Thai Pandan Chicken/ Gai Hor Bai Toey

Thai Pandan Chicken / Gai Hor Bai Toey is a very famous Thai dish in any Thai Restaurant. You can even order this dish from some Chinese restaurant too.  It is our family favourite and I do cook this occasionally when there are plenty of pandan leaves discard after prunning from my lil space (small cemented area for gardening which I called my lil space) .   Homegrown pandan leaves as wraps for this chicken dish.  Great to serve when you have guests to dinner as I am sure your guests will be impressed by the skill in the way you present the chicken dish. Not only it tastes good and aromatic but it shows skill in food presentation. Now with many YouTubers showing the technique on how to wrap this parcel of food, it has made wrapping the chicken meat with pandan leaves so much easier. I remembered how I used to wrap the chicken meat with the pandan leaves using short bamboo skewers or toothpicks to help keep the chicken meat inside the pandan leaves.

 marinate the chicken pieces with the 

marinade spices like shallots, garlic, ginger,lemongrass

coriander roots, palm sugar and not to forget the

Thai fish sauce and oyster sauce

blend this aromatics in a chopper till fine

pandan leaves from my lil space

 a beautifully wrapped parcel of chicken pieces

after wrapping, cut off the tail part leaving an inch

this is a finger-licking good Thai Pandan Chicken

love it and will be making this again when the

prunning comes

Thai Pandan Chicken Recipe - adapted from YouTuber Spice N Pans

Ingredients

420g of chicken thigh (can be replaced with chicken breast/fillet) cut into 1.5 inches cubes

16 pieces of pandan (screwpine) leaves 

Marinade ingredients

*blend the ingredients fine  (A)

 (A)

2 stalks of lemongrass (use only the white part) 

3 cloves of garlic 

3 pieces of shallots 

12g of young ginger 

3 coriander roots

(B) added to (A)

15g of palm sugar (can be replaced with brown sugar/white sugar) 

1 tablespoon of sesame oil 

2 tablespoons of fish sauce (can be replaced with light soy sauce) 

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce 

2 tablespoons of coconut milk

Method:

Cut chicken fillets into 1.5 inches cubes, set aside.  Blend ingredients (A) into fine paste, add in ingredients(B) into a marinade sauce.  Season the chicken pieces with the marinade sauce for at least 30 mins or overnight for better flavour.

Wrap the marinated chicken pieces with the pandan leaves as shown by You tuber Spice N Pans.

 Click link to see how it is being done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qedHYmSrpIU

Vietnamese Style Baked Chicken

This is truly a finger-licking good chicken dish. Vietnamese Style Baked Chicken using Sambal Oelek, fish sauce and chopped cilantro as marinade . What a great combo of ingredients for this marinade. First I have to make the Sambal Oelek and I googled for this Indonesian style sambal. Love the aroma of this flavor packed sambal as I was cooking it. After cooking it, I proceeded to make the marinade for this delicious baked chicken , adding chopped cilantro and fish sauce , after which I marinated the chicken thighs and drumsticks for 3 hours .  Seared the marinated chicken meat on a cast iron skillet for 10 mins, 5 mins on each side, on high heat then put the cast iron pan with the seared meat into the oven and baked for 35 mins at 200C.    This is an easy to prepare dish and will have your family loving it.  You can prepare the sambal oelek a day before and store in jar .  This sambal oelek is great for marinade as well as for cooking anchovies for Coconut Milk Rice ( Nasi Lemak )  

This delicious Vietnamese Style Baked Chicken is a keeper no doubt. If you don't have a cast iron pan , you can bake it straight on a baking pan. Baking time will take extra 10 mins meaning 45 mins instead of 35 mins.  For this recipe , I used the chicken legs cut into 2 portions.

love cooking in cast iron pan,

simply because it can take high heat

great for cooking meat

you can serve on the cast iron pan if you

like :)

marinade consists of sambal oelek, chopped cilantro and

fish sauce, marinate it for at least 30 mins to 3 hours

the most important ingredient ...the Sambal Oelek

Sambal Oelek recipe
(A)
10 pieces fresh red chillies
5 pieces bird's eye chillies
2 stalk of lemongrass(white part)
1 head garlic
1 thumb sized ginger
(B)
2 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
1 tsp Lime zest
3 tbsp vinegar or lime juice
salt to taste

5 tbsp of cooking oil

Method:
Blend (A) together into paste
Heat up oil and saute (A) paste till fragrant, add in (B) and continue cooking till all ingredients are combined. Off heat and let cool. 


Marinade Sauce for 2 chicken legs
(A) - mix all the ingredients together till well blended



1 tbsp of sambal oelek
2 tbsp of chopped cilantro
2 tbsp of fish sauce
1 tsp of lime juice
1 tsp of finely grated lime zest
2 cloves of grated garlic
1 tsp of palm sugar

Method:
Marinate the chicken meat with the marinating sauce for at least 30 mins or 3 hours.
Seared the marinated chicken meat on a cast iron skillet for 10 mins, 5 mins on each side, on high heat then put the cast iron pan with the seared meat into the oven and baked for 35 mins at 200C.     

Pan Fried Turmeric Chicken With Curry Leaves

With so much homegrown turmeric from my lil space, I used them all in my cooking ..Nyonya Acar, Pan Fried Chicken and the rest, I made ground paste for Assam curry etc which can be kept in the freezer for months before the next batch of turmeric is ready for harvest :)  It takes 9 months before I can harvest the next load, well , nothing comes easy but worth the waiting though. This dish is so simple and yet so flavorful.  I added homegrown curry leaves for extra oomph . Hubby Wild Boar loves this dish and I can cook this often for him if I am too lazy to try out new recipe. He doesn't mind eating tumeric fried stuff which makes homecooking so much easier at times :p  I prefers pounding the turmeric and spices using my inherited mortar and pestle from my dearest Mom than using a blender.  Nothing beats convention methods when it comes to cooking.  No short cuts if you want your food to taste really good.

 pound the turmeric, black pepper and shallots together 

for better taste

 marinade the chicken pieces overnight

or for at least 2 hours for a really good marinated flavor

add cornflour to the marinated pieces 5 mins

before pan frying for extra crispness

pan fried till cooked and crisps at edges

add then curry leaves 5 mins before dishing up

Pan Fried Turmeric Chicken With Curry Leaves
(for 2 persons)

1/2 chicken with or without skin - cut into pieces and drain off excess water

marinade paste - pound together the marinade ingredients

a few pieces of fresh turmeric - scrap off skin and sliced
1 tsp of black peppercorn
3 shallots- sliced

a tsp of salt and sugar to taste
1 tbsp of cornflour
a sprig of curry leaves - wash and drain dry

Method:

1.Cut the 1/2 chicken into pieces , drain off excess water before adding marinade paste, salt and sugar

2. Marinate the chicken overnight or at least 2 hours before pan frying. Add corn flour 5 minutes before frying.

3. Heat up  a non stick deep pan , add a tbsp of rice bran oil and pan fried till chicken pieces are crispy at the edges and cooked through.  Add curry leaves , 5 minutes before dishing up for extra oomph.

4. Dish up and serve with rice.

Enjoy!