Pandan Leaf chicken

Pandan Leaf chicken

Pandan leaf chicken is a popular Thailand chicken dish. The chicken is marinated on a sauce and then wrapped in pandan leaf before frying. The aroma of the pandan leaf infused into the chicken meat, giving the chicken a distinct flavor and very unique and appetizing presentations.  It is served with special sweet and salty sesame sauce which complement the pandan flavored chicken. This dish can be served as an appetizer or as a main dish.

I have been craving for this dish for sometimes already but I am sitting on it as I feel lazy to do the wrapping. It seems that instances of seeing this on a magazines and social media is somewhat pushing me to make this dish. I finally gave up and tonight I am making this dish, anyway it’s been very long time since I had this chicken dish.

While I am preparing this dish and it is my son’s first time to see this and he was very excited (he is a chicken lover anyway) and he keep asking me what I am making? why I need the pandan leaf for chicken? why the chicken need to be wrapped in pandan leaf? how it taste? How long it will be cooked? He kept coming back in the kitchen to check on the progress. Finally, the pandan leaf chicken is ready, he love the chicken dish instantly and ask me, when we will have this dish again, and keep saying he like how the chicken look like, they were so cute.

Pandan Leaf chicken Recipe

This recipe was adopted from this site and modified: Pandan Leaf Chicken - Taste Asian Food

Ingredients : about 35 pieces chicken pieces

Main Ingredients for the chicken

·       1 kg chicken thigh or breast meat, cut into chunks of 2” (or 4cm) skin on

·       3 bunches (or more) Pandan leaves for wrapping

·       Cooking oil for deep frying

Ingredients for chicken marinate

·       4 tablespoons of minced garlic

·       2 teaspoons of onion powder

·       1 tablespoon of fresh grated ginger or one teaspoon of ginger powder

·       2 tablespoons of fish sauce

·       1 teaspoon ground white pepper

·       2 tablespoons of light soy sauce

·       5 tablespoons of oyster sauce

·       4 teaspoons of sugar

·       2 teaspoon of sesame oil

·       8 pandan leaves  for making pandan extract

Ingredients for the dipping sauce

·       2 tablespoons of white sesame seeds (not in the photo)

·       3 tablespoons of white or brown sugar (or honey)

·       3 tablespoons of water

·       3 tablespoons of light soy sauce

·       1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce or sweet soy sauce

·       ½ teaspoon of sesame oil

Instructions:

In a big bowl enough for the chicken and the marinate sauce to fit in, mix all the ingredients for the chicken marinate except the pandan leaves as it still need to extract the pandan juice.

Blend the pandan leaves with 5 tablespoons of water until well blended using electric blender. Use the sieve to extract the pandan juice then pour into the chicken.

Marinate the chicken with the mixture for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Wrap each piece of chicken with the leaves. Refer to the photo on how to wrap the chicken with Pandan leaf. No need to wrap the whole chicken there must be some portion of the chicken expose.

Once all chicken has been wrapped with pandan leaf. Pre-heat the oil till smoking hot then deep fry the chicken, till golden brown. Alternatively you can, steam the chicken for 10 minutes, drain, then deep fry for at least 4 minutes or till the expose chicken turn golden brown.

Transfer the fried pandan chicken pieces to a paper towel to absorb any excess oil. 

When all chickens are cooked place them on a serving dish. Served with the sauce and enjoy!

For the sauce:

Toast the white sesame seeds in a wok or pan without oil until they become light brown. Set them aside.

Pour-in all the dipping sauce into a saucepan and simmer over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the sauce thicken. Remove from heat.

 Add the toasted sesame seeds into the sauce and serve with the pandan chicken.