Recipes

Authentic Thai Boat Noodles Recipe

April 18, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant 35 Comments

One of the most iconic dishes in Thailand is boat noodles or guay tiew ruea. Thai people LOVE boat noodles, and every time I have it, I am amazed by how much flavour can be packed into such a small bowl. This recipe will give you boat noodles that taste just like what you get in Thailand, I promise!

It’s a complex dish with a lot of ingredients (that’s why it’s so good) but it is not that hard to make. The broth takes a bit of time, but it is SO worth it, and this can be made in advance. In fact, once the broth is made, the rest is quick and weeknight friendly!

What is boat noodles?

"Boat noodles" is a direct translation from the Thai name, guay tiew ruea. It's so named because originally they were actually sold from boats along Bangkok's canals; though nowadays most vendors have moved on land, and you can find them all over the country.

This is why boat noodles in Thailand come in little bowls - it wasn't practical to pass around large bowls of hot soup on a wobbly boat. So it's not uncommon for someone to eat 3-5 boat noodle bowls in one meal!

a boat noodle vendor on a boat in thailand — Image from: meechai.net

The heart of boat noodles is the uniquely aromatic and rich broth. The broth is dark thanks to the various soy sauces, and it has a lot of herbs and spices infused into it. The most unique part about boat noodles is that it is extra rich due to the added blood! (Before you get squeamish, it doesn't taste like blood at all, but it's optional.)

What is guay tiew ruea nam tok?

You'll often hear boat noodles referred to as guay tiew nam tok. "Nam tok" means waterfall, and it refers specifically to boat noodles with the blood added. Nam tok tends to be the default (unless you're at a touristy place), so when you're ordering boat noodles in Thailand, if you don't want the blood you'll have to say mai tok (no waterfall).

But why does "waterfall" mean blood? While it is not proven, the most popular story seems to be this: Back in the day vendors would have the raw sliced meats sitting on ice on top of a woven bamboo tray, and over time, the meat juices and ice would melt and "fall" through the tray into a receptacle below. Vendors would then use meat dripping to add back into the bowl. Nowadays fresh blood is used instead of these drippings.

Ingredients and Notes

Boat noodles have A LOT of ingredients, but don't let the length of the list deter you. You probably have many of these in your kitchen already, and gathering them is really the hardest part, the rest is super easy!

Broth Ingredients

Pork neck bones, are my favourite bones to use for the broth because they have a lot of meat on them which will become tender and delicious when we're done. But you can also use pork back bones, beef bones or veal bones.
Cinnamon stick, crush it just until broken into smaller pieces so it'll be easier to toast
Star anise
Coriander seeds
Galangal, sliced into thin rounds. If you don't have it, it's fine to omit or use dried galangal.
Cilantro roots or cilantro stems. Smash them gently just to bruise and release the flavour.
Daikon, peeled and cut into big chunks. This helps sweeten the broth and make it extra delish. WIthout it, you can add more onion instead. Once done, the daikon will also be super delicious, so don't throw them away! Serve it with the noodles or save it for another meal.
Onion, cut into big chunks
Garlic, crushed until broken to help release the flavour
White pepper, ground. Black pepper is fine too.
Pandan leaf, optional. Pandan leaves are used mostly in desserts, but it's commonly added to boat noodles. You won't taste the pandan in the finished product, and it is fine to omit.
Soy sauce. I use Thai soy sauce but other kinds are fine. See more about soy sauces here.
Golden Mountain Sauce. Golden Mountain is a brand of "Thai seasoning sauce" that is the most popular so the brand has become genericized. It's a type of soy sauce with a different flavour. Healthy Boy Brand also makes a seasoning sauce (green cap), and Maggi Seasoning or Bragg's Liquid Aminos taste very similar and can be used instead. You can also simply use more of the soy sauce.
Taojiew, this is Thai fermented soybean paste; basically the Thai version of miso paste. You can sub miso or doenjang instead. If your taojiew looks particularly chunky, mash it with a fork so it distributes better.
Thai black soy sauce or dark soy sauce. If using Chinese dark soy sauce it tends to be a bit salty, so I'd hold back on the regular soy sauce and then add more as needed.
Fish sauce
White vinegar
Rock sugar or granulated sugar. Rock sugar is traditional, but it'll make no difference whatsoever if you use granulated, so use it only if you already have it!
Liquid beef or pork blood. You can find blood at some Asian grocery stores, usually frozen. Do not buy cooked blood, which is solid, or fresh blood without the anticoagulant added.

Noodle Bowl Ingredients

Toppings for boat noodles on a baking tray. — Vegetables, herbs and chili vinegar for boat noodles

Pork shoulder, (not pictured) for making marinated sliced pork. If you already have the meatballs and meat from the pork neck bones, you can skip this to simplify a bit.
Dry rice noodles, (picture below) size small, or another noodle of your choice. This is my favorite noodle for boat noodles, but in Thailand you'll be offered many noodle options, so you can choose one of those that I talk about in the noodle options section below.
Asian style pork or beef meatballs. You can buy these at many Asian grocery stores, refrigerated or frozen. If you are in a DIY mood you can also make them from scratch using my Asian meatballs recipe.
Water spinach or spinach, cut into 2-inch pieces. Water spinach (aka morning glory) is the classic greens added to boat noodles. Regular spinach or another kind of greens work just fine.
Bean sprouts
Cilantro and/or green onions, chopped
Thai basil or holy basil (optional)

Optional Condiments

In Thailand you'll find these condiments on the table at boat noodle restaurants and you can add as much of them as you like, (though you'll have to pay for the pork rind if you add it!); except the fried garlic that is, which the vendor will add to your bowl for you.

Chili vinegar. Technically optional but I highly recommend it! You can make chili vinegar from scratch but I sometimes cheat by mixing 1 part sambal oelek with 2 parts white vinegar and it works just fine.
Crispy pork rind. They add a lovely crunch to the noodle soup!
Roasted chili flakes, but only if you want to make it spicy. Store bought is fine, or you can make your own roasted chili flakes easily!
Fried garlic & garlic oil. You can make your own fried garlic easily and it keeps well. I always have it on hand in the fridge! Here's my fried garlic recipe.

Noodle Options and Cooking Instructions

When you go to order boat noodles at any vendor, you'll be given the option of several noodles. Here they all are, and how to prep them:

noodle options for boat noodles on a baking tray

Rice vermicelli (sen mee) - The smallest of noodles and the quickest to prep. Simply soak them in room temp water for 5-15 mins (timing varies between brands) until they are completely limp, then drain.
To cook, you'll need to blanch them in boiling water, one portion at a time, for 5 seconds just like I showed in the video.
Small dry rice noodles (sen lek) - The most classic option. These noodles are 1.5 mm wide when dry. Soak in room temp water for 20-30 minutes or until they turn opaque white and are completely limp - they should have lost all of the kinks - and then drain.
To cook, blanch them in boiling water, one portion at a time, for 5 seconds as shown in the video.
Glass noodles (woon sen) - woonsen is thin, delicate, and has a neutral flavour and is delicious in boat noodles. Soak in room temp water for 10 minutes until softened before cooking.
To cook, boil in hot water for 2 minutes. You can cook all of the glass noodles at once since they take a longer time to cook, then separate into portions immediately after draining.
Fresh wide rice noodles (sen yai) - This is the noodles commonly associated with pad see ew. If cold and stuck together, microwave the noodles until they are hot and soft, so they can be peeled apart without breaking. Separate all the noodles before cooking.
To cook, blanch them one portion at a time for 2 seconds in hot water just to heat them up and wash off the oil that's used to coat them. Do not let them linger in hot water for too long because they're already fully cooked and will quickly turn mushy.
Wonton noodles or egg noodles (bamee) - These vary greatly between brands, so you'll have to change the cooking time according to what you've got.
But if you have thin wonton noodles like the one shown in the pic (fresh and coated in flour), loosen the noodles and boil them in hot water for 1 minute. I find it easier to cook these 1 portion at a time, but if you're making many portions, you can cook them all at once and separate them immediately after draining.
Mama Instant Noodles (sen mama) - Mama are the Thai instant noodles and they are super tasty in boat noodles! Buy any flavour of mama since you won't need the seasoning packets, but make sure the noodles are the classic wheat fried noodles as shown in the pic.
Boil the noodles in water for about 1 minute, and you can cook all portions together and separate them after draining.

How to Make Boat Noodles

Here's the bird's eye view of the process so you get an idea of what's involved; the full instructions are in the recipe card below. It's not hard, but there are a lot of moving parts and it can be confusing for first timers, so I highly recommend watching the video tutorial, especially the assembly part, and it'll make much more sense!

Process shots for making boat noodles steps 1-4

Simmer the pork bones in water for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, toast the dry spices until slightly charred.
Put the spices in a soup infusion bag of cheesecloth, along with the galangal and cilantro roots/stems.
After 30 mins, skim the scum from the broth.

Process shots for making boat noodles steps 5-8.

Add the spice bag, daikon, onion, garlic, pepper, pandan leaf (tie it into a knot) and all of the seasonings except salt. Simmer gently for 1 hr 15 mins, topping it up with water as needed to keep the bones completely submerged.
Meanwhile combine pork shoulder slices with soy sauce and sugar and set aside.
When the broth is done, remove the vegetables (can be eaten), spice bag (discard), and pork bones. Pick off any meat from the bones and reserve. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt as needed.
Bring the broth to a simmer and place the pork shoulder in a sieve or wire skimmer and dunk it into the broth, stirring it around until cooked, this should take less than 1 minute. Lift it up from the broth and set aside.

Process shots for making boat noodles steps 9-12.

Bring the broth back to a boil then gradually add the blood WHILE STIRRING and watch the broth thicken! Add the meatballs and keep the broth hot on low heat and covered, until ready to serve.
Bring a LARGE pot of water to a FULL boil, place 1 portion of the soaked rice noodles, bean sprouts and water spinach in a noodle strainer or sieve, and blanch for 5 seconds (shake it around in the water) then place into serving bowl. (If using other kinds of noodles, see noodle options section for instructions.)
Ladle the broth along with a few meatballs over the noodles.
Top with marinated pork, meat from bones, and all the toppings and condiments as desired. Enjoy!

Advance Prep and Storage Tips

Boat noodles takes time to make, but if you prep all the components ahead of time, assembly is super quick and you'll have dinner on the table in 20 minutes!

Here are all the things you can do ahead of time:

Make the broth and cook the meat in advance. This is the most important thing you need to do ahead of time. You can also cook the marinated pork once the broth is done and this will save even more time on the day. The broth will last at least 1 week in the fridge and can be frozen indefinitely. Keep the cooked meat separately in an airtight container and it'll also last up to a week.
Soak noodles in advance. If you're using any of the noodles that require soaking, soak them in advance, drain, then keep in a covered container in the fridge and they'll last up to one week. Make sure to rest the noodles on a kitchen towel to absorb excess water before storage; any pooling water in the container will continue to get absorbed by the noodles and make them mushy.
Make the condiments. If you're going to have chili vinegar, fried garlic, or the roasted chili flakes, get them done ahead of time and keep them in the fridge. Make sure to keep the fried garlic and garlic oil in separate containers!

Authentic Thai Green Curry Chicken

April 23, 2022 by Pailin Chongchitnant 164 Comments

Thai green curry chicken is my most popular recipe on the YouTube channel with over 4 million views. If you want a completely authentic recipe, and one that maximizes deliciousness, this is it right here. It is one of the best known dishes of Thai cuisine, and despite its complex flavours, it is actually quite easy to make at home. It's also gluten free, and adaptable for vegans!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are ingredients you'll need for an authentic Thai green curry and important notes about them. For amounts, see the full recipe card below. The bamboo shoots are a common vegetable used for green curry, but feel free to change it up. And if you are DIY-minded and have time, here's my homemade green curry paste recipe.

Thai basil
Bamboo shoots, canned. You can use the strips of sliced version. If you don't like bamboo shoots, you can also substitute Thai eggplant, cut into thin wedges, or winter melon, cut into 1-inch chunks. But you will need to allow more cooking time and adjust accordingly: Thai eggplant needs 3-4 minutes, and wintermelon about 10 minutes. If using chicken breast the eggplant/wintermelon will have to go in before the chicken.
Red bell pepper, or any kind of red pepper. This is added just for colour.
Green curry paste, store bought or homemade. If using store bought I recommend Maeploy, Aroy-D, or Namjai brands. Do not use Thai Kitchen brand as it is very weak, or if you must, you'll need at last double the amount called for. See my curry paste review for details.
If using my recipe for the homemade green curry paste, you can put the entire batch of paste into this curry recipe, unless you're afraid it might be too spicy, then you can hold back a bit. Don't use the amount provided for store bought paste because the above-recommended brands tend to be more concentrated than homemade ones.
Makrut lime leaves
Full fat coconut milk, I recommend Aroy-D in paper carton.
Fish sauce
Palm sugar, or sub granulated or light brown sugar.
Boneless skinless chicken thighs. Chicken thighs do make the best tasting green curry, but if you must use chicken breast, the method is a little different and I've provided the details in the recipe card.
Chicken stock, unsalted. Store bought is fine but you can also use my Thai style chicken stock recipe.

How to Make Thai Green Curry

Green curry uses our basic curry making methods that you'll see in many different coconut-milk-based curry recipes. Once you know how to make a green curry, for example, you basically know how to make a red curry! Here's a bird's eye view of the process, but to ensure success, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial!

Steps for making green curry chicken steps 1-4

Optional step: Pound green curry paste and Thai basil leaves for an extra vibrant colour.
Get the paste as fine as possible.
Reduce the coconut milk until very thick
Add the curry paste and saute for a few minutes.

Steps for making green curry chicken steps 5-8

Toss chicken with the curry paste.
Add coconut milk
Add chicken stock
Add makrut lime leaves.

Steps for making green curry chicken steps 9-12

Add fish sauce and palm sugar.
Simmer for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is fork tender.
Add bamboo shoots and cook for a minute until the curry comes back to a boil.
Stir in red bell pepper and turn off the heat.

Steps for making green curry chicken steps 13-14

Add Thai basil and stir just until wilted.
The green curry is now ready to serve with jasmine rice! Note: The makrut lime leaves are for infusion purposes only; they are not meant to be eaten when left in large pieces.

How to Make Green Curry Vegan

With a dish so flavourful, making it a vegan is very easy. Here are modifications I suggest below, but I also have a vegan green curry recipe that I have optimized for maximum umami you should check out!

Use any vegan protein of your choice, and if using tofu I recommend medium-firm tofu, or fried tofu made for soup which I use in this laksa recipe.
You can also do an all-veggie green curry without any protein. I recommend hearty vegetables such as Asian mushrooms and Japanese eggplant. Sauteing or roasting the vegetables first so that they are browne will make it more robust-tasting.
Replace fish sauce with soy sauce, salt, or vegan fish sauce.
Use vegetable broth instead of chicken stock. Or use dried shiitake soaking water as I do in my vegan red curry recipe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is hotter, red or green curry?

This is a difficult question to answer because with any Thai curry you can make a very spicy or a very mild one. It just depends on who made the curry paste and also how much curry paste is used. But if you're using store bought curry paste, usually green curry tends to be hotter than red curry, and both of these tend to be hotter than yellow, panang and massaman curry pastes.

If you're looking for something mild, try this easy panang curry or my yellow curry!

What is green curry sauce made of?

Green curry sauce is quite simple and is made of mainly green curry paste and coconut milk. Water or broth is usually added to lighten the curry, and seasonings are simply fish sauce and sugar. To find out what's in green curry paste, check out my recipe here.

What does green curry paste taste like?

If you've never had green curry before, it'll be a flavour experience you've never had. If you're thinking of an Indian curry, it is completely different in every way. The flavours come mostly from fresh herbs rather than dry spices, so it won't have that u0022curry aromau0022 you associate with dishes made with curry powder. Texturally it's also much lighter and brothier, more reminiscent of a soup, rather than a thick stew.

More Thai Curry Recipes You'll Enjoy

Once you've made green curry, other Thai curries will be easy because the basic steps are the same. You're just changing up the curry paste, the meat and veggies, and modifying the process slightly to match the different ingredients used.

Here are some classic Thai curry recipes you should try:

Thai Red Curry with Pineapple and Shrimp - Red curry is as classic as the green. This version is super quick and easy, and perfect for pineapple lovers.
Vegan Thai Red Curry - With my techniques, this curry is loaded with umami even meat eaters will not miss the meat!
Yellow Curry with Chicken and Potato - Richer and thicker than a green curry, this is one that resembles a stew and full of aromatic spices.
Massaman Curry with Beef. - This is a world famous dish that is beloved by everyone. Lots of warm spices, rich and luscious. It also reheats well and you can make for the week. Try this version using an Instant Pot.

