Awesome Thai Food

Let’s talk about a single dish type food in Thailand that most Thai people like to order to eat in rush hour. Even considering all the foods in Thailand, the most popular dishes that fall into this category are still not many. You have your choice from all those fried rice, chicken, pork or beef fried rice with Thai basil (Khao Pad Ga-Prow Gai, Moo, or Nua) dishes etc. And one of those dishes that is popular for most people and that they cannot pass up is Khao Man Gai. That is because Khao Man Gai is an easy dish to eat. There is also a bowl of soup to sip, making it easy to swallow and joyful to eat.

Khao Man Gai can be considered as a main course dish in Thailand and China. People speculate that this kind of food has been spread from Chinese Li (or Hainan or Hainanese) people. Khao Man Gai is the food that you can find to eat throughout every part of Thailand. It is widely popular to eat among Chinese Thais and also in Malaysia and Singapore. The Khao Man Gai shop in general is often found in a populous area. And it is usually easy to tell and very noticeable by having the clear cabinet that has the whole boiled chicken hanging inside in front of the shop.

The main components of Khao Man Gai include
1. Rice is mainly made from glutinous rice and Jasmine rice. Rice is often mixed with sliced ginger, pounded garlic and a little bit of oil added while the rice is being cooked. So that will make the rice oily and fragrant.
2. Chicken, the buyer can choose which part of chicken meat will be used in their Khao Man Gai as they like. The most popular chicken meat used is gluteal, thigh, and breast. Some places will also use organs like chicken liver or blood to be one of the components too. Usually Khao Man Gai will use boiled chicken as a basic component. But some shops might use fried or grilled chicken as the choices. So that will be called “Khao Man Gai Tod ( Fried Chicken with Rice)” or “Khao Man Gai Yang (Grilled Chicken with Rice)” by the type of chicken that they use. When the seller gets an order from the customer, he or she will chop the chicken with a cleaver knife adroitly.

In the past, it would be very popular to pat the chicken after chopping it. So it makes it look like the amount of chicken meat is much more. Thankfully now Khao Man Gai shops will not do that anymore. Because when they pat chicken, it will make the juice from the chicken come out. And the result is the chicken will be less flavorful.
3. Coriander is use as the garnish on top of the chicken and broth.
4. Cucumber is used as a vegetable side dish. It will be cut into sliced pieces and placed aside the chicken.
5. Chicken and benincasa hispida broth. It is served with Khao Man Gai as a pair.
6. The dipping sauce from fermented soybean and black soy sauce. It is important to not have your Khao Man Gai without it. It is considered a delicious addition Khao Man Gai and makes it more delicious.

Tips for making the most delicious Khao Man Gai
The key to how to make the most delicious Khao Man Gai is, you have to know how to make rice. Rice should be soft and still maintain its grain shape, not blooming as steamed rice, but the consistency of rice just not so solid. The rice should also be oily enough, but not too greasy. And the most important thing for the rice is that it should have the aroma from the chicken, garlic and ginger combined. The chicken should be cooked for just the right amount of time. It should have a tight skin, white meat and not be fluffy. The most important part is the sauce. The taste of the sauce must have the definite taste, perfectly salty, sour and sweet. And for the ginger, it needs to be the mature ginger so it will have an aromatic smell and hot flavor. If you cannot find mature ginger anywhere then you can use the young one instead. So the conclusion of the most delicious Khao Man Gai is the relationship of the rice, chicken and sauce.

The Khao Man Gai ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, split in half or use the separate pieces like 4 pieces of chicken thigh or breast (if you use capon it will get more tasty)
• 2-3 clusters of chicken livers (optional, depends on your preference)
• 1 piece of cooked chicken blood (optional, depends on your preference)
• 3 cups jasmine rice
• ½ cup vegetable oil (or chicken oil)
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 3 Tbsp garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3 sliced ginger, pounded lightly just enough to break
• 3 liters of water (or 3 liters of chicken broth to use instead, if so you can skip Rod Dee in the next ingredient)
• 1 Tbsp Rod Dee powder – chicken flavor
• 2 coriander stems
• 1-2 cucumbers

