Thai Pandan Leaf Chicken Recipe 泰式香兰鸡
Thai Pandan Leaf Chicken is a very popular dish and a favourite to many, especially in Asian countries. Pandan Leaf Chicken is actually fried chicken marinated in fresh spices, then wrapped in aromatic green pandan leaves. When fried, the pandan leaves infuse the chicken meat with its naturally sweet taste and soft nutty aroma. Served with a warm bowl of rice or as an appetizer on its own, simply delicious!
- Prep time
- 30 min
- Cook time
- 10 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 500 gm chicken meat (chicken thigh or breast meat)
- 1 piece ginger (grated)
- 1 tsp salt
- 30 pieces pandan leaves/screwpine leaves (big leaves, washed)
- 3 cups oil (for deep frying)
- 6 pieces shallots (sliced)
- 3 pips garlic (sliced)
- 2 stick lemongrass (sliced the top)
- 1 inch ginger (young ginger)
- 1/2 inch fresh turmeric (sliced)
- 2 stalk coriander roots (chopped )
- 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp brown sugar (or palm sugar)
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 2 tbsp coconut milk powder
Instructions
- 1
Marinate Pandan Chicken
- 2
Cut chicken meat into small but thick pieces as the meat will get smaller when fried. Then mix well with salt, grated ginger and set aside 30 minutes.
- 3
Meanwhile, cut shallots, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric and coriander roots into smaller pieces.
- 4
In a blender, place the cut ingredients and blend into a paste.
- 5
Mix well the paste with the seasonings.
- 6
Then add coconut milk powder and mix well.
- 7
Next, add the paste into the chicken pieces and make sure its thoroughly mixed.
- 8
Set aside to marinade for 2 hours. Then prepare to wrap the marinated chicken meat.
- 9
Wrap Pandan Chicken
- 10
Before wrapping, clean the pandan leaves in cold water and wipe dry.
- 11
To wrap the pandan chicken, hold leaf so that the flat side of the pandan leaf is on your left hand side and the pointed side of the pandan leaf is on your right hand side. Press a little along the leaf.
- 12
Then flip it over so that the side that is not shiny faces upwards.
- 13
Now fold the ends upwards, making sure the flat side is much shorter than the pointed side. Cross the long side UNDER the short side to create a pocket.
- 14
Tuck a piece of marinated chicken into the pocket.
- 15
Make sure the back of the pocket is supported while we pull the leaf through the loop. Bring the long (pointed) end of the leaf down and thread it through the loop. Use the thumb or index finger to help thread the leaf through.
- 16
Pull gently to make sure the chicken meat is secured in the pocket.
- 17
On the other side, tuck the chicken meat in if it is protruding.
- 18
Wrap the long end of the leaf back over and pull the leaf through the loop again to secure.
- 19
Cut off a little of the excess leaf from the pointed side. Keep the base side long as it can be used to help lower the wraps into the hot oil when you deep fry.
- 20
Continue to wrap the balance of the marinated chicken meat with the pandan leaves. And we're ready to deep fry the pandan chicken.
- 21
Deep Fry Pandan Chicken
- 22
To fry the chicken, first heat up the oil to medium heat. A wooden chopstick inserted into the oil will just have bubbles around it.
- 23
Slowly, lower the wrapped pandan chicken into the hot oil. Deep fry in batches, about 4 minutes on each side. Chicken is done when the oil stops sizzling and the exposed area of the meat turns golden brown.
- 24
Remove from the frying pan and place the fried pandan chicken on paper towel to drain off excess oil.
- 25
Serve the fried pandan chicken hot and Enjoy!