And here are some lesser known curries for those who want to explore:

Hung Lay Curry - Northern Thai pork belly curry. Super rich and satisfying. Perfect for colder months.
Sour Curry with Shrimp and Green Papaya - a very different experience as this curry is sour and brothy like a soup, with no coconut milk. This is the epitome of Thai home cooking, and one you won't see much in restaurants overseas.
Jungle Curry with Chicken - Another light curry that uses no coconut milk. It's spicy and loaded with veggies...it's like a jungle in a bowl!
Jackfruit curry with Pork Ribs - Now if you're really looking for something obscure...this is it. A light northern Thai curry I promise you won't find outside of Thailand!

Fried Garlic and Garlic Oil - Essential Thai Condiment

April 18, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant 4 Comments

Fried garlic or gratiem jiew is a quick an easy way to add garlicky goodness to any dish you make. You can sprinkle the crunchy golden garlic bits onto a dish, or drizzle the garlic oil on to anything. It's also an essential condiment for many Thai dishes, especially noodle soups. It's easy to make and will keep indefinitely in the fridge!

The good news is one you make the fried garlic, you'll end up with garlic oil as a tasty by product. So it's one process to make both things!

How to Use Fried Garlic

Sprinkle the crispy fried garlic on top of anything you want! Your breakfast eggs, tacos, really anything. In Thailand, the crispy fried garlic is most commonly used on noodle soups such as boat noodles and chicken noodle soup. We also use it to top stir fried dishes such as Northern laab, garlic pepper chicken or garlic pepper pork.

The garlic oil can be used as a cooking oil or as a finishing oil and in Thailand we use it in both ways. I usually drizzle it on top of soups along with the fried garlic, but you can also use it to cook veggies, eggs, or use it to finish a salad.

How to Make Fried Garlic & Garlic Oil

Here's a bird's eye view of the process so you know what's involved. For ingredients amounts and full instructions, see the recipe card below!

Heat the oil over medium heat and add 1 piece of garlic as a "test" and wait for it to bubble.
Once the test piece bubble, turn the heat down to medium low and add the rest of the garlic. Stir constantly until golden, about 5-8 minutes.
Drain through a metal sieve immediately (don't use plastic or you will melt it!)
It's now ready to use! The garlic will not be crispy when hot, so let it cool first.

Storage

I keep the fried garlic and the garlic oil separately otherwise the fried garlic will lose its crispiness. Keep them both in sealed containers in the fridge and they will last many months.

Depending on the type of oil you use, the oil may solidify in the fridge. If this happens, simply take it out 10 minutes or so before using so it can liquify. In a rush, nuke it for a few seconds in the microwave (like literally 5 seconds, it goes fast!)

Common Problems When Frying Garlic

It's a simple thing to make, but you need to understand how it works or issues can occur! Here are some common issues:

The garlic is bitter.

Probably the most common problem, and it's because you over fried it! You want the garlic to be GOLDEN, not golden brown. If it's too brown, it might look nice but it'll start to be bitter. The garlic will also continue to darken slightly after you drain it from the oil, so aim to take it out a bit earlier.

The garlic burnt so quickly!

The heat is too high! Garlic goes from done to burnt fast, which is why you need to keep the heat medium-low or low throughout the frying process. People often get impatient and turn the heat up, and then it catches them off guard and burns instantly.

Also, do not walk away! The first few minutes will look like nothing is happening, so often people walk away to do something else. But the rule of the universe states that when you're not watching fried garlic, that is precisely when it will burn!

The garlic is golden but not crispy.

This is also from heat being too high. You took it out at the right beautiful colour, but the garlic got to that colour too quickly and not enough moisture had evaporated.

Crispiness comes from lack of moisture, if something is moist, it will not be crispy. The frying removes moisture, so you need to give it enough time for most of the moisture to evaporate. This is another reason to keep the heat low.

A sign that the garlic is crispy is that the bubbling has slowed down significantly because bubbling occurs from the water evaporating out of the oil. When the bubbling is weak or has stopped completely, the garlic has lost enough moisture to be crispy.

Cutting garlic too big will also cause this problem because there is simply too much moisture so the garlic cannot possibly lose it all before it turns golden. Keeping the pieces small enough is important!

The garlic is oily

This happens when the garlic is added to the oil when the oil was too cold, or if the heat becomes too low during the frying. When the oil is not hot enough to cause bubbling, there is not enough outward push from the water evaporation, so oil can seep into the garlic.

This is why I suggest you add a test piece of garlic to the oil and wait for the test piece to bubble before adding the rest of the garlic.

Fried Garlic and Garlic Oil

An essential condiment in a Thai kitchen for adding garlicky flavour. Sprinkle the crunchy golden garlic, or drizzle the oil onto any dish. Keeps well in the fridge.

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 10

Course Sauces

Cuisine Thai

Servings cup

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Ingredients

▢ 1 head garlic
▢ ⅓ cup neutral oil

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All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video to ensure success. If you enjoy them, consider subscribing to the YouTube Channel to not miss an episode. Thank you!

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Instructions

Chop the garlic just until the pieces are no bigger than ⅛ inch (3 mm) but do not mince finely.
1 head garlic
In a small pot, add the oil and turn the heat to medium. Add 1 test piece of garlic, and once the garlic starts bubbling, add the rest of the garlic and turn the heat down to medium low.
(The oil should just cover the garlic, and you can add more oil if needed.)
⅓ cup neutral oil
Stir the garlic constantly until golden and the bubbling has mostly subsided, about 5-8 minutes. The more you make the longer it will take. Do not let the garlic brown or it'll become bitter; you're going for golden, not golden brown. It'll continue to darken slightly after you take it out from the oil so take it out a bit early to be safe.
Drain the garlic through the metal sieve, catching the oil in a bowl underneath, and it's ready to go!
Store the fried garlic and the oil separately in a sealed container in the fridge. If the oil solidifies in the fridge, bring it out shortly before using so it can liquefy.

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Ginger Shrimp & Glass Noodles กุ้งอบวุ้นเส้น Goong Ob Woonsen

November 20, 2015 by Pailin Chongchitnant 11 Comments

Goong ob woonsen is a super popular Thai seafood dish I always order whenever we go to a seafood restaurant in Thailand. Glass noodles and shrimp are cooked together in a pot with lots of ginger, garlic and pepper, and the noodles soak up all the incredible flavours from the herbs and sauces. It is truly a classic, with a unique flavour that makes it a must-try dish of Thai seafood!

glass noodles with shrimp and cilantro on top in an aluminum pot.

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success - and if you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!

Easier Weeknight Pad Thai (Sen Chan Pad Pu)

April 5, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant 6 Comments

Making a fully loaded authentic pad thai is no simple task, but if you still want to enjoy the sweet-salty-sour noodle-y goodness on a weeknight without having to resort to takeout, you're in the right place. Sen chan pad pu is one of Thailand's many "pad thai adjacent" dishes, but it uses way fewer ingredients, making it much quicker and easier to prepare. Its relative simplicity actually makes it more similar to an American takeout pad thai...but I promise it is better!

a plate of sen chan pad pu with a fork lifting up noodles with Cucumber, beansprouts and a lime wedge on the side

What Is Sen Chan Pad Pu?

This dish is what I like to call pad thai's easier cousin. It's a rice noodle stir fry with that same sweet-salty-sour flavour profile as pad thai, and it is made typically with crab or shrimp. Sen means noodles, and chan is short for Chanthaburi, a province in Thailand famous for making rice noodles with a chewy texture that are perfect for stir fries. And this dish is Chanthaburi’s local specialty because it features their signature product.

And not just the noodles! Chanthaburi is a coastal city with abundant seafood, so in Thailand you'll see this dish made with seafood only, most commonly crab. (Pad pu means stir fried with crab.) Since crab isn't as accessible for most people, for this recipe I'll show you how to work with both shrimp and crab.

Sen Chan Pad Pu vs. Pad Thai

On the surface the two dishes look similar - sen chan pad pu looks kinda like an orange pad thai. Indeed the two dishes share most of the core ingredients: noodles, tamarind, fish sauce, palm sugar, bean sprouts and garlic chives. But sen chan pad pu is flavoured with chili paste, hence the orange colour, and doesn't have any eggs, tofu, peanuts, preserved radish or dried shrimp.

Because it's made with fewer ingredients sen chan pad pu is easier than pad thai, and I find it to be totally doable on a weeknight. Side note: you can also make regular pad thai weeknight friendly by making the sauce and doing some prep work up front, and I share how to make that happen in my post on how to make pad thai in 5 minutes!

PS. On the subject of orange pad thai, unlike in America, most pad thai in Thailand is brown, not orange (with a few exceptions). American takeout pad thai is often orange because restaurants like to add ketchup or paprika to make the colour more vibrant, but this isn't traditional.

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the full recipe card below.

Dried chilies. This is what gives the iconic orange colour. You can use spicy or mild dried chilies depending on how spicy you want it. I use a combination of 1 small guajillo (mild) and a few smaller spicier dried chilies giving me a nice medium spice level, but feel free to adjust this ratio.
Garlic
Shallots
Palm sugar. Palm sugar adds complexity to the sweetness. See my post all about palm sugar here if you want to learn more about it. You can also sub light brown sugar.
Tamarind paste. This is what gives sourness to the noodles. Make sure you buy Thai tamarind paste (aka tamarind concentrate) that is a pourable brown liquid, not Indian tamarind which is much more concentrated. You can also make tamarind paste from pulp quite easily!
Fish sauce. It's important to use good quality fish sauce. See more about how to choose good fish sauce here.
Shrimp and/or crabmeat. If you have crabmeat, you'll be making the "original" version, but shrimp also work just as well!
Rice noodles. I'm using Pine Brand (our sponsor!) which has great chewy texture because of the added tapioca starch. If using other brands, make sure you get one that is 3mm wide (⅛ inch) for the right size!
Bean sprouts
Garlic chives
Cucumber. This is served on the side to help lighten the dish. It's quite important!
Lime wedge for serving. This is optional, depends on how sour your tamarind is. I find that if you're using homemade tamarind paste, the acidity is quite strong and the lime isn't necessary, but it's always good to have on hand just in case you want that extra zing.

How to Make

Here's a bird's eye view of the process, if this is your first time I highly recommend watching the full video tutorial. For full instructions and ingredient amounts, see the recipe card below.

Process shots for making sen chan pad pu steps 1-4

Soak noodles in room temp water until completely pliable and then drain. (30 mins - 1 hour depending on the brand, more on this below.)
Remove seeds from the dried chilies and grind into a powder. Alternatively, soak the chilies in hot water for 30 mins until rehydrated, then pound into a paste in a mortar and pestle.
Pound garlic into a paste in a mortar and pestle, then add chopped shallots and the ground chilies and pound into a rough paste.
The paste can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a few days or frozen.

Process shots for making sen chan pad pu steps 5-8

Saute the chili paste in oil for about a minute or so over medium heat.
Add the palm sugar and stir until mostly dissolved.
Add the water, tamarind paste and fish sauce and bring the sauce to a boil.
Add the shrimp and cook until done, then off heat and remove the shrimp.

Process shots for making sen chan pad pu steps 9-12

Bring the sauce back to a boil over medium high heat and add the noodles.
Keep tossing until the noodles absorb all of the sauce, then taste, and if the noodles are too chewy, add a splash of water and keep cooking until done.
Add the shrimp, crabmeat (if using), garlic chives and bean sprouts and toss just until the bean sprouts are wilted.
Plate and serve with chopped cucumber, extra bean sprouts and a wedge of lime. Top with more crabmeat for garnish. Enjoy!

Tips and Shortcuts for Soaking Noodles

One of the keys to success in stir frying rice noodles is properly soaking the noodles. Here are some tips:

To check if noodles are done soaking, lift the noodles up and they should droop completely and have lost all kinks. I soak my noodles in room temp water because it results in the most even hydration and the lowest risk of over-soaking.
The warmer the water temperature, the shorter the soaking time, so as a shortcut, you can use warm or even hot water, but you have to drain the noodles promptly or they will over-soak and become mushy after cooking.
It is possible to over-soak noodles in any temperature water, but in room temp water, you have a big buffer, so just check on them once in a while. If using warm or hot water, they will over-soak quickly so keep an eye on them.
In the case of absolute emergency, i.e. you forgot to soak the noodles, you can soak them in hot off the boil water for exactly 3 minutes (set a timer!) and drain them immediately. I have only tried this with Erawan brand noodles size M (3mm), and timing may vary if using other brands. I don't do this regularly because the risk of over-soaking is high.

Advance Prep Tips

Here are a few things you can do in advance to make this dish even faster to make!

Soak the noodles in advance, then drain well and keep in the fridge. I rest the drained noodles on a kitchen towel briefly before storing to absorb excess water because you don't want any pooling liquid in the container or they will over-soak in the fridge. They should last in the fridge for up to a week.
Make the paste in advance. You can keep the chili paste for up to a week in the fridge or freeze it indefinitely.
Make the sauce in advance. Take it a step further and make the sauce! Saute the paste, then add the palm sugar, tamarind paste, fish sauce and water. Keep this in the fridge and it should last you a couple of weeks. You can make the sauce in bulk, but remember to measure the volume of the sauce once finished and make a note to yourself how much sauce you need per batch.

Storage and Reheating

Like pad thai, rice noodles stir fries in general do not reheat well. This is because the noodles continue to absorb moisture in the fridge, so when you reheat, the noodles will be softer than they were when fresh, and after a few days, they might even be mushy.

This is not a big deal if you have leftovers and you want to eat it the next day. It'll still taste great despite the not-as-chewy texture. But I don't recommend making this as meal prep for your lunch for the week! For that, I suggest trying my glass noodle pad thai which reheats much better.

To reheat, you can microwave or saute it in a non-stick skillet. Make sure to reheat the rice noodles until steaming hot or they will not be soft and may be a bit crunchy and rather unpleasant.

Thai 5-Spice Egg & Pork Belly Stew (Kai Palo) - Instant Pot or Stovetop

October 25, 2019 by Pailin Chongchitnant 16 Comments

Growing up in Thailand, kai palo is one of my favourite dishes. And I would be willing to bet that many Thai people would say that it's their childhood faves too. Hard boiled eggs and tender pork belly are simmered in a sweet-salty five-spice broth...how could any kid not like it! It was a staple at my school cafeteria, and a classic in many cafeterias and food courts around the country.

a bowl of thai five spice pork belly and egg stew on an orange napkin

What is Kai Palo?

Kai means eggs, and palo means five-spice. Kai palo is a stew made from hard boiled eggs, pork belly, and tofu puffs in a rich and aromatic five-spice broth. It is a great example of Chinese influence on Thai cuisine because the key ingredients are ones that Chinese immigrants brought into Thailand: five spice, tofu, and soy sauce. In fact, the Chinese have a very similar dish that's probably the precursor of this dish!

In Thailand, kai palo is a humble dish so you won't find it in fancy restaurants. People make it at home, or you will find it in cafeterias and food courts. Also, anywhere kids go, you'll find kai palo because kids just love the sweet-salty flavour of this dish!

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need and some important notes about them. For amounts, check out the full recipe card below.

Note: It is best to make this stew one day it advance, or aim to finish it at minimum 30 minutes before serving. The eggs will have time to absorb more flavour the longer you let them sit.

Spice Bag

Cinnamon sticks
Cloves
Star anise
Coriander seeds
Sichuan peppercorns
Cilantro roots or cilantro stems
Cheesecloth, or use premade spice infusion bag which you can find at many Chinese grocery stores.

Note: If you have five spice powder already on hand, you can make a shortcut version by simply adding the powder to the broth. Use 1 ½ tablespoons of five spice powder for this recipe.

The Stew

Pork belly, if you want a leaner dish you can also use pork shoulder.
Salt
Palm sugar, or sub brown sugar. Dark or light brown sugar will work here.
Unsalted pork or chicken stock, storebought is fine, or you can use my homemade pork stock or chicken stock recipes.
Soy sauce
Golden Mountain Sauce, or sub soy sauce (see Guide to Soy Sauce video)
Oyster sauce, see my post on how to choose good oyster sauce here.
Black soy sauce or dark soy sauce, this is added to get the rich dark colour iconic of this soup. Thai black soy sauce is less salty than Chinese dark soy sauce, so if using Chinese dark soy, you may want to hold back on the regular soy sauce a bit.
White pepper, ground
Garlic, crushed
Eggs, you can add as many as you like here, but I suggest 1-2 per person.
Tofu puffs, halved. You can buy tofu puffs at Chinese grocery stores. They are tofu that have been fried and has an airy interior which absorbs sauce exceptionally well.
Jasmine rice for serving

How to Make Five-Spice Eggs and Pork Belly Stew (Instant Pot or Stovetop)

Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success.

process shots fr making kai palo steps 1-4

Crush cinnamon sticks just until they break into smaller pieces. Toast all the spices in a dry saute pan on medium high heat, stirring constantly, until the coriander seeds start to darken slightly. Remove from heat and place in cheesecloth or spice infusion bag along with cilantro stems/roots.
In a large pot or in the Instant Pot, add palm sugar and melt over medium high heat. Once melted, keep stirring until it turns a dark caramel colour.
Immediately add the stock to stop the sugar from cooking. Then add soy sauce, Golden Mountain sauce, oyster sauce, black/dark soy sauce, and salt.
Add the spice bag, white pepper, and crushed garlic and bring to a boil.

process shots fr making kai palo steps 5-8

Add the pork belly and simmer gently for 2 - 2.5 hours, loosely covered, until the pork is fork-tender. If using an Instant Pot, cook on high pressure for 20 minutes, then natural release for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the eggs in boiling water for 8 minutes, then cool and peel. Once the pork is fork tender, add the hard boiled eggs.
Add the tofu puffs and simmer for another 8 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
Let the stew sit for at least 30 minutes before serving, and preferably one day in advance so the eggs can have a chance to absorb the flavour. Enjoy!

