Viet World Kitchen

Thai Chicken Biryani Recipe (Khao Mok Gai)

Trade, travel, and empire have fused together the cuisines of Asia in many delectable ways. This spiced chicken-and-rice dish reflects the Muslim-Indian-Thai culinary marriage.

You may not know of khao mok gai (also spelled kao mok gai) but it is deliciously complex in perfume and flavor. In fact, in the span of a week, I ate it three (3) times while I was in Sydney, one of the greatest places for Thai food outside of Thailand! Go to one of the Chat Thai restaurants for a very good rendition.

Hell bent on replicating it, I found a recipe in David Thompson’s new book, Thai Street Food.  I’ve made it several times, the first following the recipe and it was superb. Then I tweaked it slightly for the resulting khao mok gai recipe below. (Disclosure: I provided an official book jacket endorsement for Thai Street Food. Thompson’s recipe for this dish was one of the reasons why.)

Get ready. Khao mok gai takes time to make. It is not straightforward and quick like last week's Thai grilled chicken (gai yang), though you can mix a little of that lovely sweet chile sauce into the rice, if you want to.

But if you make this Thai version of biryani, you’ll have enough for 8 people, or several rounds of eating. Add a salad and you’ve got a celebratory meal that will be sure to WOW your family and friends.

A few notes:

• Basmati is my substitute for the aged long-grain rice (e.g. jasmine) that would likely be used in Thailand.
• The use of dairy (here it's yogurt) and combining cilantro and mint is unusual for Thai cooking but it works for this hybrid dish.
• The chicken and rice are great on their own but add some tart-spicy-sweet sauce and it enlivens the entire dish, making it bright and spritely. The spicy mint sauce below is akin to an Indian green chutney but the galangal zing skews it toward Thailand. Or, you can use some sweet Thai chile sauce.
• Make the paste and fry the shallots a day in advance to get a head start.
• Use a heavy-bottomed, large, wide pot that you would braise a big stew to ensure that things cook evenly. I used an All Clad 6-quart pan.
• Thai cardamom is available at well-stocked Thai markets but regular green cardamom works great.

Thai cardamom (left), Indian green cardamon (right)

Dive into the khao mok gai recipe below and parse the cultural influences as you cook and eat. For more background information on khao mok gai, read "Biryani, Bangkok Style" by Austin Bush, a photographer and writer in Bangkok.

Curry Fried Rice Recipe -- Mark Bittman site

As you may know, I've been somewhat disabled by an Achilles heel injury. I'm a temporary gimp. Fortunately, that doesn't see to stop my ability to cook. The other day I scrounged up some leftovers in the fridge -- including some dry rice -- and crafted a curry fried rice on the fly.

Mind you, this is not my own creation. If you're a fan of Ramenya in West Los Angeles, this fried rice will remind you of theirs.

I posted the recipe and a few tips on how to make fried rice at Mark Bittman's site. Oh, for the curry powder, I used Sun Brand, which you can find online and at gourmet shops and some Asian markets. Look for the tall metal tins.

If you're interested in other rice dishes, check these out on Viet World Kitchen:

• Perfect Rice
• Coconut Rice
• Vietnamese Red Rice
• Hainan Chicken and Rice

Crisp Daikon Rice Cakes with Egg and Scallion Recipe (Banh Cu Cai Bot Chien)

If you visited my other site this week, Asian Dumpling Tips, you’ll notice that I went on a daikon rice cake jag. I test drove a recipe for the dim sum favorite from The Dumpling cookbook and then developed a vegetarian version based on ones at Slanted Door restaurant in San Francisco. I have to admit that watching Charles Phan battle Cat Cora on Iron Chef America inspired the vegetarian daikon rice cakes. Plus I’m attending the CIA’s World of Flavors conference this weekend in Napa and the theme is street food and comfort food. All that converged and as I pondered how to repurpose all the daikon rice cake in my fridge.