How to make Khao Man Gai
1. Wash the chicken thoroughly. Cut the excess skin off, and then  slice it into small pieces. Use it to fry and render the fat (or use the regular vegetable oil instead, as mentioned above). Set aside. In case of using chicken livers, wash them with water thoroughly first, then mix them with a little bit of salt and set aside.
2. Pour the chicken broth into the pot (or use 3 liters of water and add Rod Dee powder – chicken flavor into it) and make sure the pot is big enough to fit all the chicken. Season with soy sauce and salt. When the water starts to boil add the chicken. And once it boils again, add 4-5 pieces of ice into the pot (add the ice every time when the water starts to boil until the chicken is cooked). Adding the ice will make chicken tender quickly, make the skin remain white and also not allow the skin to break when it is boiled. It usually takes about 30 minutes to cook. Try to scoop the bubbles off the top while cooking to make broth clear. (If using chicken livers, then add them at the same time with chicken. For the cooked chicken blood will add in last, about 5 minutes before lifting the pot down).
3. When the chicken is done, scoop it out from the pot onto the plate. Rub the chicken with chicken oil to keep the skin from drying out. Then set aside.

4. Wash jasmine rice 2-3 times, pour the rice into the sieve and allow it to drain.
5. Fry the chicken skin in the pan until the oil come out. Or you can just use vegetable oil instead. When the oil gets hot, add chopped garlic to fry until yellow and fragrant. Pour the drained rice to fry with oil and garlic. Stir well for a few minutes. Then pour the finished fried rice into the electric rice cooker. Add the broth from boiling the chicken into it. By using the ratio of 1 cup of rice: 1 ¼ cup of broth. Stir and taste, it should taste a little salty   (if not add a little bit of salt). Drop the prepared ginger into the rice cooker. Turn on the switch and cook it as you would regular rice.

6. When the rice is done, use a ladle to dig the rice from the bottom to the top and mix till it crumbles. Then keep it warm in a rice cooker waiting to be served. Next step is to start making the sauce.

The sauce ingredients

• ½ cup fermented soybean
• ¾ cup soy sauce
• ½ -1 tsp black soy sauce
• ½ cup vinegar
• ¼ cup fresh Thai Chili (Phrik Khee Nuu)
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ cup garlic
• ½ cup ginger

How to make the sauce
1. Peel off the garlic and ginger skin, and pull off the chili stem. Wash garlic, ginger and chili with water thoroughly. Mince garlic, ginger, and chili into small pieces. And place everything in a mixing bowl.

2. Add all the seasoning like fermented soybean, soy sauce, black soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar. Mix all together. Taste as you like but should be salty, sour, and sweet. Set the sauce aside to serve with Khao Man Gai.

Note: Some people like the sauce with the fine texture. So put all the ingredients except fermented soybean into the blender. Turn on the switch and blend all ingredients carefully until fine. Switch off. Add fermented soybean, turn on the switch again and blend about 5 seconds. Taste it as you like. The finished sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a month. Some who like it spicy, always can add more minced garlic, ginger and chili in your sauce before serving.

The broth ingredients

• 2-3 coriander roots
• 3-4 large cloves garlic, peeled
• 10 pepper seeds
• ½  medium-sized benincasa hispida, peeled and scoop out the filling
• 1-2 tsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp coriander, coarsely chopped
• A little bit of ground pepper

How to make the broth
1. Place the pot of the remaining broth on a burner on medium heat.
2. Wash the coriander roots with water thoroughly. Then pound it together with the garlic and pepper seed until fine. Add the pounded ingredients into a pot. Season with soy sauce.

3. Wash the benincasa hispida then cut it into pieces approximately 5 cm. When the water boils, add benincasa hispida into the boiling water. Boil until the benincasa hispida until cooked and soft. Scoop the broth into the soup bowl. Garnish with chopped coriander and sprinkle with a little bit of ground pepper before serving.

How to serve Khao Man Gai
1. Cut the coriander hard stem off, peel the cucumber skin and then wash them thoroughly. Chop the coriander finely. Slice the cucumber into thin oblique pieces.
2. Bone the chicken. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Slice the chicken liver and chicken blood into thin pieces.
3. Scoop the rice onto the plate, put the prepared chicken, liver and blood on top of the rice. Place the sliced cucumber on the side. Then serve with the provided sauce and broth.