Tip for Extra Flavour: Sear the pork

Though not traditionally done, searing the pork to get nice browning on the surface can add a lovely robust flavour to the soup. It's a simple step:

Toss pork belly in the ½ teaspoon salt. Heat the pot you're using the make the stew over high heat, then add a little oil just to coat the bottom and sear the pork until browned on at least two sides (sear 4 sides if you've got the patience).
Remove the pork and pour off any excess fat. Then continue with the recipe as usual - so the next step would be to caramelize the sugar which you can do in this pot without washing.

A Note on Using the Instant Pot

This is a great dish to make in the Instant Pot because it can save a lot of cooking time without affecting the end result. While you can do the whole thing in the IP, I prefer to start it stovetop and transfer after all the liquids go in because it's much faster to caramelize the sugar on the stove.

The only modification I made for the IP is to use a bit less stock since the stew will not reduce at all in the IP.

How to Get Flavourful But Not Overcooked Eggs

Typical kai palo in Thailand features hard boiled eggs that are simmered in the soup for upwards of 30 minutes. This is to allow the eggs to absorb the flavour of the broth, but it also results in what Westerners would consider "overcooked" eggs—rubbery whites and grey ring around the yolks. For Thai people, there's nothing wrong with this; it is an expected characteristic.

However, I personally prefer not-overcooked eggs, so my technique is cooking the eggs just until they're done but letting them sit in the stew overnight before serving. If you don't have time to do overnight, give them at least 30 minutes. Any less than that and you're not doing the eggs justice!

Recipe Card

3-Ingredient Crispy Thai Fish Sauce Wings

May 31, 2018 by Pailin Chongchitnant 11 Comments

The thing that shocked me when I first had these popular Thai wings was that they only use one seasoning: fish sauce. Really? Only fish sauce? How can it be THIS good?? I guess that is the magic of fish sauce. It delivers salty umami that, in many situations, is all you need. These are one of the most popular appetizers in Thailand, and it is incredibly easy to make at home, no deep frying required!

a plate of fish sauce wings with dried chilies garnish and a plant and a beer in the background.

What Are Thai Fish Sauce Wings?

Fish sauce wings are called ปีกไก่ทอดน้ำปลา peek gai tod nam pla in Thai, which literally means "wings fried with fish sauce." They're served in many restaurants across Thailand, especially ones popular with the drinking crowds because it's such a great dish to pair with a cold beer.

In Thailand they are typically deep fried, but for this recipe I've also provided a method that uses shallow frying only, and also an alternative air-fried method (not as crispy, but works).

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

Ingredients and Notes

Here's all the ingredients you need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the recipe card below.

Chicken wing flats. Thai fish sauce wings use only flats, as I explain more below. This is, as the name suggests, the flat part of the wings. They're sometimes called wingettes. For the drums, you can save them for another recipe such as my turmeric chicken soup, tom yum chicken, or these zingy spicy KFC wings!
Fish sauce. Since it is the only seasoning, it's important to use good fish sauce. Read more about how to choose good fish sauce here.
Rice flour. Though you CAN make this recipe without any flour, I find the flour helps create a crisper crust. You can also substitute cornstarch instead, but I do prefer the light, crisp texture of rice flour. **Be sure to buy regular rice flour (red bag) not glutinous rice flour (green bag).
Ground white or black pepper. This is optional 🙂
Optional: Sweet chili sauce for serving. In Thailand these are typically served without any dipping sauce (the beverage is the sauce!), and they don't need it. However, I understand the desire to dip! So if you want, Thai sweet chili sauce would be the perfect pairing, and you can buy it or use my easy homemade Thai sweet chili sauce recipe here.

How to Make Crispy Thai Fish Sauce Wings

Here's a bird's eye view of the steps. If this is your first time, I recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success!

process shots for making fish sauce wings steps 1-4

Place wings in a dish just big enough to hold them, or a ziptop bag, and add the fish sauce. Toss the wings to coat, and marinate for 20-30 mins, turning them half way though.
Pat the wings dry, and if you want you can pepper them at this point too. Then dust the rice flour over them so they are thoroughly coated.
Flip the wings and dust the rice flour over the other side.
Put the wings into the sieve and shake off excess flour.

process shots for making fish sauce wings steps 5-8

Add oil into a 12-inch skillet it is about ¼ inch thick. One hot, lay the wings thick-skin side down and let them fry for about 4 minutes until they have a deep golden brown colour.
Flip the wings to fry the other side for another 2 minutes or so until they are cooked through.
When shallow frying, oil tends to jump more than when deep frying, so it's good to have a mesh guard!
Drain on paper towel and enjoy! They don't need a sauce, but if you want, they are great dipped in Thai sweet chili sauce.

How to Deep-Fry and Air-Fry Fish Sauce Wings

I love to shallow fry these wings because I get the crispiness of frying without having to deal with a lot of oil, though all the flipping can be a bit fiddly if you need to make multiple batches. You can deep fry and air fry these, with pros and cons below:

Deep Frying

How: Bring about 1 inch of oil to 375°F (190°C) over medium high heat. Fry the wings for 4-5 minutes until browned and crispy.

Pros: Fasting cooking time and not at all fiddly - you drop them in and let them go. This is the best option if you're making a large amount of wings. You can also use drumettes with this method.

Cons: Uses a lot of oil.

Air Frying

How: Place the wings in the basket, thicker-skin side up, and spray or brush the wings with oil. Air fry at 400°F (200°C) for 12-15 minutes or until cooked through. I don't find it necessary to flip them as you want to maximize the crispness of the top side.

Pros: Convenient, we all love air fryers for a reason! It also allows you to use drumettes.

Cons: The result is fine, but the skin is not as crispy, so if you want maximum crispiness, stick with oil-frying. It also takes much longer per batch, so not ideal if you need to make multiple batches.

Advance Prep and Reheating Tips

You can marinate the wings one day in advance, and then then cook them before serving. If serving a party, you can also cook them in advance and then reheat close to serving time; they reheat very well!

To reheat: You can air fry them at 350°F(175°C) or bake them at 400°C (200°C) for about 8 minutes. You can also shallow fry or deep fry them again in a skillet, the way you did the first time.

Only Flats for Fish Sauce Wings!

The most interesting thing about many Thai wings recipes, this one included, is that they're almost always made ONLY with wing flats. No drumettes. Go to any Thai restaurant in Thailand, order fried wings appetizer, and you'll see for yourself.

For this recipe, using flats also allow us to get wonderfully crispy skin with shallow frying, no deep frying required! If you want to use drumettes, you'll need to deep fry them if you want them crispy, or air fry them if you don't need the crisp.

Personally think flats are the better part of the wings anyway, but I have to wonder...where do all the drumettes go?

One theory I have is that the drumettes all go to Thai KFC which makes these incredible spicy wings that use drumettes only, see my KFC Wingz Zabb recipe here. The drumettes are also often used in soups, such as this turmeric chicken soup, because they make for a super rich broth, and the meat is easier to remove with a spoon than the flats.

Recipe Card

The Science of Freezing Tofu (And 4 Ways To Cook It)

March 22, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant 4 Comments

The other day I told my husband to put away the groceries and freeze all the protein…by which I meant all the meat. Next thing I know I opened the freezer and there was my tube of soft tofu looking…completely bizarre.

frozen silken tofu held in hand with more tofu in the background.

After taking a deep breath and reminding myself that tofu is technically protein, I decided to cook the frozen tofu and then post it on Instagram and YT Shorts where it went viral on BOTH platforms. To my surprise people are very interested in the concept of freezing tofu! And it absolutely IS a fascinating process, so I want to explore freezing tofu further.

So for our exploration I froze 2 types of tofu - silken and firm - so you can see the two extremes; and you’ll also see WHY you might want to freeze tofu on purpose, what happens to them when you do, and how to use the results in your cooking.

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Watch The Video

If you want to get all the cool visuals, (and frozen tofu is very cool), everything I cover in this post is covered in this video as well. Enjoy!

What Types of Tofu Can You Freeze?

You can freeze any kind of tofu; anything from silken all the way to extra firm, depending on the texture you want at the end. The soft tofu will remain soft, and the firm tofu will remain firm, but everything will be a little firmer and less fragile than it originally was.

How to Freeze Tofu

There is ZERO trick to freezing tofu and don't believe anyone who tries to get you to do any kind of "prep work." The easiest way is the best way - stick them in the freezer in the packaging, just like my husband did. Once frozen, it’s gonna look completely wrong; the colour will become dark yellow and translucent as per the pic above.

The tofu doesn't need to be frozen for any particular amount of time; you can thaw it as soon as it's completely frozen or leave it there until you want to use it. Let it thaw in its packaging either in the fridge over a few days or in a bowl of room temp water (which will take 3-4 hours) - though of course timing will depend on the size of the tofu. If thawing in water, keep changing the water once it becomes ice cold so it will thaw faster.

*Once thawed, the tofu will still last at least a week in the fridge (unless it is almost expired) so you can thaw it well in advance.

How NOT to Freeze Tofu

Some people will tell you to cut the tofu into pieces, dry them with a towel, then freeze them on a tray as individual pieces. If you just want to store the tofu long term, that's fine, but if you want to reap the benefits of frozen tofu's transformation, this is actually the OPPOSITE of what you want to do!

Yes, freezing tofu in small pieces make them quicker to thaw and easier to use, but for the most dramatic physical changes, you want as much water in the tofu as possible while it is freezing AND for the freezing to happen slowly (i.e. freeze the whole block of tofu). So just stick it in the freezer as is. I will explain the reason for this further in "the science" section below.

What Happens After Tofu is Frozen?

For the tube silken tofu, you can cut the tube right through, (careful of any water squirting on you), and slide it out. And behold the crazy texture, holes, and layers in the pic below! And BECAUSE of all these holes, you'll also notice a ton of water just pouring right out of the tofu.

For tofu packed in a tub, you can just take it out as usual after it's thawed. With firmer tofu it is not as obvious that anything has changed, but if you look closely, you can see the little, tiny holes inside that weren’t there before. And if you press down on it (gently please, it's still tofu) you'll see a ton of water gushing out of those tiny holes.

Both soft and firm tofu basically became a sponge. The holes are much smaller in firm tofu because it had much less water to begin with as I will explain in "the science" below. But the takeaway here is: the softer the tofu, the more dramatic the effect.

The Science Behind Frozen Tofu's Transformation

Now let me explain why this happened with a rough analogy. Imagine that tofu is made up of millions of tiny water balloons. Each balloon is the soy protein, and each soy balloon is filled with water. This is how the water was able to stay suspended INSIDE the tofu in the first place.

But as anyone who’s ever forgotten a can of coke in the freezer knows, water expands when it freezes, and if the container is too full, it explodes. That’s what happened to our soy balloons; and the ice crystals are sharp, so they damaged the balloons as well. And once the tofu thaws, the water leaks out from the damaged balloons, leaving a bunch of saggy empty balloons behind, hence all the holes.

As evidence of this, if you freeze a whole tube of silken tofu, you'll notice that the holes at the ends of the tofu are not nearly as big (see the difference in the pic below). This is because the faster things freeze, the smaller the ice crystals. And smaller ice crystals cause less damage to the protein structure, hence the less pronounced holes. The middle of the tofu will have the largest, most obvious holes because it was the place that took the longest to freeze. And as I mentioned above, this is why you want to freeze the whole block of tofu and not freeze them in small pieces!

previously frozen silken tofu in a Thai sukiyaki soup in a bowl. — Tofu on the left comes from the end of the tube, tofu on the right comes from the middle.

Why would you want to freeze tofu anyway?

previously frozen silken tofu being sliced

Other than triggering trypophobia, this holey texture can be a good thing because one of the most challenging parts about cooking with tofu is getting it to absorb any flavour. You can coat the outside with sauce, but the inside usually just tastes like plain tofu. But with all these holes, sauce and broth and now penetrate INSIDE the tofu, making it much more flavourful.

The other advantage is that because the tofu now has less water, it is a bit stronger and less likely to fall apart, which is why many people like to use frozen tofu in hot pot where things are constantly being agitated. And for firmer tofu, once we fry them, they’re gonna be chewier as well.

Does frozen tofu taste like chicken?

This is such a pet peeve of mine. If you go searching on the internet for frozen tofu you’re going to see people claiming that freezing is a "tofu hack" that makes tofu taste like chicken! As a chicken eater, I can tell you with 100% confidence that it does NOT. And if someone actually thinks that it does…well, maybe they haven’t had chicken for a while.

Yes, if you freeze firm or extra firm tofu and then fry it, it is gonna develop a chewier texture, but you’re definitely not going to fool anyone that this is a meat product. What I CAN say is that depending on what you do with it, it can tastes less like tofu because now more of the sauce is able to penetrate the inside, so the tofu flavour is drowned out a little bit more.

How to Cook With Frozen Tofu

However you currently cook unfrozen tofu, you can still do the same with frozen tofu. But the difference is that now the holey tofu will be able to absorb flavour and will be firmer. So here are a few suggestions I have that will allow you to take advantage of this new feature.

For Frozen Soft Tofu

previously frozen silken tofu in a Thai sukiyaki soup

Cut it into pieces and let it simmer in a soup, stew, or anything saucy to let it soak up the flavour. I used it in this Thai sukiyaki soup recipe and it was delicious. Just add them at the end and let it simmer for just a few minutes so the tofu can heat through and absorb that flavour.
Hot pots! Frozen tofu is popular in hot pots because they are sturdier and less likely to fall apart with all the people constantly agitating the pot. Try this Thai hot pot recipe here!

For Frozen Firm or Extra Firm tofu

You can certainly just throw these into any soups, curries or stews. But if you pan-fry or air-fry them first, you'll also get a lovely chewiness AND this will help prevent them from falling apart when you cook with them, making them much more versatile. Here's how to fry them:

Process shots for how to fry firm frozen tofu, steps 1-4

Press out as much excess water from the tofu as possible (don't be too aggressive, it is still tofu). Cut it into pieces that are slightly bigger than you want them to be at the end because they will shrink.
Lay them on a thick kitchen towel, put another towel on top and gently press to dry them out further. The dryer they are the better they will brown.
Option 1: You can pan fry them in some oil over high heat. Sear them on all 4 sides for a few minutes each side. Be sure not to crowd the pan for best browning.
Option 2: For a less fiddly method, brush them with oil and air-fry them at 400°F (200°C) for about 12 minutes, turning them over half way through. Be sure to place them in a single layer and try not to let them touch.

*People have asked whether it is okay to deep fry frozen tofu. I have not done this, but my concern is that because of all the holes, the frozen tofu may absorb too much frying oil.

3 Recipe Ideas for Pan- or Air-Fried Frozen Tofu

Whether you pan fried the tofu or cooked them in the air fryer, here's what you can do with your golden nuggets of chewy tofu.

Toss them in a sauce. Here I'm using my Hot Thai Chicken sauce recipe. Simply toss the freshly fried tofu until it is well coated, but don’t overdo it cuz the sauce is intense. In a pinch, you can also just toss them in any store-bought sweet chili sauce.

frozen firm tofu tossed in sweet chili sauce

Stir fry them. I recommend my pad prik king recipe which is a slightly sweet red curry paste stir fry with makrut lime leaves. Just throw the tofu in towards the end and toss until they're well coated by the sauce; giving them a minute to heat through and absorb the sauce.

frozen firm tofu stir fried in pad prik king sauce

Simmer them in a stew and take advantage of those holes that can now suck up all that flavour. Try my five spice stew with eggs and pork belly (kai palo) which is a classic.

And that's it! I hope you have fun experimenting with all kinds of frozen tofu, and let me know if you have a favourite way to use them!

Thai Chicken Laab Recipe (Larb Gai)

June 17, 2016 by Pailin Chongchitnant 16 Comments

Laab (aka larb) is a famous dish that is iconic of northeastern Thai food, and this version uses chicken, making it laab gai ลาบไก่. It's spicy, tart, and fresh...few things satisfy the palate the way laab does. It's no wonder it's one of the most popular dishes in Thai restaurants around the world! It is probably the healthiest chicken salad ever, and one of the easiest Thai dishes to make. You'll have it on the table in less than 30 minutes!

a plate of laab gai with green beans and lettuce on the side.

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

What is laab gai? Or is it larb gai?

