Thai Pandan Chicken (Gai Hor Bai Toey)

I recently watched Love Destiny (which made me believe that I will find my own Khun P' one day) and the drama showed a lot of traditional Thai cuisines that look tempting (and somewhat complex) that eventually inspired my sister and myself, to cook various Thai food that we craved for.

For this week, I would love to share with you the Thai Pandan Chicken recipe that you MUST try!

Can you imagine the aroma as you fry the pandan chicken in the hot oil?

---

Serving: 16 pandan chickens (5-8 pax)

Time: 12.5 hours (12 hours marinate, 30 minutes prep and cook)

Ingredients:

• 16 pandan leaves

• 500g chicken thigh/breast (I did a combo since my mum does not like dark meat)

• 6 cloves garlic

• 6 pcs coriander root (includes about 1/2 inch of stem from each root)

• 1.5 tsp coriander powder

• 1 tsp of black pepper, ground

• 2.5 tbsp oyster sauce

• 3 tbsp fish sauce

• 1.5 tsp sesame oil

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil

• 3 tbsp evaporated milk

• 3 tsp brown sugar

Preparation:

• Deskin and debone the chicken (I do keep the skin and marinade it too since I love chicken skin too much). Cut the chicken into bite sizes (about 1.5 x 1 inch) and set aside into a bowl.

• Pound chopped coriander roots (and stem), garlic cloves, and black pepper until it is not too chunky.

• Mix in oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, vegetable oil, evaporated milk, coriander powder, brown sugar, and the pounded mixture. Once the marinade sauce is well combined, add the sauce to marinate the chicken.

• Marinate chicken overnight.

• Prepare the chicken in the pandan-leaves pockets/wraps as below.

Chicken tucked in nicely in the pandan-leaf wraps.

• Heat up the oil until it is smoking (or again, you can use a wooden chopstick and the oil is ready once it bubbles around the chopstick).

• Fry the chicken for about 3-4 minutes on each side (leaves should be golden-brown as seen in the first picture)

Voila! Ready to serve with plum sauce and enjoy. Best eaten with fragrant Thai rice *salivates*.

Want a healthier option?

Spread vegetable oil lightly on each pandan leaves. Air-fry the chicken for 7 minutes on one side, and 5 minutes on the other side (or until leaves are of the color below) at 200degC. To my surprise (in a good way) the chicken is super tender and packs a punch when it comes to the flavor!

Poor resolution, but dont let this image fool you! Leaves is expected to be of this color)