The sun decided to make an appearance this past week in Santa Cruz for longer than just a couple of hours a day! I was unfortunately stuck in my office reviewing edits on a writing project. After finishing on Friday, it time for a real weekend.
To start things off, Rory opened up a liter bottle of a dry Riesling and I made Thai grilled chicken (gai yang). Mymenu choice was inspired by two things: (1) the jar of Thai sweet chile sauce I recently made and (2) memories of a fabulous rendition of gai yang at Sailors Thai, a renowned restaurant in Sydney, Australia.
I had basically given up on ordering cloyingly sweet grilled chicken at Thai restaurants, but my dining buddy that evening, Bangkok-based journalist Jarrett Wrisley, convinced me to order the signature Thai dish. He was prescient in saying, “If this is a good Thai restaurant, they should at least do this well.”
We were startled by how good the gai yang was at Sailors Thai. Jarrett and I politely fought each other over every last bit of flesh and tangy-spicy sauce.
Sailors Thai was started by David Thompson, the chef/owner of Michelin starred nahm at the Halkin hotel in London and the soon-to-open outpost at the Metropolitan in Bangkok. David is one of the foremost authorities on Thai cuisine. He is feisty in nature and uncompromising in his cooking. Over the years, he has elevated Thai food to a high level of craftsmanship and respect that it deserves.
Thompson’s cookbooks, Thai Food and Thai Street Food are phenomenal works. Thai Food is one of my reference books and I used it to work up this gai yang recipe, which is frankly super easy.
Hardline traditionalists would use a small chicken (think game hen size) but I opted for chicken-leg and-thigh quarters. They are juicy, cost less, and taste great.
Brush the sweet chile sauce on at the end or serve it on the side. Do both, if you like. You can’t lose.
RECIPE
Thai Grilled Chicken
Gai Yang
Note that cilantro stems are a stand in for cilantro roots, which are readily available in Thailand but not abroad.
Serves 4 to 6 as a main dish
3 1/2 pounds chicken leg-and-thigh quarters
Marinade
1/3 cup coarsely chopped cilantro stems
1/4 cup coarsely chopped garlic
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 teaspoons light palm sugar or light brown sugar
5 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 to 3/4 cup Thai Sweet Chile Sauce
1. Trim excess fat and skin from the chicken. Put into a baking dish or bowl. Set aside.
2. Use a mini food processor to grind the cilantro stems, garlic, salt, pepper, and sugar to a coarse texture. Add the fish sauce and pulse to emulsify. Taste and season with salt, pepper, or sugar to create a marinade with a slightly intense savory-sweet bite.
3. Pour the marinade over the chicken. Use your hands to massage it into the chicken, making sure you get some between the skin and flesh too. Cover and set aside for 1 hour. Or, refrigerate for several hours, letting the chicken sit out for 45 minutes before grilling.
4. Preheat a gas grill to medium or prepare a charcoal fire to medium heat. Grill the chicken for 25 to 35 minutes, turning occasionally, until cooked through. Transfer to a platter. Brush on the sweet chile sauce or serve it on the side for guests to help themselves.
GREAT recipe! I have a question for you though. When you say fish sauce, do you mean straight from the bottle or do you mean the fish sauce that you make as a dipping sauce? I am dying to try this recipe, but I don’t want to do it wrong, especially if you didn’t mean fish sauce straight from the bottle.
Any feedback or extra tips for success would be immensely appreciated!
Thanks! I LOVE YOUR BLOG!!! The photos, recipes and stories are just amazing!
I make gai yang for BBQs a fair bit. It’s always a hit.
Thanks for the link, Andrea. I open in Bangkok in a week — with grilled chicken to boot! That one at Sailor’s really was excellent. Good times.
Mar: Use regular fish sauce (3 Crabs, Golden Boy, Tiparos brands) for your Thai gai yang. No dipping sauce stuff that’s been mixed with other stuff.
Diane: Your friends and family are lucky!
Jarrett: Well, less than a year ago you were talking about a restaurant and I’m DELIGHTED that it’s coming together.