Let's settle the second question first, the dish is pronounced "laab" without the R. The reason it is often written with R is because, like the British and Australians, Thai people do not pronounce the R when it follows a vowel. So if you're American or Canadian, please pretend you're British for a brief moment when you see "larb" on a menu! (I explain more about this in my video about the madness of spelling Thai words in English.)

Laab is a northeastern Thai salad made of ground meat, and in fact "laab" means to mince in the north/northeastern Thai dialect! The dressing is spicy and tart, made primarily of fish sauce, lime juice, and chilies. It's loaded with tons of fresh herbs and served with sticky rice and fresh veggies.

Gai means chicken, and it's one of the most popular versions served in N. America. In Thailand, however, laab moo or pork laab is the more common one.

Note: This laab is from the Northeast, but there is another kind of laab from Northern Thailand that is entirely different. That laab is called laab nuea or laab kua and it is made with a ton of aromatic spices. If you love spices, try my northern laab (laab kua) recipe here!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you need to make laab gai and important notes about them. For amounts, see the recipe card below.

Ground chicken, preferably not lean so as to not make the salad too dry. If you have a choice, choose dark meat ground chicken. For this recipe I grind my own using 50/50 chicken breast and chicken thighs. Grinding your own meat really is much easier than it seems especially if you have a cleaver. You can see the video @3:20 for how to grind your own chicken. I grew up grinding all our own meat (yes, as a child!) because pre-ground meat wasn't readily available where we lived. I also have a laab recipe made with ground pork here.
Water or unsalted chicken stock. Use chicken stock only if you've got some already open/available, otherwise just use water. It's not necessary to buy/make/open chicken stock for this.
Fish sauce. This is the main seasoning for the dish so it's important you use a good one. See this post for how to choose good fish sauce.
Shallots. In a pinch, red onion will also work.
Fresh lime juice
Roasted chili flakes. Roasting chili flakes adds a lovely smoky aroma, and if you like spicy food, it's useful to have a bunch of it on hand and you can add it to anything! I use mine all the time. Here's a detailed tutorial on how to make your own Thai roasted chili flakes.
You can also buy Thai chili flakes (if you like spicy) from an Asian market, or if you prefer it mild, use "red pepper flakes" available at Western stores. I recommend toasting store bought chili flakes in a dry skillet over low heat until it darkens slightly and smells smoky - it'll take just one minute or less so be careful not to burn it!
Toasted rice powder. THIS is the heart of laab. It is not laab without toasted rice powder or kao kua (aka khao khua). It adds a magical nutty flavor that helps mellow out the sharpness of the lime. It's very easy to make, recipe below.
Cilantro and/or sawtooth coriander. You can find sawtooth coriander from some Asian markets, and they're also known as culantro. It's very popular added to laab, but if you can't find it, cilantro alone is just fine.
Green onion.
Mint. Mint is an absolutely key ingredient of laab, don't skip it!
Crispy chicken skin, this is optional, and I have a quick microwave crispy chicken skin recipe here. It's just a way to add a little fun crunchy bits on top. You can also use store bought crispy pork rind instead.

Toasted Rice Powder (kao kua)

Uncooked Thai sticky rice or jasmine rice. Sticky rice is typically used in Northeastern Thailand since that is the rice that's most commonly eaten there, but I prefer jasmine rice because it is more aromatic. Both will work fine.
Makrut lime leaf (aka kaffir lime leaf, optional, but if you have it I highly recommend adding it cuz it adds such a lovely aroma). More about makrut lime leaves here.

How to Make Laab Gai (larb gai)

Here's a bird's eye view of the process. If it's your first time I recommend watching the video tutorial first to ensure success.

Process shots for making laab gai steps 1-4

To make toasted rice powder: In a small pot or skillet, add the rice and the makrut lime leaf and toast, stirring constantly, over high heat until the rice has a deep brown colour. Not golden brown, you want it DARK brown.
Transfer into a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. Grind until fine (yes, grind the lime leaf too), but if using a coffee grinder, be careful not to over-grind—you don't want it to look like flour, you want it to be like a coarse powder.
To make the laab : In a wide pot or medium size skillet, add the water or stock and bring to a simmer over high heat. Then add ground chicken and 1 teaspoon of the fish sauce. Cook, stirring constantly to break up any big lumps, just until it is done.
Remove from heat, then add the shallots and stir to wilt slightly and to make sure all the shallot layers are separated.

Process shots for making laab gai steps 5-7

Add fish sauce, lime juice, chili flakes, and toasted rice powder; stir to mix well.
Add all the fresh herbs except mint: green onions, sawtooth coriander and/or cilantro and stir to mix. Taste and adjust seasoning. If you find the acidity a bit too intense, you can add just a half a teaspoon of sugar to balance, though this is not traditionally added.
Plate and sprinkle the mint on top (the mint is not added into the salad as it turns black in the heat). If you want, garnish with a couple of dried chilies and some crispy chicken skin (which you can make in minutes!). Serve warm or room temperature with sticky rice and fresh, crunchy vegetables such as lettuce leaves, cucumber, long beans, or cabbage.

How to Serve and Eat Laab like a Thai

Laab is always served with sticky rice and lots of fresh crunchy veggies. If you've got some lettuce leaves, you can make little lettuce cups with the laab. You can also ball up the sticky rice in your hands and use it to sop up the dressing. Here is the easiest and best way to make sticky rice.

If you're looking to make a meal of it, here are a few other classic northeastern thai recipes that we often serve with laab:

Advance Prep Tips

Though laab is super easy and quick to make, there are a few things you can make in advance to make it even quicker:

Toast the rice advance and store in an airtight container in the fridge. I recommend not grinding it until you're ready to cook in order to preserve the aroma as much as possible.
Toast the chili flakes ahead of time.
The salad can be made ahead of time, but don't add the toasted rice and fresh herbs until just before serving, otherwise the toasted rice powder will absorb all the dressing and make the salad seem dry, and the fresh herbs will wilt.

Recipe Card

Crispy Garlic Chive Dumplings (Gui Chai Tod)

September 29, 2017 by Pailin Chongchitnant 41 Comments

Don't let the amount of vegetables in this popular street food throw you off. I didn't love vegetables as a kid and I would devour these every time. Garlic chives become so tender they almost melt in your mouth, and with the soft & chewy dough that is crispy on the outside...and the sweet & sour dipping sauce...oh man...these are a MUST try.

crispy garlic chive dumplings lined up in a row with sauce on the side

What is Kanom Gui Chai?

There are two types of kanom guichai ขนมกุ๊ยช่าย in Thailand. The classic version is the stuffed version, which is much harder because you have to make a dough and wrap the garlic chives inside. These are the ones I grew up eating, but after watching my grandmothers (both of them!) painstakingly make the dough (which is not easy) and wrap each dumpling (even more not-easy)...I had zero desire to go through the same ordeal, lol.

a plate of crispy garlic chives dumplings with dipping sauce

Then there are these fried ones, which I only discovered later in life and fell in love with them immediately. They are a thousand times easier, but deliver the same flavours that I love in the classic ones. Instead of stuffing, the chives are mixed right into the batter, so no fiddly wrapping required! And IMO they're just as delicious if not more because they are crispy! Oh yeah, and it happens to be gluten-free and vegan and all that good stuff 🙂

Still have some leftover garlic chives from this recipe? Then it's time to make an authentic pad thai, or my best pork dumplings (gyoza)!

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients and important notes about them. Amounts and full instructions are in the recipe card below!

Dumplings

Garlic chives, also known as Chinese chives or nira (in Japanese), are available at most Asian grocery stores. Some garlic chives can harbour a lot of dirt at the bottom of the plant where the leaves are joined, so you need to cut off about 1.5 inch off the bottom and then shake them in a bowl of cold water to remove the dirt before using. IMPORTANT: After washing dry off the chives as best you can! If there is a lot of water left in the chives it will make the dough too soft. I shake off the water as much as possible, then lay them on a tea towel, cover them with another, and roll them gently between the two towels.
Sugar
Soy sauce
Salt
Baking soda (optional). Baking soda is added to maintain a more vibrant green colour.
Neutral oil
Garlic, finely grated or minced, or you can substitute with garlic powder. If you have some garlic oil handy you can use garlic oil instead of the neutral oil and omit the garlic altogether.
White pepper
Rice flour. If you're buying rice flour from Thailand, be sure to get the one in the red bag which is regular rice flour. DO NOT GET glutinous rice flour in the green bag.
Tapioca starch. While rice flour provide tenderness, tapioca starch will add a bit of bounce and chew.
Water

Dipping sauce

Sugar
Water
White vinegar, or rice vinegar
Sweet soy sauce, I use ABC kecap manis or Thai Healthy Boy Brand sweet soy sauce. You can also substitute dark brown sugar.
Soy sauce
Sambal oelek or minced Thai chilies. Can be omitted if you want to make this not spicy

How to Make Crispy Garlic Chives Dumplings

Here's a bird's eye view of the process. If this is your first time I recommend watching the video tutorial, especially so you can see the texture of the dough. Full instructions are in the recipe card below!

process shot for making garlic chive dumplings steps 1-4

Place the chives in a mixing bowl, and add salt, sugar, soy sauce, baking soda, oil, white pepper and garlic, and mix until combined. Let sit for at least 20 minutes until the chives are wilted.
Meanwhile, make the dipping sauce by combining all ingredients and stirring until sugar is dissolved. This sauce will keep in the fridge for weeks!
Make the batter: Combine water, rice flour and tapioca starch in a pot and stir until there are no more lumps. Turn the heat on LOW and stir the mixture constantly with a spatula.
As the flour starts to cook and congeal into lumps, pull the pot off heat occasionally to smush any flour lumps against the sides to break them up. Continue stirring CONSTANTLY just until the mixture is thick enough that the chives can be evenly suspended in the batter (it can be thinner than in the pic). Remove from heat and continue stirring to break up any lumps of flour to make sure the consistency of the batter is even throughout.

process shot for making garlic chive dumplings steps 5-8

Off heat, add the garlic chives into the batter until well combined.
Grease a 7-inch round cake pan with oil (or use any heatproof container). Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth off the top.
Preheat a steamer with boiling water. If you're not using a bamboo steamer lid, wrap a towel around the lid of the steamer to prevent water from dripping onto the surface of the dumplings. Alternatively cover the dumplings with foil. Steam the dumplings for 15 - 20 minutes if using a 7-inch round pan, but this can be longer if you're using a smaller container (and therefore the batter is thicker). If you have an instant-read thermometer, the internal temperature of the middle should reach 190°F.
Let the dumpling cool completely then you can keep them in the fridge for up to a week until ready to eat.

process shot for making garlic chive dumplings steps 9-12

When ready to eat, use an oiled knife to cut the dumplings into bite-sized cubes. If there is a lot of dough sticking to the blade between cuts, wipe it off and re-oil the blade.
To fry: In a non-stick pan, add just enough oil so it comes up just below half the height of the dumplings. Heat until hot and fry them until well browned and crispy, making sure to not let them touch while in the pan or they will stick together.
Flip and fry them on the other side until well browned.
Drain excess oil on a paper towel-lined plate and serve while they're hot and crispy with the dipping sauce!

Advance Prep Tips

These are the perfect make-ahead appetizers. You can steam the batter and keep it in the fridge. When ready to eat, cut and fry them up (or you can cut them in advance so all you need to do is fry!). The dipping sauce will also last you a long time in the fridge as well.

Can these be made in the air fryer?

The raw batter has to be steamed in a steamer, but you might wonder if the frying part can be done in an air fryer. I have tried this, and while it "works" it's really not as good because the dumplings came out not nearly as well browned and quite a bit drier.

But were they "fine"? They were fine. And if you're really not in the mood to pan-fry things and are willing to compromise on deliciousness, then here's what you do:

Toss the cut dumplings in a generous amount of oil.
Place them in an air fryer basket without letting them touch, then air fry at 400°F (200°F) for 4-5 minutes or until well heated through and slightly browned on the exterior. Don't try to cook them longer to get them more browned because they will dry out too much.

Recipe Card

Homemade Roasted Chili Flakes

March 11, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant Leave a Comment

"I want to make this dish spicier, what can I add?" I get this question often for those who love heat. In Thailand, we have a couple of options, but by far the easiest, quickest, and most versatile option is to make roasted chili flakes, or prik pohn พริกป่น in Thai.

In Thailand you'll find roasted chili flakes as a tableside condiment offered at many restaurants, and at home everyone has a stash in their fridge or pantry. Not only does it add heat, the toasting adds a slight smokiness that gives food a little extra je ne sais quoi. It's very simple to make (and much cleaner, as I will explain later), and you only need to make it once and it'll last you the whole year or longer.

Ingredients and Notes

Spicy dried chilies. You can use any kind of spicy dried chilies that have the right amount of heat for you. If you can get dried Thai bird's eye chilies, that's great, but where I live, I usually use arbol chilies which can be found anywhere Latin American groceries are sold.
Makrut lime leaves, optional. To make your roasted chili flakes extra aromatic, I like to add a makrut lime leaf (aka kaffir lime leaf) and grind it up altogether with the chilies. You can also change this to lemongrass is you wish. You do not need to be specific with amounts here, add as many as you want, but generally I add 1 leaf to about 1½ cups of dried chilies.

How to Make Roasted Chili Flakes

I've made roasted chili flakes in many of my youtube videos, and you can see me make it here in nam jim jeaw video.

*Note: You can make as much or as little as you want, the method doesn't change. But the more you make, the longer it will take to roast.

Wash the chilies (optional). Some dried chilies are not clean; it really depends on the brand. If the dried chilies you have feel dusty, you need to wash them (wash the whole bag so you only need to do it once.) Dunk them into a bowl of cold water and swish them around for literally 5 seconds, then lift them out of the water and lay them out on a kitchen towel. Don't let them linger in water of they'll rehydrate. Towel them dry as much as possible, then let them dry completely overnight, (I use a fan to make them dry faster), before storing them.

Deseed the chilies (optional). If the chilies you have are too spicy for your liking and you want to tone the heat down a bit, cut the chilies with scissors and pour the seeds out.

Option 1: Toast the chilies on the stovetop. Add the chilies (and makrut lime leaves, if using) to a dry pot, wok or skillet and stir them constantly over medium heat until a few charred spots form on the chilies (see pic below), then remove from heat. This should only take a few minutes especially for small amounts. If making a large amount you can increase the heat to medium high, but be careful as the chilies burn fast.

Option 2: Toast chilies in the oven. If making a large amount you can use an oven. Preheat to 300°F (150°C) and bake the chilies for 5-7 minutes, or until they darken slightly and smell smokey. Chilies will not have charred spots like the stovetop method, but they should overall look a bit darker.

Transfer the chilies to a coffee grinder or spice grinder (for large amounts a food processor will also work) and grind them into small flakes or a coarse powder.

Safety note: Do not immediately open the grinder lid after you stop the blade. Give the chili dust time to settle down before opening, 15-20 seconds at least, otherwise you will inhale chili dust and that is NOT FUN. Also when you deem it safe to open the lid, do not put your face directly on top of it; and make sure there isn't a fan or anything blowing nearby. This all seems obvious until you forget about it, folks.

roasted chili flakes being poured from grinder

How to Store Chili Flakes

Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer, because chilies do get moldy overtime. I usually only make one small jar at a time and keep it in the fridge, but if you have more than you can use within 6 months, keep a small amount in the fridge and the extra in the freezer.

Shortcut: Toasting Store Bought Chili Flakes

If you can find chili flakes already ground at the store, you can also just toast these in the skillet over medium heat until they darken slightly. BUT because the flakes are tiny this will take a very short time (less than a minute) and will burn quickly, so you have to watch it carefully!

However, I have a two concerns about this:

If you're thinking of "Red Pepper Flakes" you can find at most Western grocery stores...they are usually too mild to be an effective way to add real heat to food. I wouldn't bother with them unless you're looking to make mild chili flakes.
Some Asian grocery stores will sell chili flakes from Thailand, and this stuff is SPICY. However, old chili flakes stored at room temp, especially in humid conditions, can develop mold. And because these are already ground it's impossible to tell whether there is any mold in them. So if you trust the quality of your chilies, that's great, but I prefer to grind my own from whole chilies so I can make sure the chilies are clean and mold-free.

Northern Thai Laab (Larb) Recipe

March 1, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant 5 Comments

If you frequent Thai restaurants you probably know of a dish called larb or laab - a salad made of ground meat so popular that is was even mentioned in a Spider Man movie! But the laab I'm sharing in this post is something entirely different...it's not even a salad.

It hails from the North, so it is specifically called laab nuea (nuea = north) or laab kua (more on this below). If you've been to Chiang Mai, you might have tried it, but outside of northern Thailand it's very hard to find - a truly hidden gem! It's made from ground meat mixed with a unique blend of spices, giving it a flavour unlike any other dish in Thai cuisine.

a plate of laab kua with a side of fresh veggies and more fresh veggies in the background

What is Laab Kua?

