Thai Minced Chicken Salad or Laab Kai
This version of the dish owes much to the way it is prepared in Laos and I find that the easiest way to make this is to use the Crying Tiger sauce. (The recipe for Crying Tiger beef is here.) The ingredients it contains are almost identical to those that you would need to make Laab from scratch, in particular the toasted rice powder and toasted galangal, so often left out in Western recipes for this dish.
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- 10 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1 Pouch Crying Tiger Sauce
- 500 g chicken breast.
- A small bunch of mint and coriander.
- 6 Spring onions.
- 1 small red onion
- 2 limes.
Instructions
- 1
I prefer to chop the chicken for this by hand rather than use minced chicken as it results in a better texture. Using a meat cleaver or large heavy knife slice and then chop the chicken as shown in the pictures above. You should be aiming for a reasonably coarse cut, not too finely minced. You could also use a food processor to roughly chop the meat but be careful not to over process the meat.
- 2
Assemble and chop the rest of the salad ingredients.
- 3
Heat a non-stick pan without adding any oil and stir fry the minced meat over a medium heat. The aim is to cook the chicken but not to caramelise it. You can add a spoonful or two of water if needed, just keep stirring and breaking up the clumps of chicken as they form. Depending on your heat it should only take a few minutes.
- 4
If you find yourself with a lot of liquid in the pan after cooking then drain some off, leaving no more than a tablespoonful or so behind. Remove from heat. Add the juice of 1 lime and stir through. Add the Crying Tiger sauce and stir though.
- 5
Add the remaining ingredients and sir through.
- 6
Taste it to see if more lime is required, the lime should not be too subtle here.