Authentic Pandan chicken

Pandan Chicken is one of the popular Thai dish aside from the classic 'tom yam' or the 'green curry' infact i think its the most ordered dish in a Thai restaurant. this dish will get our tummy grumbling even when you are still frying it! its tasty and presentable and its sooooo fragrant that it'll arouse your palate.

Although i think that this dish has so many version to it as if as long as its wrapped in a 'pandan leaf' then it'll called pandan chicken. is that so?hmmm...i've seen ones with pandan juice in the marinade, ones that actually use soy sauce and many more variations....but i prefer the more authentic version of it.

ok this recipe was given to me by my Thai friend during my Uni days. I can't remember her full name ( i can't pernounce it either) but we called her Mai. So i'm sharing her family recipe here and she don't mind as long as i 'mention' her heheheh~

ok then...here's what you need

AUTHENTIC PANDAN CHICKEN

some chicken meat (boneless)

blended marinade:

1" of galangal / laos (lengkuas)
1/2" ginger
1/4" tumeric
2clove garlic
2-3 lemon grass
1 tsp coriander seeds/powder
1/2 tsp cumin seeds/powder
salt to taste
sugar to taste (don't use too much though)

and some pandan leaves and tooth picks for wrapping

cut chicken into strips for easy folding and wrapping.
then mix all ingredients together and let it sit just for a while say about 20 minutes. you don't need to marinade for so long because the spice is rather strong so a mere 20 minutes or less would do.
then you can start wrapping the chicken into a nice little parcels then deep fry them in a med fire until done. you know when its done when you see that the pandan leaf turned almost golden and some caramelized (due to the sugar) chicken bits. then ready to serve as appertizers with thai cili dip or serve it with rice.

NOTE:
Chicken Meat: i personally think that using thigh or drumstic meat is more tasty or you can actually combine both breast and thigh meat together for that soft and hard texture. with this dish, its all about the spice. the Thais love to cook their dish with galangal/laos (lengkuas) its basically their 'must have' ingredient so you know that its one of the most important ingredient then its the lemon grass and coriander seeds with out these ingredients it would taste ......hmmm how shall i put it?...authentic? the amonunt of ingredients is on estimation but the portion of each is about that.

For you whos never tried pandan chicken, the taste is wonderfully spiced savory yet with a hint of sweetness in it due to the sugar and the pandan leafs wraps that had drawn out it essence into the chicken...thinking about this dish already makes me hungry...