Let's get the names straight because it is a dish that goes by a few different names. Laab kua ลาบคั่ว is also called laab nuea ลาบเหนือ or laab mueang ลาบเมือง. Sometimes it's referred to as the laab of the province in which it is made - so if you're in Chiang Mai they might call it laab chiang mai, for example. And laab found in different northern provinces can have slight variations, as with most regional foods.

Whatever the name, it refers to a dish made from minced meat - typically but not exclusively pork or beef - and the meat is flavoured with a special spice blend. This spice blend is called prik laab. It is served with fresh herbs, fresh vegetables, and sticky rice is a must.

Laab was originally a dish made for large gatherings. Villagers would butcher a whole animal specifically to make laab for whatever the occasion might be, and it would be a communal effort to make this dish. This is why traditional laab kua uses a lot of offal -and by a lot I mean ALL of the offal - because they wanted to use the whole animal! (But do not worry, for my recipe I've made it homecook-friendly, using only meat and, if you like, liver.)

In Northern Thailand laab is sometimes served raw (called laab dib, dib = raw). Think beef tartare, but with Thai spices! While I don't suggest you do this at home because of the obvious food safety risk (unless you're using sashimi-grade fish), it's an important thing to be aware of when you go to Thailand! And this is why the cooked version that we're making is called laab kua, because kua means to stir in a hot pan.

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you need and important notes about them. It looks like a lot, but you probably have many of the spices at home already! For amounts, see the recipe card below.

The Spice Blend: Prik Laab

Gathering spices for laab kua is really the hardest part, but if you're missing a thing or two, it's fine to skip them. There are many recipes for prik laab; some use more spices, while others use less, so this is by no means the golden standard!

*To save time, you can buy pre-made prik laab here (US only) made by my good friend Chef Hong Thaimee. You can also buy prik laab at most markets in Northern Thailand. If you see other brands, please check first that it is a spice blend for NORTHERN laab, and not just a "laab seasoning mix" which is for the other kind of laab.

Cumin seeds
Sichuan peppercorns, I'm adding these as a substitute for a Thai herb called makwaen which is a relative of Sichuan peppercorns. They have similar tingly heat!
Coriander seeds, do not use ground coriander for this as I find ground coriander doesn't have half the aroma whole seeds do.
Fennel seeds
Cinnamon sticks, or ground cinnamon is fine.
Bay leaves
Black peppercorns
Cloves
Nutmeg, I'm using ground nutmeg here, but you can also grate fresh nutmeg.
White cardamom, or substitute green cardamom.
Long pepper, also known as Indian long pepper, has a super unique aroma that is hard to describe, but I get a zingy citrus plus a deep woodsy aroma. You won't find this in most stores, and I bought this online, but it is okay to skip it.
Star anise
Dried chilies or chili flakes. In Thailand the chilies are ground up into the spice blend, but for me I like to keep the chilies separate so I can adjust the heat each time depending on who I'm making it for. This means that if you already have roasted chili flakes handy (perhaps from my other recipes!) you can just use that!

Indian long pepper on a plate — Indian long pepper, also known simply as long pepper.

The Laab Kua

Fish sauce. See how to choose good fish sauce here.
Ground pork or ground beef, I'm using pork. Preferably not too lean.
Pork liver (optional).
Garlic, for making fried garlic.
Shallots, traditionally we fry the shallots crispy and then top the dish with it, using the same oil you used to fry the garlic. I simplify this step by simply just sauteing the shallots into the dish and then topping it with store bought fried shallots (there is enough to do already!). But if you want to make your own, here's my guide to making perfect crispy fried shallots!
Lemongrass, bottom half only.
Galangal (optional).
Cilantro
Green onion
Vietnamese coriander. This is called pak preaw in Thai but usually labelled in Asian stores as rau ram, which is the Vietnamese name. If you can't find it, it's okay to omit.
Sticky rice for serving. Please trust me on this: laab kua is not nearly as good served with regular/jasmine rice. The chewy, dense sticky rice really makes the dish. Here's my favourite method for making sticky rice, if that doesn't work for you, also check out 7 other ways to make sticky rice!
Accompaniments: fresh crunchy veg such as Asian green cabbage (this is the squat cabbage you find at Asian stores, which is sweeter and crunchier than the ball-shaped ones in Western stores), cucumber, carrots, long beans. It's also very common to serve crispy pork rind alongside laab (we really do use the whole animal!)

accompaniments for laab kua — Accompaniments to laab kua includes fresh crunchy vegetables and crispy pork rind. Don't forget sticky rice for serving!

How to Make Northern Laab Kua

Here's a bird's eye view of all the steps. If this is your first time I recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success. For the full instructions see the recipe card below.

process shots for making laab kua steps 1-4

Toast the cumin seeds over medium heat until the darken and start to pop. Remove.
Toast the rest of the spices until the coriander seeds darken and start to pop.
Toast spicy dried chilies over medium heat until charred spots form. You can also toast chili flakes until they darken slightly.
Grind all the spices except the chilies into a powder. Grind the chilies separately into a powder.

process shots for making laab kua step 5-8

Combine spices, chili powder, water and fish sauce and stir to dissolve the spices.
Pour the spice mixture into the ground pork.
Knead the pork with your hands until the spices are evenly distributed.
Stir in chopped liver just to mix.

process shots for making laab kua step 9-12

Fry garlic in oil over medium low heat until golden and the bubbling has subsided. About 5 minutes.
Drain and keep the garlic oil separate from the fried garlic.
In a wok, add the garlic oil, shallots, lemongrass and galangal and sauté until the herbs start to turn golden.
Add the pork/liver mixture and cook until the pork is fully cooked; making sure to break up the pork so there are no chunks.

process shots for making laab kua step 13-16

Off heat, then add cilantro, mint and rau ram (pak preaw) and stir to mix.
Plate and top with mint.
Sprinkle fried garlic, fried shallots and serve with extra fresh herbs, fresh veggies and sticky rice.
If you want to eat laab like a Thai, eat it by hand! Ball the sticky rice up into a dense, small ball, and use your fingers to pinch the laab onto the rice and enjoy!

Tips for Advance Prep

This is a lot of things to do if you do it all in one go, but there are things you can do to make this weeknight-friendly:

Make the spice blend in advance. This is the biggest thing to get out of the way as the rest is pretty easy. And once you make it one time, you'll have it for the next several batches.
Make fried garlic and garlic oil in advance. I usually have garlic oil and fried garlic in my fridge already cuz I make it in bulk and use it for a lot of things (and you'll want to use it on a lot of things once you have it trust me!). So if you're gonna do it ahead, I recommend making a whole bunch - at least use a whole head of garlic.
Make the roasted chili flakes in advance. I also usually have this in the fridge in bulk, and it's so useful for adding heat to anything that needs it!

FAQ: Can You Make Laab Kua with Other Kinds of Protein?

Pork and beef are the most popular options for making laab kua in Thailand, but you absolutely can use any other kinds of ground meat. Lamb would work beautifully with all of the spices in this dish, though ground chicken and ground turkey instead as well, and I would recommend dark meat for both of those.

You can also make laab with fish! Any kind of fish will work. If using fish, you will need to mince the fish yourself as they don't sell ground fish, last I checked :). Simply chop the fish into small pieces and then use a cleaver or a sturdy chef's knife to mince. You can see my laab chicken recipe video for how to hand-mince meats, starting at around minute 3:20.

Worth noting: if you're using sashimi grade fish, you can actually eat it raw! Mince the fish and then mix with the spices, seasonings, and fresh herbs as per the recipe.

To make it vegan, you can use TVP, or crumbled pressed tofu, like the one I used in my Vegan Laab Recipe. I'd recommend mixing it with finely chopped mushrooms for some extra umami and chew, then use soy sauce instead of fish sauce.

More Northern Thai Recipes You'll Love!

Hot Thai Chicken - Fried Chicken in Sweet Chili Lime Sauce

April 15, 2016 by Pailin Chongchitnant 24 Comments

I have finally developed the dish deserving of the name "Hot Thai Chicken"! This fried chicken recipe has been simmering in my mind for a long time, and when I finally tested it out, it absolutely blew me away. The perfect mix of sweet, tart, spicy, sticky, crispy and tender...this sweet chili lime sauce would be good even on fried tofu or fish. This one is a must-try!

a plate of fried chicken in sweet chili lime sauce and a wedge of lime and makrut lime leaves

The Cool Story Behind "Hot Thai Chicken"

Many times, when I try to say "Hot Thai Kitchen" on camera, it comes out as Hot Thai Chicken, which always makes me laugh. And this isn't just me, I've had many other people make the same mistake when they're talking to me about my site. So I thought, wouldn't it be cool if Hot Thai Chicken was actually a dish?

I thought long and hard about what that dish would be, because whatever it is, it has to DESERVE this "hot thai" designation. And let me tell you, this one totally does.

The inspiration came from when I worked at a Thai restaurant many years ago. Their most popular item was pieces of boneless chicken breast, fried and tossed in a red sweet-and-sour sauce. It was their attempt to copy the popular Chinese Orange Chicken or General Tsao Chicken. It's not a traditional Thai dish at all, but the American customers loved it.

I liked the dish fine but always found it too sweet (as most Americanized Thai food tends to be) and lacking in complexity. But I knew the idea was solid, and that it had the potential to be awesome.

So I got to work making a sauce that would have a well-balanced sweetness, adding aromatics to amp up the complexity, and brightening it with fresh lime juice for that all-important zing. It worked, and the chicken was crowned Hot Thai Chicken, and it has since gotten over a 1.4 million views on YouTube.

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

All my recipes come with video tutorials, I highly recommend you watch it to ensure success, especially if it's your first time!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the full recipe card below.

Fried Chicken

Chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, cut each thigh into 6-7 pieces. You can also substitute chicken breast if you really want to, but thighs are more resilient to overcooking so you can fry them until crispy without worrying about the chicken becoming dry like chicken breast can.
Egg
Salt
All-purpose flour
Cornstarch, if needed you can use flour only, but cornstarch reduces the gluten and makes the coating crunchier and lighter.
Oil for frying

Hot Thai Chicken Sauce (Sweet Chili Lime Sauce)

Thai chili paste, called nam prik pao in Thai. You can find it at many Asian grocery stores. I used Pantai Brand but Maepranom brand is also great. You can also make your own using my homemade nam prik pao recipe here.
Dried chilies. This is where you determine how hot your Hot Thai Chicken is. If you want it mild, use mild dried chilies such as guajillo peppers. If you want it spicy, you can use spicy dried chilies such as Arbol. You can use a mix of the two for something in between. Alternatively, you can also use a combination of paprika (mild) and cayenne pepper (hot) to achieve the right heat level for you.
White vinegar, or any kind of mild flavoured vinegar you have such as rice vinegar or even white wine vinegar.
Sugar
Oyster sauce, see my post about choosing good quality oyster sauce here.
Garlic, finely grated or minced. In a pinch garlic powder will also do.
Fish sauce, see my post about choosing good fish sauce here.
Water
Lime juice
Makrut lime leaves (aka kaffir lime leaves) center rib removed, finely julienned then minced into small pieces (see video for technique). If you don't have it, you can also use more of the lime zest.
Lime zest, finely grated

How to Make Hot Thai Chicken

Here's a bird's eye view of the process. I highly recommend watching the video tutorial first to ensure success. For full instructions, see the recipe card below.

Process shots for making hot thai chicken steps 1-4

Place chicken in a bowl, add the egg, 2 tablespoon of the cornstarch, and salt. Stir until well mixed and let sit while you prepare the sauce.
Cut the dried chilies into chunks. If you want to lessen the heat, remove the seeds. Grind the chilies into a powder in a coffee/spice grinder.
In a small pot, add the Thai chili paste, ground chilies, vinegar, sugar, oyster sauce, garlic, fish sauce, and water. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Let simmer for 4-5 minutes until thickened, stirring frequently (it should look too thick right now as we will thin it out later).
Turn off the heat and immediately add the minced makrut lime leaves, grated lime zest and stir to mix; the heat of the sauce will help infuse the lime. Once mixed, stir in lime juice. Keep covered while you fry the chicken.

Process shots for making hot thai chicken steps 5-8

Whisk together all-purpose flour and ¼ cup of cornstarch in a large mixing bowl. Add the chicken all at once, then toss the chicken in the flour until all pieces are well coated, making sure that no pieces are stuck together. If you want a thicker crust, drizzle a little water over the chicken and toss one more time, and the water will help the chicken pick up a little more flour.
Heat about 2 inches of frying oil to 375°F (190°C) in a pot or a wok. Grab a piece of chicken and gently shake off loose flour, then place it gently into the hot oil. Fry in batches, making sure not to crowd the pot. After 2 ½ - 3 minutes, the chicken should be golden brown and crispy—remove and drain on paper towel. Repeat until all chicken is fried.
Pour the sauce into a large mixing bowl, add the chicken and with a large spoon, quickly toss the chicken until all the pieces are coated in the sauce. If you start to feel like there isn't enough sauce to coat all pieces thoroughly, scrape the sauce off the sides of the bowl and your spoon, and this will stretch the sauce a bit further.
Serve immediately, on its own or with jasmine rice or sticky rice. Enjoy it, I know you will!

Tip for Extra Crunch: Double Fry!

If you have the time and are so inclined, you can double fry the chicken and they will be crunchier. Here's what you do:

After frying them the first time, remove the chicken from the oil and allow to cool completely. Then heat the oil again to 375°F (190°C), and fry the chicken one more time for 1.5-2 minutes, just until the chicken develops a richer brown colour. Drain and toss with the sauce as per the recipe.

Advance Prep Tips

Hot Thai Chicken is a crowd pleaser and it's the perfect thing to serve at a party, so here are all the things you can do ahead of time:

Make the sauce in advance but do not add the lime juice, this will keep in the fridge for up to a week! Reheat the sauce close to serving time, then add the lime juice off heat.
On the day of serving, fry the chicken ahead of time and keep the oil on the stove. Then close to serving time fry them again at 375°F (190°C) for 1.5-2 minutes and toss in the sauce. This way you'll get the benefit of the extra crunch because you're double frying! You can fry chicken and leave them at room temp up to 4 hours in advance, of if it'll be more time, you can fridge the chicken until ready to serve.

Can You Air-Fry Hot Thai Chicken?

Yes! The chicken isn't going to be as crunchy as deep fried (obviously), but it can work and will still taste great. There IS a major downside which I will discuss below, but first, here's how you do it:

Use a little less flour to coat the chicken, you want the chicken coating to look moist, and not powdery when it goes into the air fryer. So start by tossing the chicken with half the flour/cornstarch mixture, then add more little by little until the chicken is well coated but there is very little excess dry flour in the bowl.
Place the chicken into the air fryer basket, making sure there is room between all the pieces (you may need to do this in two batches). Spray or brush the top of the chicken with oil, then air fry at 400°F for about 12 minutes or until the chicken is golden brown. At the halfway point, turn the chicken and brushing/spraying with a little more oil.
Toss the chicken in the sauce as per usual.

The downside of using the air fryer: Air-frying is great if your air fryer can hold all the chicken in one batch (my Instant Vortex cannot). If you have to do 2 batches, this ends up taking a very long time to cook because your total cooking time will be close to 30 minutes, where as you can finish deep frying all the chicken in 5-6 minutes.

Not to mention, the first batch of chicken will have to wait at least 12 mins before getting tossed, so it will have cooled down a lot. If you've got an eater who's picky about food being hot, you might need to pop the first batch into the air fryer to reheat for a few minutes!

What else can you use instead of chicken?

I have made this dish with great success using fried tofu! Use firm tofu, fry until golden and chewy, and toss in the sauce.

You can also use it on calamari or fried fish or even shrimp. Just make sure the pieces are big enough because the sauce is quite strong, and you don't want teeny tiny shrimp or skinny calamari rings that will be overwhelmed by the sauce.

Recipe Card

Pad Prik King: Thai Red Curry Stir-Fry with Chicken

February 19, 2016 by Pailin Chongchitnant 18 Comments

You can think of pad prik king as a kind of a "dry curry". It's a dish that concentrates the iconic flavours of Thai food into one quick and easy stir-fry. Chicken and crunchy long beans tossed in salty-sweet red curry paste, and served with creamy salted duck egg. It can easily be modified to work with other proteins as well.

A plate of chicken and long bean stir-fry

What is Pad Prik King

Pad prik king is a stir fry of protein with red curry paste and makrut lime leaves (aka kaffir lime leaves). The flavour profile is salty and sweet, and it's usually medium to mild when it comes to heat. It's a dry stir fry, so all of the flavours are concentrated and coating all of the meat and vegetables, delivering an explosion of flavour with every bite. It really is one of my faves!

In Thai, pad means to stir fry, prik means chilies, and king means ginger, which is kind of odd because there is no ginger in this recipe! From what I could find, the most likely story behind this dish name is that it's supposed to be about as spicy as ginger, so not super hot like some other Thai dishes can be.

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the recipe card below.

