Thai Spicy Ground Chicken and Toasted Rice 'Larb Gai'
All-time favorite Thai dish, and a very common dish served throughout Thailand as well as Laos. It's quick to make and often extremely spicy, but the lime juice and mint leaves make for an exotic and splendid combination. It can be found on Thai restaurant menus in America as "chicken salad Thai style", which might be the best description for this dish. Larb is pronounced "lawb" and that means salad. It can be made with beef (lawb nuea) or pork (lawb muu) instead of chicken. You can make a more fancy lawb by adding beanthread noodles
- 1
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 2 tablespoons sliced shallot
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onion
- 1/4 cup chopped mint leaves
- 3 tablespoons roasted rice powder (khao koor)
- 2 tablespoons ground Thai chile (be sure to use real Thai ground chile)
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- 2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
- Garnish
- Always serve with a good portion of fresh cabbage, and add green beans, parsley, sliced radish, cucumber, & coriander leaves if you like.
Preparation
Step 1
Always serve with a good portion of fresh cabbage, and add green beans, parsley, sliced radish, cucumber, & coriander leaves if you like.
You can use ground chicken from the supermarket, or chicken ground in your food processor. Cook the chicken with 2 tablespoons lime juice in a pan over moderate heat. Stir until done. Transfer cooked chicken into medium mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, and mix well. Taste and season as desired. You might want more or less ground chile and/or fish sauce, etc. Serve with fresh vegetables (as shown) and warm, freshly-steamed sticky rice (or if you prefer you can use Thai jasmine rice).
Make the same recipe with ground beef.
The usual way to eat this is to get a small ball of sticky rice in the fingers and use it to pick up a little lawb, then eat it with the raw veggies. You can also use a fork and spoon as a lot of Thais do.