Bingo -- one way to use up some of the cake was to spiff up a Vietnamese street food favorite called bánh bột chiên (fried cakes, literally), which is made of crisp fried pieces of plain rice dough, with scrambled eggs, scallion and a tangy-sweet-spicy soy dipping sauce. Bot chien is a Chiu Chow (Triều Châu, Chinese people tied to Chaozhou, an area bordering Guangdong and Fujian provinces) invention and quite popular among school children as an after-school snack. Earlier this year, I had the dish at a Dynasty restaurant in San Jose, California, during their dim sum service. I noticed on Yelp that a small number of Vietnamese restaurants offer the dish too.

Chicken and Rice Soup with Ginger Dipping Sauce

[Note to reader: I'm traveling but have been wanted to post this recipe. I thought I had a photo of this chicken and rice soup but cannot find it for the life of me! So imagine, if you will, a rice bowl filled with hot, velvety white soup, garnished with whisps of cilantro and a few scallion rings. On the side is a plate of poached chicken with a small dipping sauce dish filled with zesty ginger-lime dipping sauce. That's what I would have presented to you. Perhaps these words will feed your senses?]

Despite the calendar saying that it’s spring, I’m feeling like we’re the shoulder season between winter and spring. The air is lightly brisk and I find myself grabbing a light sweater to keep warm. One of the foods that comfort me in this kind of weather is cháo, Vietnam’s version of simple rice soup. In other parts of Asia, this kind of soup can be called jook, juk, and congee. I’ve often seen it described in English as porridge – as if it’s only for the old and infirm. Surely, cháo is a great panacea for all kinds of ills, particularly tummy aches and hangovers, I’ve found, but I also love it when I’m healthy! In fact, cháo rice soup is all-weather fare, and can be enjoyed at all times of the day. In hot, humid climates like that of Saigon (in the 90s these days), I’d eat this kind of congee in the morning, when it’s cooler, as I would pho noodle soup.

All cháo is rice and water or stock simmered until the rice grains release their starches so that the liquid becomes thick and creamy. The finished texture is not pasty, mind you. It’s quite elegant, though made from a handful of humble, homey ingredients. There are many approaches to cooking up congee in Asia, and people have told me that they’ve used medium grain rice, broken jasmine rice, and regular long grain rice. I’ve sometimes thrown leftover cooked rice into a pot of water for a ‘shortcut’ version. The message here is this: use what you’ve got.

How to Cook Perfect Rice

Don’t be afraid, you CAN cook fantastic rice without an electric rice cooker. A couple weeks ago, I posted information on myths and truths about cooking rice and people contributed lots of helpful tips and personal stories. Now, I’m following up with insights on how to cook perfect rice in a pot.

Whether you cook long-grain rice in an electric rice cooker or a saucepan, practice and consistency are the keys to doing it well. The following tips will put you on the path to cooking a good pot of rice every time.

What is perfect rice?
That’s something to be debated. I like my grains to retain their individuality but not be dry. The cooked rice should be soft but not mushy. It should taste clean and sweet and have a wonderful fragrance. Rice is a wonderful canvas upon which you can put other textures and flavors. It should be great on its own (I sprinkle a little fish sauce on plain rice on many occasions!) but also be ready to play nice with other dishes.

Coconut Rice Recipe

The thought of rice infused with coconut goodness makes me swoon. Over the years, I’ve seen it on Southeast Asian restaurant menus and read recipes and tried recipes for it. But the rice has always turned out either gummy and more importantly, not very coconutty.

For the most part, I’ve tried blending different proportions of water and coconut milk and never got a satisfactory result -- one that I would proudly serve my family and friends. My all-time favorite Vietnamese cookbook – Lam Bep Gioi by Mrs. Van Dai (sort of the Julia Child of Vietnam in the 1940s) calls for cooking the rice as normal and then stirring in a couple tablespoons of coconut milk at the end. That didn’t work, my friends.

The other day I found a solution. Not using coconut milk. Well, not using it straight.

Vietnamese Red Rice Recipe

There are certain dishes that people ask me about and Vietnamese red rice is one of them. It's a dish that's become popular in a number of Vietnamese restaurants abroad -- a diaspora dish, if you will. It's not part of the Vietnamese repertoire in the sense of being a classic dish that says, "I'm Vietnamese!" On the other hand, what makes something a classic? Perhaps, a particular food becomes a classic if over time, enough cooks make it and enough people like it.