Chicken breast or thigh, boneless skinless, cut into bite-sized pieces. I always prefer thighs, but in the video I did show you how to use chicken breast because it's important not to cut them too thin to prevent them from drying out too fast.
Fish sauce, you'll need some for marinating chicken and another amount for the stir fry. How much you need for the stir fry will depend on how salty the curry paste is to start, so be sure to add just a teaspoon, then taste and add more as needed.
Cooked salted duck egg, this is optional but it is often added to pad prik king and I think it works so well. The creamy saltiness contrasts the slightly sweet stir fry beautifully. You can buy salted duck eggs at any Chinese supermarket, but be sure to buy COOKED ones, not raw.
Neutral flavored oil
Red curry paste. Store bought is totally fine, but you can also make your own curry paste using my red curry paste recipe. Brands of Thai curry paste vary greatly, so I recommend Maeploy, Aroy-D, or Namjai for best flavours. If using Maesri in little tins or Thai Kitchen, they are much weaker and you will need to double the amount of paste to get the same flavour.
Palm sugar, finely chopped, packed, or sub light brown sugar
Unsalted chicken stock or water
Long beans, also known as string beans of Chinese long beans have a nuttier and firmer crunch than green beans, but if you cannot find them, you can use French green beans instead (the smaller, skinnier ones).
Makrut lime leaves, this is a key ingredient for pad prik king, if you can't find fresh, check the frozen section as frozen ones work just as well!
Jasmine rice, for serving.

How to Make Pad Prik King

Here's a bird's eye view of the steps involved, if it's your first time I highly recommend watching the video tutorial first to ensure success. Detailed steps are in the recipe card below.

Toss the chicken with fish sauce and let marinate while you prep other ingredients.
If using, cut the salted duck eggs right through the shell in half, then use a spoon to scoop the halves out. At this point you can either cut each half into chunks and toss them into the stir-fry, or serve it on the side.
Heat the oil over high heat until very hot and sear half the chicken without stirring until browned, about 1 minute. Once browned, stir the chicken briefly just to cook the surface of the other side, and then remove from the pan. Repeat with the remaining chicken.
With the heat OFF, add a little more oil and add stir in the curry paste until it's loosened, then turn the heat on to medium and cook for about 2 minutes until aromatic. Then stir in the palm sugar, fish sauce, and deglaze with a little chicken stock or water and stir until sugar is dissolved.

process shots for how to make pad prik king steps 5-8

Add the torn makrut lime leaves and let them infuse into the sauce for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. If the sauce looks thick by this point, add a little more stock or water to get it into an pourable consistency.
Add the chicken back in and toss just to coat in the sauce.
Add the long beans and cook until the chicken is fully cooked and the sauce is no longer pooling and the curry paste is coating the chicken and the beans. If you want to add the salted duck egg chunks into the stir-fry, toss them in at this point and toss just to mix.
Remove from heat and transfer to a plate. Garnish with finely julienned makrut lime leaves and if you didn't mix the duck eggs in, place the eggs on the side. Serve with jasmine rice. and enjoy!

Variations of Pad Prik King in Thailand

In Thailand, the most common version of pad prik king is actually made with deep fried catfish. Thai catfish are sliced into steaks, the bone-in steaks are then deep fried until the outside is crunchy, and then that gets stir fried with the curry paste.

This is typically done in restaurants because prepping and frying the catfish in this manner is pretty involved. For home cooking, we tend to use easier protein options such as chicken and pork (pork belly is very popular). A vegetarian version that use TVP (texturized vegetable protein) or deep fried tofu is also quite common during the vegan festival (chay festival) in Thailand.

Similar Recipes You Might Like

If you love pad prik king, there are a few other dishes you might also enjoy.

Pad ped is also a red curry stir fry, but it is saucier, less sweet, and this version uses coconut milk.
Cauliflower Yellow Curry Stir Fry. Once you get a hang of stir frying with curry paste, try this recipe as your next veggies for the meal!

Thai Corn & Cucumber Pounded Salad (tum tang kao poad)

September 5, 2014 by Pailin Chongchitnant 8 Comments

You might be familiar with som tum or green papaya salad, but did you know we make so many other kinds of "tum," or pounded salads, that's don't have any green papaya in them? This corn and cucumber version is one of my favourite variations, but the takeaway is the technique, and you can then change up the vegetables as you wish!

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need and important notes about them. For amounts and full instructions, check out the full recipe card below.

Sweet corn, I prefer corn on the cob because I like for the corn to be in big pieces and it is sweeter that way, but in a pinch, frozen or canned will be fine.
Garlic
Thai chilies, add as many as you want here, but start with 1 or even half if your heat tolerance is low.
Palm sugar, finely chopped. Read more about palm sugar here.
Dried shrimp, roughly chopped if large
Long beans, this is commonly added to Thai pounded salads but you can totally skip it and add more cucumber if you can't find them. You can also substitute green beans, but be sure to blanch them first in boiling water for 30 seconds; you can eat long beans raw but green beans need to be cooked.
Tomato, cut into wedges on a bias, or use halved cherry tomatoes.
Fish sauce, it's important to use good fish sauce here, and if you like a bit of funk, you can also do a combination of fish sauce and pla ra (aka padaek in Lao) which is an unfiltered fish sauce.
Lime juice, another option is to do a combination of lime juice and tamarind paste for a slightly richer dressing.
Julienned cucumber. Cut them thin if you like the cucumber to wilt and soften slightly, or keep it thick if you prefer that fresh crunch.
Salted duck egg, cooked. This is optional but I love the creamy, salty bits of salted duck eggs in pounded salads. You can buy them at Chinese supermarkets alongside all the eggs. Make sure you buy COOKED ones.

How to Make Corn Cucumber Salad

Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success.

Note:This recipe uses a large mortar and pestle made specifically for pounded salads. See my post here for a mortar & pestle guide. If you do not have it, you can still make this salad in a mixing bowl using instructions below. If you have a small stone mortar & pestle, you can do everything up until adding the long beans, then transfer to a mixing bowl for the rest.

Bring a large pot of water to a full boil. Add corn and boil for 6-7 minutes. Remove from water, sprinkle the corn with salt on all sides and let cool completely.
Once cooled, lay the corn on its side and slice the kernels off the cob, trying your best to keep the kernels together in big pieces; set aside. You will need roughly 165 g of corn kernels, so depending on the size of the ear, you may not need all of it.
Cut the salted duck egg, if using, in half right through the shell and scoop out the egg in one piece with a spoon. Cut one half of the egg into chunks (for tossing into the salad), then cut the other half as nicely as you can into wedges (for putting on top of the salad).
In a mortar and pestle, pound garlic and chilies until there are no more chunks. Add palm sugar and pound until mostly dissolved.
Add dried shrimp and long beans, and pound briefly just to crush the long beans. Add tomatoes, fish sauce and lime juice, adding also a few pieces of the lime rind after juicing.
Pound GENTLY to mix and crush the tomato slightly, using a large spoon to help fold the mixture as you pound (best to see video for technique here)
Add cucumber, corn and the chunks of the salted duck egg, toss to mix with a spoon.
Plate and arrange the wedges of salted duck eggs on top.

How to Make the Salad without a Mortar and Pestle

If you do not have a mortar and pestle, you can still make this salad in a mixing bowl using instructions below. If you DO have a mortar and pestle but it's too small, you can still make the dressing in it, and maybe even add the dried shrimp and long beans, and then transfer to a mixing bowl.

Mince the garlic or grate with a microplant, and mince the chilies. Add to a mixing bowl.
Finely grate the sugar and add to the mixing bowl, then add the fish sauce and lime juice and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Roughly chop the dried shrimp and add to the mixing bowl along with the long beans.
Add tomatoes and crush gently with a wooden spoon or spatula to release their juices into the salad. Add the cucumber and salted duck egg chunks, if using, and toss to mix.

Recipe Card

Authentic Thai Pork Satay & Peanut Sauce

February 20, 2015 by Pailin Chongchitnant 29 Comments

Grilled satay skewers served with peanut sauce can be found all over the streets of Thailand. And even though I know chicken satay gets all the love in N. America, 99% of the satay you'll find in Thailand is made from pork!

The peanut sauce in this recipe is the real deal, no peanut butter, no soy sauce, it's the real stuff I grew up eating. It's so good that you can put it on anything you like, but FYI, in Thailand, this peanut sauce is only used on satays. No, Thai people do not put peanut sauce on everything despite what you might have been led to believe!

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

Ingredients & Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need and important notes about them. For amounts, check out the full recipe card below.

Pork loin, cut into 2-cm thick chops. Pork loin is common in Thailand but you can also use pork shoulder for a fattier cut, or pork tenderloin for something more tender. If you're using other kinds of meats, see my chicken satay recipe and my beef satay recipe. (see note)
Coconut milk, for basting
Bamboo skewers, soaked in water for at least 2-3 hours. If you forget to do this, it's not a big deal, just make sure you place a strip of folded foil under the skewer handles to protect them from heat (see video tutorial), and make sure the tip is not exposed.
White bread, for serving, yes! You might be surprised but in Thailand it is very common for satay to come with toasted white bread. You dip the bread in the peanut sauce and eat alongside the satay, and if there's any sauce left after the satays are gone, use the bread to sop up the rest!

Satay Marinade

Coriander seeds, toasted
Cumin seeds, toasted
White peppercorns
Lemongrass, finely chopped
Galangal, minced (optional)
Chopped fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
Ground cinnamon
Ground clove
Brown sugar, or white sugar
Salt
White vinegar
Coconut milk

Real Thai Peanut Sauce

Red curry paste, store bought is just fine. I recommend Maeploy, Aroy-D or Namjai. See this post for my review of different Thai curry pastes. You can also try using panang curry paste or massaman curry paste for a sauce with aroma of dry spices.
Coconut milk, see my post for how to choose the best coconut milk.
Roasted peanuts. I highly recommend buying raw peanuts and roasting them yourself for the best flavour. You can roast them in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size, and stirring halfway in between. Check them early and often to prevent burning.
Toasted white sesame seeds, this is optional for added aroma, you can also substitute more peanuts.
Fish sauce
Finely chopped palm sugar, learn more about palm sugar here.
Tamarind paste, store bought in a tub or homemade using this recipe. If buying, make sure it is tamarind from Thailand, which may be labeled as "concentrate". Learn more about tamarind here.

Quick Cucumber Pickle (Ajaad)

Ajaad is a quick pickle that is served alongside satay as a palate cleanser to cut the richness of the satay. If you're feeling lazy you can also serve Western cucumber pickle or gherkins instead.

Cucumber
Shallots
Slices of Thai chilies, jalapenos, serranos, or fresno chilies, any kind of peppers will work here, and you can choose spicy or mild ones.
White vinegar
Granulated sugar
Salt

How to Make Thai Satay & Peanut Sauce

Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success. The full recipe is in the recipe card below.

process shots for how to make pork satay stepes 1-4

Cut the pork chops in half along the length of the fatty rind.
Then slice each piece along the short side into ¼-inch thick pieces.
Grind coriander, cumin seeds, and white peppercorns in a mortar and pestle until very fine, then add galangal, lemongrass and fresh turmeric (if using); pound until fine.
Add turmeric powder (if using), cinnamon, clove, brown sugar, salt, vinegar, coconut milk, and water; stir to mix well.

process shots for how to make pork satay steps 5-8

Pour the satay marinade over the meat, massage with your hands, making sure that no pieces of meat are stuck together. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours and up to overnight. (If you're in a rush, a 20 minute marinade will also be fine).
Meanwhile, make the peanut sauce by grinding the peanuts and sesame seeds (if using) into a fine meal in a food processor (do not let it become peanut butter).
Reduce ¼ cup of the coconut milk by about half, until it is quite thick.
A curry paste to the coconut milk and cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes until it is very thick.

process shots for how to make pork satay steps 9-12

Stir in the rest of the coconut milk, ground peanuts and sesame seeds, fish sauce, palm sugar and tamarind paste.
Simmer for a few more minutes until it has thickened into a dip consistency, stirring frequently to prevent the bottom from scorching. You might even see red oil floating on top, that is a good sign. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
*If you want to make the cucumber pickle, make the pickling liquid now by combining all ingredients and cook just until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.
Skewer the meat onto bamboo skewers, about 3 pieces to each skewer, and lay them flat on a tray and brush the top side of the skewers with coconut milk.
Place the skewers on the grill, coconut-nut-milk-side-down, and brush the top side with coconut milk. Placing aluminum foil under the skewer handles will prevent the skewers from burning.

process shots for how to make pork satay steps 13-14

Flip the skewers and grill the other side just until done. These are small and thin skewers and should only take a couple of minutes to grill, so watch them carefully and do not overcook them!
If making ajaad, place the cucumber, shallots, and chilies into a small serving bowl and pour the cooled vinegar mixture over it.

Recipe Card

15 Thai Street Food Recipes You Can Make At Home

February 13, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant 6 Comments

Getting a taste of the amazing food from the streets of Thailand doesn't require a plane ticket, vacation days, or a language barrier. Get it right here with my 15 Thai street food recipes that you can make right at home!

Many people go to Thailand, fall in love with the amazing street food, and then come home craving those flavours. While many Thai street food dishes are not easy to replicate at home as they require unusual tools, hard-to-find ingredients, or special skills, so many others absolutely doable!

All you need are the right instructions, and that's what I'm here for. Enjoy!

1. Thai Fried Chicken - Hat Yai Style

Golden brown Hat Yai fried chicken wings are placed in a delicious pile on a ceramic plat with crispy fried onions and garnished with a sprig of herbs. It is placed on a grey stone background.

In Thailand, fried chicken is street food, not something you order in a restaurant. The best ones comes from unassuming carts. My goal for this recipe is to prove to you that Thai fried chicken is the best in the world, no exaggeration 😉. Specifically, Hat Yai style fried chicken; Hat Yai being my hometown in southern Thailand.

I’ve had fried chicken from all over the world, and I still haven't experienced one better than ours. Read on, then try the recipe (it's really quite easy) and see if you agree!

Get the Thai fried chicken recipe here

2. Authentic Thai Drunken Noodles - Pad Kee Mao

Pad kee mao is placed in a heaping pile on a white and blue ornate plate. The succulent shrimps are placed on the top left side of the pile while the vegetables are a beautiful contrast to the rich and flavourful noodles. A pair of chopsticks are placed on the left side. Herbs are placed on a red background beside the plate.

Pad kee mao ผัดขี้เมา or drunken noodles is stir fried noodles with holy basil and lots of chilies. It's a cult-favourite Thai street food. The combination of chewy fresh rice noodles, the epic savoury sauce, and the fragrance of holy basil ... there is nothing quite like it and it never gets old.

Get the Pad Kee Mao recipe here

3. Easy Hainanese Chicken Rice - Khao Mun Gai

Beautiful succulent pieces of chicken are placed on a steaming bed of rice. THe kao mun gai's sauce is drizzling over the chicken as the hand is gently lit with soft lighting. The dish is placed on a square piece of banana leaves. It is accompanied with slices of cucumber and a bowl of the same sauce being drizzled over. The spoon and fork are delicalately placed on the left side on on the plate as a bowl of soup and a large serving bowl of chicken are gracing the background.

Khao mun gai is a serious contender for a last meat for me. This street food is ubiquitous in Thailand, and you can find it at just about any food court in any mall.

For this at-home recipe, I use chicken pieces instead of whole chickens that street food vendors use, so cooking time is greatly reduced without compromising the flavour at all. After discovering this weeknight-friendly method, I have not gone back to the whole-chicken method yet!

Get the Khao Mun Gai recipe here

4. Easier & Healthier Pad Thai with Glass Noodles

A fork full of golden glass noodles are being pulled out of a pile of pad thai woonsen. Its vegetables and ingredients glow and glisten in contrast to the refreshing garnishes of lime and beansprouts. The chili powder and peanuts give a wonderful splash of colour.

Classic pad thai with rice noodles is not an easy dish - definitely not something that I would recommend beginners start with. First timers often end up with mushy, clumpy, broken, or undercooked noodles. But here's a variation of pad thai that uses a noodle that is easier to work with and healthier: glass noodles. It's a different texture, but I promise the taste is just like the classic pad thai!

Get the Pad Thai with glass noodles recipe here

5. Authentic Thai Pork Satay & Peanut Sauce

Skewers of pork Satay perfectly grilled and placed in a uniform pile on a white plate. It is paired with a rich peanut sauce and veggie side.

Thai satays can be found all over the streets of Thailand, and they're almost always made from pork. The peanut sauce in this recipe is so good you can put it on anything you like, however, few people know that in Thailand, this peanut sauce is only used on satays, and we do NOT put peanut butter in it (or in anything else for that matter!)

If you don't eat pork, I also have a recipe for beef satay, and for a weeknight friendly version, try my no-skewer chicken satay.

Get the Thai pork satay & peanut sauce recipe here

6. Authentic Thai Pad See Ew

Pad See Ew noodles lay in a georgeous pile on a blue and whote plate surrounded by two bottles of sauce and a red floral white place with wide plain rice noodles. A pair of chopsticks are placed at the top of the blue plate and the background is a grey stone countertop.

