they don’t actually use peanuts. (Which makes me wonder, “Why bother naming it in such a way?)

I guess it could be because it looks like there’s crushed peanuts on the sauce.

I tried asking what is it and how it’s made. But the answers given weren’t exactly clear. (It’s either the staff members don’t really know how to explain it or they weren’t keen to share such info! LOL!)

In terms of taste, it’s not much different from your typical buttermilk sauce, except that it’s on the saltier side because of those tiny brown bits. (Those tiny bits also add some texture to the sauce.)

So if you’re looking to try a unique form of buttermilk chicken (and you love your sauce salty) … this is probably the dish for you.

Note: From what I had gathered, this dish is almost always unavailable at their Jerudong branch, they are focussing more on their branch at UBD Female Hostel. So it’s best to visit their UBD branch instead if you want to try this dish since they open up till 8.45pm there (depending on the day).

3. Buttermilk Sambal Chicken

Price: $6
Location: Singapore Chicken Rice, Bandar branch

Despite the visible red chili flakes on the sauce, it’s surprisingly not that spicy. (Well according to my taste buds that is! Haha!)

There is just a subtle taste of sambal, which does add depth to the sauce. It also balances the sweetness. What I love about this dish is that they used chicken rice instead of normal rice! (Super nice!) This is definitely the type of buttermilk chicken for all chili lovers out there.

4. Salted Egg Buttermilk Chicken

Price: $9.90
Location: Little Audrey’s

It’s safe to that you can get salted egg buttermilk chicken from most restaurants in Brunei.

After all, this is the most common variety of the buttermilk dish out there.
For this article, I’ll be featuring the one from Little Audrey’s because the presentation looked oh-so-pretty! The dish comes with seasoned mixed veggies and a fried egg.

It’s basically just like the regular buttermilk sauce with a hint of salted egg taste. The sauce is still sweet and it’s not affected by the saltiness of the salted egg yolk. It could also be viewed as a sweet and creamy version of a salted egg sauce.

5. Peanut Butter Milk Chicken

Price: $5.70
Location: Ceri Cafe

Of all the different varieties of buttermilk chicken out there, I think I like this the most! Unlike the “Peanut Butter Chicken” from Al-Amal Restaurant, Ceri Café actually uses peanut on their dish. (Peanut butter spread to be exact…)

However, it may not seem obvious because of the colour and texture.

But I can reassure you that you’ll be able to taste the peanut butter in the sauce.
If you look closely, you can see traces of butter peanut. Furthermore, the colour of the sauce is a bit brown-ish and not as bright yellow.

It’s surprising that peanut butter and buttermilk works well together! (Who’d guess?)

Given the smooth and creamy texture of peanut butter spread, it blends very well with the buttermilk sauce. As far as I’m concerned, the sauce tastes fantastic! It’s sweet, creamy and nutty. (I love it!)

Note: Ceri Café also has its own version of curry buttermilk chicken as well as cheese buttermilk chicken