Traveling to Thailand (or Laos, where the dish is known as ping gai), and enjoying this chicken hot off the grill from a street vendor is definitely on my travel bucket list. Until that day, though, making this tasty Thai grilled chicken at home will have to do. Thai grilled chicken, or gai yang, is one of the most flavorful grilled chicken recipes you’ll ever make.
If you have any doubts, then you must try this Thai grilled chicken. Fortunately, the hardest part about making gai yang is finding fresh lemongrass and a good fish sauce. These two key ingredients, along with cilantro and lots of garlic, give this Thai grilled chicken the signature aromatic flavor that will raise the noses of hungry guests at any barbecue (when such things are safe once again!).
This recipe also includes a tasty nam jim jaew dipping sauce to serve on the side. Make sure to do your preparation the night before to marinate the chicken overnight (or at least 12 hours)!
The Ultimate BBQ Chicken Recipe ไ่ก่ย่าง – Hot Thai Kitchen
Authentic Thai Grilled Chicken Recipe (Gai Yang ไก่ย่าง) 🔗
If you’re looking for a delicious way to make grilled chicken, look no further than Thai style grilled chicken known as gai yang (ไก่ย่าง). The chicken is marinated in heaps of garlic, black pepper, lemongrass, palm sugar, and some soy sauce for saltiness. Thai grilled chicken is juicy and full of amazing flavor! Here’s the full video recipe: http://youtu.be/3l9omsiaO2M which you should watch before anything else. Also, for more authentic Thai recipes, click here. Enjoy!
Prep: 30min
Total: 2h
Ingredients:
- 2 whole chickens (mine were 1.8 kilos each)
- Bamboo sticks or skewers
- Charcoal
- Grill
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons palm sugar
- 1 tablespoon sweet dark soy sauce (you can use kecap manis)
- 8 tablespoons water
- 4 heads garlic (30 – 40 cloves)
- 2 stalks lemongrass
- 2.5 tablespoons black pepper corns
- 8 fresh coriander roots (or you can try the powder coriander roots)
- 1.5 tablespoons khao kua (see method here)
- 1.5 tablespoons chili flakes
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 8 tablespoons tamarind juice (you can add more or less according to how strong it is and how sweet and sour you want your sauce)
- Few sprigs of cilantro
Instruction:
- For this recipe, I’m going to cook 2 full chickens, together weighing in at 3.6 kilos. If you wanted, you could also make this recipe with 3 – 4 kilos of chicken pieces, or really, however much chicken you want.
- For this gai yang (ไก่ย่าง) to be at its finest, it’s best to marinate the chicken overnight and grill it the next day, but if you don’t have the time, marinate the chicken for at least a few hours.
- Peel about 4 bulbs of garlic, which should be about 30 – 40 cloves in all.
- Thinly slice 2 stalks of lemongrass and cut off the roots of 8 stalks of coriander.
- Now comes the hard part, pounding everything using a mortar and pestle (If you don’t have a mortar and pestle you can blend the ingredients in a food processor (but I’d really recommend you invest in a Thai style mortar and pestle).
- Add small amounts of garlic, lemongrass, black peppercorns, and coriander roots to the mortar and pestle and pound them until the oils come out, and you have a coarse paste. Keep pounding until all the marinade ingredients are finished. You’ll probably need to load the mortar a few times.
- Put all the pounded marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl, stir them up, and add 4 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, and 2 tablespoons of palm sugar. Mix everything together while adding about 8 tablespoons of water to the mixture. You should end up with a potent marinade that looks like a chunky garlicky sauce.
- If you’re using whole chickens, you’ll want to butterfly cut them starting from the breast side down to the butt. Flatten the chickens out. This is going to prepare it for the grill (Watch the video to see how to do it).
- In a big pan or mixing bowl start to rub the marinade on the chicken, making sure the garlic, herbs, and soy sauce go into all parts of the chicken. Rub down both chickens using all the marinade.
- Cover the chickens and allow them to rest overnight. You might stir them a couple of times if you remember.
- The next day, take out your chicken, and the first step is to light your charcoal. You want a low even heat, coals that aren’t too hot, but a low and even.
- Put the chicken on the grill and begin cooking!
- Wait about 20 minutes or so (but monitoring them to make sure they don’t burn), before making your first flip. You can baste the chicken with the extra marinade.
- Cook the chicken on low heat for about 1.5 hours, until the chicken is cooked through to the bone and the skin is golden dark brown on the outside.
- Take the chicken off the grill, and dismantle the bamboo supports.
- If you have a Chinese cleaver, first cut the chicken in half from the neck to the butt, and from there cut off the drumstick, wing, and chop the rest of the chicken into strips.
- Semi-dried tamarind pulp can usually be bought at the supermarket in a small block. To rehydrate it, get a couple tablespoons of hot water and start to work the tamarind into the hot water. This should turn it into a nice tamarind water sauce.
- In a bowl, mix 1.5 tablespoons of khao kua (toasted sticky rice, recipe here), 1.5 tablespoons of chili flakes, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 3 tablespoons of fish sauce, and 8 tablespoons of tamarind juice.
- Mix all of the ingredients together.
- After mixing up the sauce, make sure you taste test. You’re looking for the perfect sweet, sour, and salty combination. You might need to add more tamarind juice, more sugar, or more fish sauce to balance it out.
- Top off your gai yang sauce with some chopped up cilantro.
- Happy eating!
FAQ
What is Thai barbeque?
The best foods for this cooking method are pork, chicken, mutton, lamb, seafood, vegetables, and mushrooms. The regional traditional Thai mu kratha is typically served with nam chim suki, a well-known dipping sauce.
What is Thai chicken made of?
InstructionsHeat coconut oil in a wok or a sizable frying pan over high heat. Add garlic, ginger, peppers, and beans. Add chilies, sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, and a pinch of salt. Return chicken to wok; stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes, or until hot and thoroughly cooked.
How do you make Thai Vegetable chicken?
InstructionsHeat coconut oil in a wok or a sizable frying pan over high heat. Add garlic, ginger, peppers, and beans. Add chilies, sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, and a pinch of salt. Return chicken to wok; stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes, or until hot and thoroughly cooked.