Pad thai may have all the fame, but Thai food lovers know that pad see ew is where real noodle bliss is at. This pad see ew recipe is tried and true, and I promise it'll rival anything you've had at Thai restaurants! It's a quick and simple dish, but you need to know some tricks to achieve perfectly seasoned, not-broken rice noodles with that smokey wok char.

Get the Pad See Ew recipe here

7. Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

The ultimate love child of street food and comfort food. If you like pho, this is very close to it but with Thai flavours! Well balanced flavours with lots of textures going on...topped with crispy garlic...this ain't your mama's chicken noodle soup! Haha, that is definitely true for my mama, although my GRANDmama would make something like this often. This is probably the easiest noodle soup you could make at home, especially once you've mastered the art of Thai style chicken stock.

Get the Thai chicken noodle soup here

8: Tom Yum Noodle Soup

A golden steaming bowl of tom yum noodles in a white bowl. Topped with vilantro and beansprouts.

When you go to Thailand, sitting at a noodle shop on the street somewhere, please order yourself a tom yum noodle soup if they have it. This is not the famous "tom yum soup" that you might know…the one with lemongrass, galangal, and shrimp. Nope, this is something else that's equally delicious.

Get the Tom Yum Noodle Soup Recipe Here

9. Holy Basil Chicken Stir-Fry - Pad Gaprao (Pad Kra Pao)

A heaping serving of pad gaprao lay on a bed of rice and topped with a beautiful over-easy fried egg. Garnished with a sprig of herb, the dish is decorated with splashes of green and red from the pad gaprao's veggie mix. The plate is placed on a wooden mat with a metal spoon and fork set to the side.

This popular Thai dish has many English spellings: Pad Kra Pao, Pad Ka Prao, Pad Ka Pow, Pad Krapow...etc. No matter how you spell it, they all point to this same delicious, rustic, spicy stir-fry featuring the aroma of holy basil. For a truly classic way to serve this dish, pour it over rice and top with a fried egg!

If you want to make pad gaprao using different kinds of protein, check out my formula for turning anything into pad gaprao!

Get the Pad Gaprao recipe here

10. Sukiyaki Stir Fry - Suki Hang

A generous portion of Suki Hang is placed on a white square plate. The celery brings a bright green composition to the over all look as the red sauce glistens on top of the delicious slices of chicken.

Sukiyaki is obviously a Japanese dish, but this particular recipe is very much unique to Thai cuisine. Here's the story. Sukiyaki is a Japanese hot pot, and Thai people took the inspiration and started making our own sukiyaki hot pot served with a spicy, flavourful red sauce that's more suited to the Thai palate.

Over the years, people realized that the sauce for the hot pot would also make a great stir fry, and suki hang or "dry suki" was born!

Get the Suki Hang recipe here

11. Khao Soi: Thai Curry Noodle Soup

A steaming bowl of kao soi is beautifully topped with crispy noodles, bright and fragran chili crisps, contrasted with the bright red onion slices, lime wedge, and sprig of cilantro.

Regional Thai food isn't very well known, but khao soi, egg noodles in aromatic curry broth, is an exception. Because Northern Thailand is such a popular tourist destination, this Northern Thai curry noodle soup has become popular amongst foreigners.

Some might even say if you visit the North of Thailand and didn't eat khao soi, you didn't really make it there! It's a truly unique dish, and with this recipe you can recreate the experience of Northern Thailand at home.

Get the Khao Soi recipe here

12. Chinese BBQ Pork Rice - Kao Moo Dang

A plate of Chinese BBQ pork on rice with gravy on top. With a side of medium boiled egg and cucumber slices and a bowl of soy chili vinegar dippins sauce.

This dish is the epitome of "Thai street food". If you wanted kao moo dang you can walk into any food court and you're guaranteed to find a vendor. At the basic level it's just Chinese BBQ pork (char siu) on rice, but what makes this dish unique to Thailand is the savoury-sweet gravy studded with roasted sesame seeds.

Get the Kao Moo Dang recipe here

13. Thai Banana Pancakes (Banana Roti)

Placed on a black square plate, a crispy Banana roti is perfectly cut into 12 pieces. Sweetened condensed milk is drizzled on top with a light powdering of icing sugar.

Thai roti is one of THE most popular snacks/desserts amongst visitors to Thailand! You can see roti carts at many tourist attractions around the country, and nowadays, vendors offer so many different filling options like bananas, chocolate sauce, nutella, apples, etc. which, by the way, were not available when I was a kid. If you go to non-touristy parts of Thailand you may still see some old-school roti vendors that still don't offer many fancy fillings.

With this recipe, you can recreate this popular snack at home. It does require some technique, so I highly recommend you watching the video tutorial to ensure success!

Get the Banana Roti recipe here

14. Thai Coconut Pancakes - Kanom Krok

Various kanom krok halves are placed cut open side up or down on a wire rack. The fillings of corn, taro cubes, or spring onions peak through the cooked batter. The are two clear bowls filled with corn or spring onions.

These famous little Thai coconut pancakes are one of the most popular street foods in Thailand. So much so that even Trader Joe's now sells frozen kanom krok, and Thai people all over the US are going crazy over them!!

They're so incredibly tasty that I seek them out every single time I go to Thailand...it's an absolute must-have for me. You do need to get a special pan for it, but it's not expensice, and the treat will be well worth it, I promise!

Get the Kanom Krok recipe here

15. Thai Iced Tea

Two glasses of Thai tea, one with half and half being poured into it.

Thailand has one famous (non-alcoholic) drink, and this is it: Thai iced tea. The orange coloured sweet concoction is so good it feels like it should be dessert. A lot of times I find restaurants make it too sweet, so I actually prefer making my own so I can make it exactly how I want it. If you love Thai tea and you're a coffee drinker, you're also going to love this easy Thai iced coffee!

Get the Thai iced tea recipe here

Hidden Gem of Thai Street Food: Stir Fried Turnip Cakes

March 1, 2019 by Pailin Chongchitnant Leave a Comment

When people go to Thailand, they often make sure they get to try Pad Thai. But many may not realize that at some of those Pad Thai vendors, there is another dish that is a hidden gem ordered only by locals: Kanom Pakkaad ขนมผักกาด, or stir fried turnip cakes. If you're not enticed by the sound of it, do read on because it didn't sound great to me initially either, but now it is one of my absolute fave.

a plate of kanom pakkad with a lime wedge and beansprouts on the side

What Exactly is Stir Fried Turnip Cake?

This is an immensely satisfying dish, loaded with umami. The "turnip cakes" refer to cubes of lo bak go, Chinese turnip cakes you often find at dim sum and during the Lunar New Year.

While you can find stir fried turnip cake (lo bak go) at most dim sum restaurants, the Thai style is a little bit different. Ours are stir fried with eggs, garlic chives, and beansprouts, the 3 ingredients that are also used in pad thai, this is why these two dishes are often sold by the same vendor.

*"Turnip cake" actually doesn't use turnip, but it uses daikon radish. It is also known as lo bak go, radish cake, daikon cake, or even Chinese carrot cake (but no, there is no carrot in it)!

But first, we gotta make the turnip cake

While you can use any turnip cake (lo bak go) for this recipe, even store bought ones, if you have time I recommend my mother-in-law's famous turnip cake recipe, because it is the best I've had anywhere.

After you've made the turnip cake, the stir frying part is a breeze. I must caveat it with the fact that MOST places that sell kanom pakkaad in Thailand will use turnip cakes that are relatively plain in comparison to my MIL's pimped out version which has dried scallops, dried shrimp, Chinese sausage and shiitake mushrooms.

On the street, the turnip cakes used may be plainly made with just daikon, or they may have a little bit of dried shrimp and/or shiitake mushrooms. I've seen some vendors add boiled peanuts, but there's definitely not gonna be any dried scallops involved!

So what I'm really saying is…my recipe is unlike anything you will find on the street, and in a good way!

Stir Fried Turnip Cake (lo bak go) - Thai Style

By: Pailin Chongchitnant

This Thai-Chinese street food is an absolute hidden gem. Immensely satisfying, loaded with umami. You'll need to make the turnip cake (lo bak go) first, but once you have it, this recipe comes together super fast. The perfect way to use up any leftover turnip cake you might have from Lunar New Year or dim sum!

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese, Thai

Servings Servings

Equipment

Well seasoned wok or a nonstick pan

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Ingredients

▢ 12.5 oz turnip cake (lo bak go)
▢ 2 tablespoons neutral oil
▢ 2.5 teaspoons soy sauce
▢ 2 teaspoons sweet soy sauce, (see note 1)
▢ 2 large eggs
▢ 2 cups bean sprouts
▢ 6 stems garlic chives, cut in 2-inch pieces
▢ Sriracha hot sauce, for serving (optional)
▢ Lime wedges, for serving

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Instructions

Slice the turnip cake into ¾-inch thick slices, then cut each slice into ¾-inch thick pieces.
12.5 oz turnip cake (lo bak go)
Combine the soy sauce and the sweet soy sauce together in a small bowl and stir to combine.
2.5 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons sweet soy sauce
Heat a well-seasoned carbon steel wok or a nonstick pan over medium high heat, then add the oil. Once the oil is hot, place the turnip cakes cube on the pan in one layer and allow to sear without stirring until the underside is well browned, 2-3 minutes.
2 tablespoons neutral oil
Flip the turnip cake pieces and brown the other side, another 2-3 minutes.
Once browned on both sides, crack the eggs into the pan (it can go right in between the turnip cake pieces) then break the yolks with your spatula. Use tongs or chopsticks and pickup the turnip cake pieces around the edges and put them on top of the eggs - we're trying to get some of the eggs to stick to the turnip cakes. (See video if you're confused by this) Turn the heat up to high and allow the eggs to cook without stirring until they are about halfway cooked.
2 large eggs
Using two spatulas, toss the eggs and the turnip cakes together until the eggs are fully cooked. Then add the beansprouts, garlic chives, then drizzle the sauce mixture over the veggies and give everything a toss for 30 seconds just until the bean sprouts are wilted, then off the heat.
2 cups bean sprouts, 6 stems garlic chives
Plate, and if you want, drizzle some sriracha hot sauce over the turnip cakes or serve the hot sauce on the side. Squeeze some fresh lime juice over and enjoy!
Sriracha hot sauce, Lime wedges

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30-Minute Crispy Pork Belly

February 2, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant 43 Comments

I LOVE me some crispy pork belly, I mean, who doesn’t? But if you’ve ever tried to make the Chinese style crispy pork belly with the bubbly skin, you know it’s not a quick and easy thing. Even with my recipe, which is one of the simplest out there, it's a 2-day process.

So THIS recipe, is much simpler. It's a Thai style fried pork belly that is unbelievably good, and it's only going to take you 30 minutes. I made this for a Thai friend, and after one bite and he said, "You need to sell this!" It was THAT good!

a plate of Thai crispy pork belly with dried chilies and thai basil garnish

What is Thai Style Crispy Pork Belly?

Most people are familiar with the Cantonese style crispy pork belly or siu yuk, where the crispy part is the skin. The whole piece of pork is meticulously prepped and roasted; and when done well you get puffy, bubbly crispy skin.

This Thai style is called moo saam chun tod nam pla, which means "fish sauce fried pork belly." People do it in many different ways in Thailand, but the secret to deliciousness here is the fish sauce which goes incredibly well with pork.

It's coated lightly with flour, and even though it has no skin, there is a light crispness from the flour that gets double fried. It is 100x easier and faster than the crispy skin one, and though not as impressive looking, is no less delicious. In fact, some would even prefer this one!

In Thailand this would be considered a gub glam or "drinking food." Something munchy that goes very well with a cold drink, such as a beer! You might also find it sold by street vendors with sticky rice, and it makes a great breakfast for folks to grab on their way to work.

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients you'll need with important notes. As you can see you don't need much at all! For amounts, see the full recipe card below.

Pork belly. We don't need the skin for this recipe, so if your pork has skin, buy a little extra to account for the lost weight of the skin that will be removed. Look for center cut pork belly which has a more even layer of meat throughout. I try to look for pieces with more meat and less fat, but that's up to your preference.
Fish sauce. The main seasoning for this and the reason why it is SO good! Here's my post all about fish sauce and how to choose a good one.
Sugar. A little to balance the saltiness, and it will also help with the browning.
Ground white pepper. Black pepper is also fine.
Cornstarch. For the crisp coating.
All-purpose flour. If you need this to be gluten free you can use all cornstarch, but the flour does help with the browning as well.

close up of pork belly from the side — Tip: Choose pork belly with an even layer of meat throughout so you don't get some pieces that have too much fat. The *center cut* will be more even than the pieces at the edges. Be picky at the butcher as some pieces have a ton of fat on them!

How to Make Crispy Pork Belly

Here's a bird's eye view of the process, for the full instructions see the recipe card below. I also recommend watching the video tutorial before you start in order to ensure success!

Pat the pork dry and remove the skin from the pork belly (if any).
Cut the pork into 1-inch wide strips, then cut each strip into ¾ inch thick pieces.
Add the fish sauce, sugar and pepper to the pork pieces and massage for a minute or so until there is no more liquid pooling in the bowl.
Combine the cornstarch and flour and sprinkle over the pork.

Process shots for making Thai crispy pork belly steps 5-8

Toss until all the pieces are evenly coated in the flour. Carefully check that none of the pieces are sticking together! Let it sit while you heat up the oil.
Heat 1 inch of frying oil to 350°F (175°C) and fry half of the pork for 2 minutes then remove from the oil - the pork will not be done at this point. Allow to cool on a tray while you fry the second batch.
Once the pork is no hotter than lukewarm, bring the oil temp up to 385°F (196°C) and fry the pork again for about 90 seconds or until the pork is well browned.
Remove and drain on a paper towel; repeat with the second batch. Allow to cool slightly before eating because the fatty part is VERY HOT!

Tips for Success

There are a couple of things that are important to your success:

Don't fry the pork immediately after dredging. The flour needs at least 5 minutes to absorb the moisture on the pork which will help it adhere. If you fry as soon as you dredge, a lot of the flour will fall off the pork as soon as it hits the oil. Your pork won't have as nice of a crust, and you'll have a ton of flour in your frying oil. I recommend dredging before you heat the oil, or immediately after the oil starts heating, so the pork can sit while you wait for the oil.
Let the pork cool before the second fry. If you don't let the pork cool enough, the pork will overcook during the second fry. The cooler the pork, the larger the window you have for the second fry before the pork overcooks. Room temp is ideal, but lukewarm is fine.
Don't make the pieces too big or too small. If you cut the pork too big, you won't have as high of a crust to meat ratio. If you make the pork too small you'll overcook it in the time that it takes the crust to crisp. I found that 1 inch x ¾ inch (and whatever height of each pork piece) is ideal.

Advance Prep Tips

This is a crowd pleaser and something I encourage you to make for a party! It's also very easy to make in advance, and there are a number of things you can do:

Marinate the pork up to 1 day in advance.
Do the first frying a few hours before serving, and let the pork sit at room temp. Fry them the second time right before serving.
If you don't want to have the oil sitting around, do both rounds of frying, let them sit at room temp, then when ready to serve reheat them for a few minutes in the air-fryer. This re-crisps them back up nicely too.

FAQ

Can these be done in the air-fryer?

The air fryer won't get the crust quite as nice and crisp, however, they reheat really well in the air fryer. I recommend oil frying them to cook them initially, but any leftovers can be reheated for just a few minutes in the air fryer at 350°F.

What to serve with crispy pork belly?

If you're in Thailand, you'd 100% be given nam jim jeaw along with your pork belly. It is the sauce that we serve with all meats, especially fatty meats, because the acid and heat cuts the grease super well. But if you're serving these with a cold fizzy beverage, it doesn't really need a sauce at all!
If you want to make a meal of it, sticky rice is the best and classic pairing!

Can these be refrigerated or frozen and then reheated?

I've kept leftovers for up to 1 week in the fridge, and reheat them in the air fryer for roughly 5 minutes at 350°F and they turn out very well.
Though I have not done it myself, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to freeze them, and then reheat them in the air fryer at 350°F, probably for 8-10 minutes.
Without an air fryer, you can bake them to reheat though it may not be as crispy, 375°F/190°C (convection if possible) for about 5-7 minutes from the fridge.

30-Min Crispy Pork Belly Thai-Style

By: Pailin Chongchitnant

No more tedious hours of prep, this crispy pork belly needs just 30 minutes, and the result is freakishly good. Double fried for a crisp crust, and fish sauce adds umami magic. As my friend said after one bite, "you need to sell this."

4.96 from 24 votes

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 25

Course Breakfast, Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Servings servings

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Ingredients

▢ 1 lb pork belly, skinless , see note 1
▢ 1 ½ tablespoon fish sauce
▢ 1 teaspoon sugar
▢ ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
▢ 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour, see note 2
▢ 2 tablespoon cornstarch
▢ Frying oil, as needed
▢ Nam Jim Jeaw, optional dipping sauce

Check Out Ingredients and Kitchen Tools I Use

Notes

The weight given is for skinless pork belly. So if the pork you buy has skin, buy at least 1.2 lb/550g (add 20%) to allow for the weight of the skin. Also, choose pork belly with an even amount of meat throughout the piece (center cut).
To make this gluten free, sub the all-purpose flour with the same amount of cornstarch.