There's a red sticky rice called xoi gac in traditional Vietnamese cooking where sweet rice is coated in the red-orange pulp of the gac fruit (Mormordica cochinensis), a spiky volleyball-sized fruit that's related to bitter melon. That slightly sweet, rich xoi gac sticky rice is associated with celebratory occasions, like weddings, because its reddish color symbolizes prosperity and good luck. Usually, the rice is paired with roasted meats like crispy pork or duck.

Hainan Chicken and Rice Recipe (Com Ga Hai Nam)

Since we've been talking about what is authenticity in Asian food and mixing things up, it got me thinking about a great dish -- Hainan chicken and rice. The one dish wonder comes from the island of Hainan off the coast of China. Called Hai Nam in Vietnamese, the surrounding waters of the oil-rich island has been the subject of maritime dispute was disputed territory between China and Vietnam for years ago and Vietnam skill keeps its eyes on foreign oil contracts related to the territory.

Chickens are precious in Asian kitchens so take a whole one, poaching and eating it is saved for special occasions like Tet in Vietnam. For that reason, a dish like Hainan chicken and rice is a grand thing indeed. It's a resourceful dish because practically all the parts of the bird are used!

First the chicken is gently poached and then the cooking broth is cooked down a bit and used to cook the rice, which is fried in a little chicken fat. The chicken is cooled to room temp and cut up to be served with the flavorful rice.  A dipping sauce flavored with the broth and sometimes gilded with chicken fat accompanies the chicken. The leftover broth is served as soup on the side.

In Vietnam, we typically poach chicken and serve it under a layer of super finely shredded tender lime leaves. The sauce is salt, pepper, lime juice and fresh chile. Hainan chicken and rice is just a few steps further beyond that. I ate many versions on my recent trip to Asia and the best rendition was in Singapore. After returning home, I replicated it, but added my own Viet touch, a bit of nuoc mam in the broth.

Typically, there's a fresh ginger dipping sauce. In Singapura, they serve a sweetened soy sauce and a super duper spicy chile sauce. I've offered all three below for you to choose. You can make these sauces 1 or 2 days in advance to cut down on the work. In developing this recipe, Singapore food expert Christopher Tan's book Shiok!  was quite helpful.

Find a good chicken for this dish. I used a Buff Orpinton raised by Deep Roots Ranch in Watsonville, and the fat that I got was oh so yellow and flavorful. It's lean bird, what you'd say is chewy in Vietnamese terms. Chinese markets have terrific whole chickens, with the head and feet attached. Or just go to your grocer and find the best your pocketbook can afford.

And, that shocking in ice business after poaching? It firms up the skin and puts a great layer of gelatin underneath. The process is a little secret among master chicken poachers. Enjoy.

Hainan Chicken and Rice
Com Ga Hai Nam

Serves 4 to 6 as a main course

For the chicken:
1 whole high quality chicken (about 31/2 pounds)
5 quarter-sized slices ginger, peeled or unpeeled, crushed with the broad side of a cleaver or chef's knife
1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon fish sauce

For the rice:
2 cups raw long-grain rice, such as Thai jasmine
4 tablespoons chicken fat (take from poaching liquid) or peanut oil
1-1/2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
4 fresh or thawed pandan leaves, tied together in one loose knot (optional)
Salt, to taste

Sauce option 1: Ginger sauce
2-inch chubby section ginger (about 2 ounces), peeled and thinly sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Sauce option 2: Singapore chili sauce
2 or 3 large red chiles, such as Fresno, cayenne, or long chile, coarsely chopped
2 or 3 hot Thai chiles, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1-1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon hot chicken poaching broth

Sauce option 3: Sweet Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon light (regular) soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 -1/2 teaspoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon Asian chili sauce, such as Sriracha

Sauce option 4: Salt, Pepper, Lime Dipping Sauce (an easy no-brainer)

Garnishes
1/2 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
1 tomato, thinly sliced or cut into wedges
4 or 5 sprigs cilantro, coarsely chopped

1. Rinse and pat the chicken dry with paper towel. Cut off the head, neck, wing tips and feet - extraneous parts that are on your chicken. Use a heavy cleaver to cut the neck and wings into halves or thirds. Aim to cut through the bone. Set aside.