This looks delicious! For your sweet Thai Chile sauce, can you substitute with other peppers if there are no fresno peppers? I’ve visited the local asian mart and couldn’t find it. Thanks so much!
If you live near a Farmer’s Market (or a farm), talk to the farmer.
This time of year, you can get Cilantro Root. But it is entirely possible that they have no idea that there is a demand for it, and letting them know is a win-win.
For those in the Seattle area, Oxbow Farm has it — just contact them at farmers@oxbow.org and ask. They are at a number of the Seattle markets.
[Disclaimer: I live a couple of miles down the road from the farm, and am a member of their CSA. Also, I have Gai Yang marinating right now using the Cilantro root they picked for me this afternoon when I called]
I’m currently living in a small Italian town, and recently was ECSTATIC to find a very very well stocked little Asian store to fulfill all of my Asian cooking desires, as I lived in Asia for many years and developed a strong affinity with their cuisine. In the end I have been able to find everything I needed but it seems to me that there isn’t a piece of cilantro in all of Italy. Are there any other suggestions for substitutions or even better some idea of where to find cilantro in Tuscany? I managed to find coriander powder. Could I use it as I would the chopped cilantro?
Thai Grilled Chicken impressive name more that recipe looks yummy and the delicious can’t wait to make at mine home.
If you cannot get it, you should be able to grow your own.
I made the Chile Sauce with some “Fooled You” jalapenos that I grew and allowed to ripen to a nice bright red. The chiles have all of the flavor but none of the heat of jalapenos. So my Chile Sauce was not the least bit authentic but it tasted great.
I make my gai yang chile sauce with dried Thai bird chiles. Chop them coarsely and toss (seeds and all) into a small saucepan with equal parts rice vinegar and sugar and a little minced garlic. Simmer gently for a couple of minutes, and done. Sweet, sour, spicy, delicious.
As for the coriander (cilantro) root, check with the asian vendors at your local farmers’ market. I find there is always at least one who sells coriander with the roots still attached (I have never found anyone who sells just the roots). Coriander root keeps very well in the freezer.
Also Andrea, I must tease you just a little for using a food processor instead of a mortar to make your paste! 🙂
Coriander powder can’t be substituted for fresh cilantro, Stephanie. Grow your own, it’s easy (particularly the perennial type). And if you can’t, next time you see some for sale, buy as many batches as you can, chop them up, and freeze them in ice cube trays. Not as good as fresh, but hey, enough to satisfy a cilantro craving.
@Stephanie: I understand there is a substantial north african immigrant population in Italy (?). This area of the world uses cilantro, so I would assume that if you could find a grocery used by this immigrant population it would have it for sale. Ask around.
If you find it at these locales, it might also be called “kez-bur-uh” which is cilantro in Arabic, or “dhania” which is cilantro in Hindi.
I tasted one time in my life grilled chicken..Taste was really good…But I could not eat more…I heard that boys are eating one full…Don’t no how…
I make that gai yang chile sauce with dried Thai bird chiles…its very tasty food…
This particular grilled chicken does really sounds very tasty.but i have a question though….what if i serve the dish with pepper sauce or something hot instead of as me & my family like our chicken to be spicy & hot rather then tasting sweet.
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We’ve gone from providing 20 percent of our food expenditure equivalents from the home to .6 percent. Part of the story is obviously they most of us don’t live on the farm anymore, but it also shows how disconnected we’ve become from providing ourselves with food.
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looks so so delicious. I love it. Thanks for sharing the whole recipe, i will try it.
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The tremendous smoky barbecue food vendors in Thailand usually line up on both side of streets from morning until late night. The dish is commonly served as an all-day snack or a main dish commonly accompanied with steamed sticky rice (Khao Niew) and varied spicy sauces such as sweet Thai chilli sauce, Nam Jim Jaew (north eastern style) and so forth.
Rotisserie chicken is another popular style of cooking in Thailand. It is also a common street food where the whole chicken is cooked rotating over gas or charcoal heat.
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Part of the story is obviously they most of us don’t live on the farm anymore, but it also shows how disconnected we’ve become from providing ourselves with food.