2. Select a pot that the chicken snugly fits into with about an inch clearance between the top of breast and the edge of the pot. Fill it halfway with water and add the extraneous parts that you just cut up, along with the ginger, onion, and salt. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat and add the chicken.

When the pot returns to a boil, lower the heat to gently simmer. Bubbles should softly dance at the surface. Basing your cooking time on the chicken's original weight, poach for 10 minutes per pound (a 31/2-pound fryer takes 35 minutes). Use tongs to rotate the chicken halfway through to ensure even cooking.

Near the end of the cooking time, get a large bowl of ice water ready and set it near the stove. Use tongs to remove the chicken from the pot and plunge it in the ice water. Turn the chicken to expose it to the cold water. Drain and place the chicken on a plate. Let it cool completely before slicing. Leave it at room temperature if serving soon, or cover it in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring it to room temperature before cutting.

3. Meanwhile, add the fish sauce to the broth. Boil the broth until it has reduced by one-third, or until its flavor has concentrated enough for your taste. Turn off the heat and, skim the fat - reserving it for cooking the rice. Strain the broth into another pan. Discard the solids. Cover and set aside while the chicken cools.

4. For the rice, rinse the rice and let it drain for 10 minutes in a mesh strainer positioned over a bowl. Meanwhile, bring the stock to a near simmer in a small saucepan, and then cover to keep it hot.

5. In a heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan, heat 4 tablespoons of chicken fat over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and shallot and cook, stirring constantly, until no longer raw smelling, 1 to 2 minutes. Firmly shake the strainer of rice to expel any hidden water, and then add the rice to the pot. Stir constantly with a large spoon until the grains are opaque white and feel light, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat slightly, measure out 2 1/2 cups of hot broth and add the broth and expect dramatic boiling. Immediately give the pot a big stir, reduce the heat to medium to simmer, add the pandan leaves, then let the rice simmer vigorous.

Cook the rice for a few minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times, until most of the water has been absorbed and the surface looks glossy and thick; small craters/holes may form too. Decrease the heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes to firm up and finish cooking. Uncover, fluff with chopsticks or a fork, and then cover. Wait 5 minutes before serving. The rice will stay warm for 30 minutes.

6. Make one, two or all of the sauces and set at the table:

For the ginger sauce, put the ginger, oil, salt, and 1 tablespoon of hot chicken poaching broth (take it from the pot) into a small electric mini chopper and process to a fine texture. Taste and add up to 2 more tablespoons of poaching broth. Transfer to a dipping sauce dish.

For the Singapore chili sauce, put all of the ingredients, the large red chiles, Thai chiles, garlic
Ginger, sugar, salt, lime juice and 1 tablespoon hot chicken poaching broth into a small electric mini chopper and process to a semi-coarse sauce. Transfer to a dipping sauce dish.

For the sweet soy sauce, combine the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and chili sauce in a dipping sauce container, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

7. To serve, use a sharp knife to detach each wing at the shoulder joint. Separate the two wing sections and use a meat-chopping cleaver to chop them into smaller pieces. (Or, keep them whole.) Arrange them on one large serving plate or two small ones. Remove the breasts and leg and thigh quarters. Cut the meat off the bone and slice it into bite-size pieces. Add them to the serving plate(s) in a nice arrangement, skin side up for a beautiful presentation. (Guests may remove the skin while eating.) Finish by scattering cilantro on top.

Bring the broth to a near boil and taste, adding extra salt if necessary. Strain the broth into a large soup bowl and sprinkle with black pepper. Serve immediately with the chicken, rice, cucumber and tomato slices, and dipping sauces.

You may have guests eat the broth out of a rice bowl and the rice and chicken from a plate, using fork and spoon as primary utensils.