FULL VIDEO TUTORIAL

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Instructions

Pat the pork belly dry as much as possible with a paper towel, then remove the skin with a sharp knife, leaving as much of the fat on it as possible (unless you want to remove some of the fat).
1 lb pork belly, skinless
Cut the pork into 1-inch wide strips, and then cut each strip into pieces about ¾-inch thick. (The pork will shrink after frying so the final pieces will be smaller).
Place the pork into a large mixing bowl and add the fish sauce, sugar, and white pepper. Use your hand to massage the pork and mix all the seasonings. Keep massaging for a minute or so until you no longer feel the grains of sugar, and there is no more fish sauce pooling at the bottom of the bowl.
1 ½ tablespoon fish sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
In a small bowl, combine the all-purpose flour and the cornstarch and mix well. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pork and mix well, making sure none of the pieces are sticking together. You want a light and even coating on all the pieces. Let it sit for 5 mins or so while you heat up the oil.
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoon cornstarch
Add at least 1 inch of frying oil to a wok or a medium pot and heat it to 350°F (175°C) for the first fry.
First Fry: Add half of the pork, placing it in the hot oil one piece at a time to ensure they are not sticking together. Fry for 2 minutes (time this). Maintain the heat of the oil between 300-350°F during the frying; on my electric stove I keep it on medium high, but it will vary from stove to stove.
Remove the pork promptly and place on a plate to cool until it’s no more than lukewarm before frying them a second time. Repeat with the second batch, being sure to bring the oil temp back up to 350°F before frying.
Second Fry: Once the pork is cool, bring the oil temp up to 385°F(196°C) over high heat. Add the pork all at once and fry for 70-90 seconds, or until the exterior is a deep golden brown. You can fry them for a maximum of 2 minutes; beyond this the pork will become too dry. Remove and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Be sure to bring the temp back up to 385°F before frying the second batch.
Allow the pork to cool for a few minutes before digging in as the fatty part of the pork is VERY hot out of the fryer!!

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10 No-Fail Recipes for Chinese New Year

January 31, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant 1 Comment

Some people know that even though I was born and raised in Thailand, I am a 4th generation Chinese-Thai. There are millions of Chinese-Thais and Chinese food has become so deeply intertwined with Thai cuisine that you cannot really speak of one without the other.

Because of this, Chinese New Year is an important celebration in Thailand, and of course food is at the centre of this celebration! So here are some recipes that I have that could be part of your Chinese New Year table!

Lo Bak Go - Turnip Cake

An absolute classic when it comes to the Lunar New Year. If you make one thing this season, let it be this one. This recipe is my mother-in-law's famous recipe and it's the best I've ever had.

Lo Bak Go Recipe

Crispy Spring Rolls (Egg Rolls)

The filling of these is so good I can just sit with a bowl of it and have it for my whole meal. I got this recipe from my restaurant days and these are still the best spring rolls I've had anywhere.

A plate of spring rolls, with 3 pieces cut open served in a glass. Cilantro garnish.

Crispy Spring Rolls Recipe

Steamed Fish with Ginger Soy Sauce

Steamed fish is an integral part of a Chinese feast, and this is my most popular steamed fish recipe with over 1.5 million views on YouTube! And for good reasons, it is incredibly delicious and works with any white-fleshed fish. If using whole fish, the same technique applies, just scale up the sauce amount according to how big your fish is.

Steamed Fish with Ginger Soy Sauce Recipe

Aunty Jenny's Braised Chicken Wings

This recipe is perfect if you don't want a complicated meal for Chinese New Year. It's an easy and simple dish that tastes like you spent hours on it. The first time I had this dish at my mother-in-law's place, I knew I needed a recipe!

Aunty Jenny's Braised Chicken Wings Recipe

Char Siu - Chinese BBQ Pork

This char siu recipe is one of my most popular one with over 1.5 million views on YouTube! I promise you it will be better than anything you can buy, especially when you can cook it to juicy perfection and serve it still-warm from the oven. It takes some advanced planning, but the process itself is really straight forward.

Chinese BBQ pork sliced on a cutting board.

Char Siu Recipe

Siu Yok - Crispy Pork Belly (no fry, no boil, no salt crust)

I don't know about you, but in my world, if you have the sweet char siu, you also gotta have the salty crispy siu yok (aka siu yuk or siu yoke) to complete the pork extravaganza. This recipe is the simplest one you'll fine, with guaranteed bubbly, crispy skin if you follow the instructions.

A plate of crispy pork belly, one big piece and a few cut pieces

Siu Yok Recipe

Gai Lan Oyster Sauce Stir Fry

A Chinese New Year feast can be a bit rich and heavy, and this super popular recipe is the perfect vegetable side dish to balance it all. You'll never want to cook gai lan any other way again!

A plate of chinese broccoli stir fry with garlic pieces on top

Gai Lan Oyster Sauce Stir-Fry Recipe

Steamed Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce

This is my husband's go-to dish at dim sum, so I decided to try to make it at home, and it turned out to be super easy and even more delicious!

A bowl of steamed spare ribs with green onions and bell pepper garnish

Steamed Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce Recipe

Grandma's Hainanese Glass Noodle Stir-Fry

You GOTTA HAVE NOODLES for Chinese New Year, am I right?? This is my grandmother's signature dish, done Hainanese style, which is where she's from. I'm so happy to be able to share our family's beloved recipe with you!

A bowl of glass noodle stir fry with dried shrimp, shiitake mushrooms and green onions on top.

Grandma's Hainanese Glass Noodle Stir-Fry Recipe

Tang Yuan - Black Sesame Rice Balls

In the world of Chinese desserts, this is easily my favourite. The chewy mochi-like rice balls are filled with aromatic roasted black sesame seeds. The best part is the soothing, warm ginger broth that they come in.

Tang Yuan Recipe

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Ultimate Veggie Spring Rolls

March 26, 2021 by Pailin Chongchitnant 17 Comments

Whether you're a vegetarian, vegan or neither, this is going to be one of the best spring rolls you've ever had. Bold claim, I know; but with the perfect seasoning, and a generous amount of flavourful ingredients (plus one special one!), you won't even need a dipping sauce. They can also be made in advance and frozen, just fry them up when you're ready to eat!

This post is sponsored by Pine Brand Glass Noodles.

Crispy spring rolls cut in half in a steamer basket

Why These Are 100x Better Than Takeout

Actually flavourful filling. Too many takeout spring rolls are filled with bland noodles and measly shreds of carrots and cabbage. Not these. The filling is packed with tons of veggies and are so perfectly seasoned I sometimes just eat the filling straight up. This is a vegan filling that super tasty, but if you eat meat also check out these classic pork spring rolls and green curry spring rolls as well!
Dipping sauce not necessary. Most takeout spring rolls are nothing without the sauce. Not these. The sweet-tart sweet chili sauce recipe adds a nice contrast, but these are so flavourful that you can do without.
Secret ingredient: Taro root! Taro and deep fried foods are a match made in heaven. It adds a unique aroma and a slight creaminess that makes these feel substantial even without any meat.
Umami and texture. Two types of mushrooms add umami and lots of texture to keep things interesting.

Ingredients for Veggie Spring Rolls + Important Notes

Glass noodles. The best quality glass noodles are made from 100% mung bean starch, such as Pine Brand (our sponsor!). The noodles have a nicer chewy texture, and are more resistant to overcooking and tearing than ones made with a mixture of starches. Here are some of my other glass noodles recipes.
Dried shiitake mushrooms. Use dried, not fresh, as they have more umami and are chewier. Not to mention the soaking water is very flavourful and is used as part of the recipe.
Dried black fungus mushrooms. Also known as wood ear or cloud ear mushrooms, they provide a lovely crunchy texture. You can get them julienned or whole at most Asian grocery stores, but they can be omitted if not available. Also try using them in this ginger chicken stir-fry recipe!
Taro root. Taro is a root vegetable that cooks up creamy similar to russet potato, but with a unique flavour and aroma that work in both savoury and sweet dishes. If you can, choose the larger taro root, which are creamier, rather than the small hairy ones. Asian stores often sell them pre-cut into chunks. Make sure you wear gloves when peeling taro btw as they can irritate your skin. If you've got taro leftover, use it in this Filipino sour soup recipe (sinigang) or Thai black sticky rice pudding.
Neutral oil for cooking the filling
Garlic
White or black pepper
Julienned cabbage
Julienned carrots
Soy sauce
Sugar
Salt
Cilantro stems
Green onions
8-inch spring roll wrappers for standard size, or 6-inch wrappers for mini spring rolls
All-purpose flour or an egg for sealing the wrapper
Vegetable oil for frying
Sweet chili sauce, for dipping, store bought or homemade (it's very easy to make!)

Taro root sold precut in a big chunk. I slice a bit off of the cut surface since it was exposed at the store, then use a knife to peel of the skin. Make sure to wear gloves as raw taro can irritate your skin.

How to Make Vegetable Spring Rolls

Check out detailed recipes in the recipe card below, but here's a bird's eye view of what you'll need to do.

Saute garlic and pepper in oil until golden and aromatic.
Add carrots, cabbage and taro.
Add rehydrated shiitake mushroom and cook until veggies are done.
Add the glass noodles, cilantro stems and seasonings.

Stir fry the filling until the noodles are fully cooked. Let cool to lukewarm.
Wrap the spring rolls using a little more than ¼ cup of filling per an 8-inch wrapper (see the video tutorial for a demo on how to wrap spring rolls).
Use a flour slurry or a beaten egg as the glue to seal the wrapper.
Ready to fry or freeze!

Fry spring rolls at 350°F (175°C) for about 5 mins, or 7-8 minutes if frying from frozen.
They should be a deep golden brown and the bubbles should only be coming out the ends, not from the surface of the spring rolls
Drain on paper towel or a rack and let cool for a few minutes before cutting and eating.
Cut them on a diagonal for a pro look!

Storing Leftovers

You can freeze uncooked spring rolls in a freezer bag for a few months, and fry them directly from frozen whenever you're ready to eat for fresh-like-new crispiness. They will take just a few minutes longer to fry.

If you have leftover cooked spring rolls, just keep them in the fridge and they will last up to a week. To reheat, you can bake them in a 350°F (180°F) oven for 8-10 minutes until the outside is crispy and the inside is heated through. They can also be reheated in toaster ovens and the air fryer.

Frequently Asked Questions About Spring Rolls

Can they be made in advance and frozen?

Yes! That's what most restaurants do. Make a whole bunch and freeze in a freezer bag for up to a few months. Fry them from frozen and they will take a few minutes longer, about 7-8 minutes.

Can they be baked?

Yes, you can also bake these. Brush them generously with oil then bake them on a rack in a 425°F (220 °C) oven, convection if possible, for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. They won't brown nearly as much as deep fried or even air fried ones, so they may look a bit underdone, but they will still be crispy.

Can they be done in an air-fryer?

Yes, they won't brown as much and will be a bit dryer, but they'll still be great. First brush them with oil and air fry them at 400°F (200°C) turning halfway through, for about 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Exact timing will depend on your particular air fryer, so I would check them at 10 minutes to see where they're at, and go from there. Do not crowd the air fryer to allow plenty of air flow around each spring roll.

Can I make these without the taro?

Yes, if you don't have access to taro or don't like them, you can omit them and add a little more of each of the other veggies to make up for the volume. You can also substitute kabocha squash or another type of squash for a similar creamy texture.

Can I make these with meat?

Yes. Check out my original crispy spring rolls with pork recipe for the best version of the classic Thai spring rolls. Or if you want something more interesting, try these amazing green curry spring rolls which are guaranteed to surprise and delight!

Also check out...

The Only PAD KRA PAO Recipe You Need - Holy Basil Stir Fry

January 19, 2024 by Pailin Chongchitnant 27 Comments

This is one of the most useful recipes I've ever shared. It's an all-purpose formula you can use to turn any protein you have into delicious pad kra pao - Thai holy basil stir fry. Any meat, seafood, or any leftover cooked meats you might have lingering in the fridge. It's the only recipe you need to make any kind of pad kra pao you want! With this recipe, you'll have one of the most popular Thai dishes on the table in less than 30 minutes!

a plate of pad kra pao beef with rice and a fried egg. A side of fish sauce condiment and holy basil sprigs

What is Pad Kra Pao, Pad Gaprao, or Pad Krapow?

Pad means to stir fry, and gaprao means holy basil. It is a spicy stir fry with holy basil that can be made with any kind of meat or seafood, and always served with rice. You'll see various English spellings of this dish, including pad kra pao, pad krapow, and pad gaprao, or perhaps something else, but rest assured they are all referring to the same dish.

If you're curious, I address the reason behind all these different spellings in the FAQ of my traditional beef pad kra pao recipe post. (For the record "pad gaprao" is, I think, the most phonetically correct way to spell it, but because pad kra pao is the most popular and recognizable, I've chosen to use that spelling here.)

I know many Thai people would agree with me that if Thailand were to have a national dish, it should not be pad thai, it should be pad kra pao. It is universally loved, frequently consumed by the rich and poor alike. It's something people buy on the street, in restaurants, and make at home. It is just a big part of the Thai food culture.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients with all the important notes you'll need before you start. Remember that this is supposed to be a formula that you can adapt to any kind of protein you have that you want to use, even leftover cooked meat! The amounts are in the recipe card below.

Any kind of protein, raw or cooked. This is a great recipe for using up any meat, including leftover cooked meats like that Thanksgiving turkey, roast beef, or anything else you've got on hand. You can also use tofu, but pleasr see my tips for tofu below.
Spicy red chilies, such as Thai or bird's eye chilies. Pad kra pao is supposed to be a spicy dish so put as many chilies as you can tolerate here! If you're unsure, and you're tolerance isn't super high, start with 1 Thai chili to be safe.
Mild red chilies, such as spur chilies. Traditionally we use spur chilies of prik chee fa, but this can be any kind of mild red peppers you have. Red bell pepper is a bit too watery than idea, but it'll work if that's all you have. If you're making this super hot and are already adding tons of spicy chilies (like at least 5 Thai chilies) you do not have to add any mild ones.
Garlic.
Onion, small dice. This is optional, and you can substitute it with any other crunchy vegetables you've got in the fridge. My other favorite veg to add is long beans.
Holy basil, Italian basil or Thai basil leaves. Holy basil (pictured) is the namesake of this dish, but it is super hard to find, and when you do find it, it's often not very aromatic. Italian basil is my preferred substitute because it is a closer flavour match than Thai basil, but Thai basil will also work if you love that flavour.
Oyster sauce. See my post on choosing good oyster sauce here.
Soy sauce. I use Healthy Boy Thai soy sauce, but any regular soy sauce you have is fine. More on soy sauces here.
Fish sauce. See my post on how to choose good fish sauce here.
Thai black soy sauce or dark soy sauce, optional. This is to add colour and a richer flavour, but it is not necessary.
Water
Sugar
Vegetable oil, as needed
Eggs for frying, optional. Pad kra pao is often serve with fried eggs and they go super well together, but it is not necessary if you're looking for a quick simple meal! But if you're serving fried eggs, you're gonna want to make this simple prik nam pla condiment for it too 😉
Jasmine rice for serving, of course!

A Note on Using Tofu for Pad Kra Pao

If you want to use tofu for pad kra pao, I have a few tips:

The firmer the tofu the better. It will be less likely to fall apart and has a better texture for stir fries. If you can get a hold of pressed tofu (sometimes labeled as bean curd) that is the one I prefer. It is super firm and it is the kind of tofu we use for pad thai. Crumble it with your hands to make small irregular pieces, and it makes a perfect meat substitute for pad kra pao. Firm or extra firm tofu would also work.
Pan-frying tofu first will create a chewy exterior that will improve the texture of the dish. Cut the tofu into small pieces, or crumble it into irregular pieces, then pan fry them over high heat in a nonstick skillet or wok until golden brown.
You can also buy pre-fried tofu. Asian grocery stores will sell fried tofu that are perfect for this recipe. The exterior will already be nice and chewy! (Note: Fried tofu is not the same as tofu puffs which are also fried but are hollow inside.)

How to Make Pad Kra Pao with Anything You Have

Here's a bird's eye view of the recipe. The full instructions are in the recipe card below. I also highly recommend you watching the video tutorial first to ensure success!

Process shots for making pad kra pao steps 1-4

Make the sauce by combining oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, black or dark soy sauce, sugar, and water. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Pound the Thai chilies into a fine paste in a mortar and pestle, then add the garlic and the mild chilies and pound into a rough paste, just until there are no more big chunks.
If using raw meat, but it into small, bite-sized pieces; make them smaller than your average stir fry as pad kra pao is not good with big chunky pieces. If using lean protein such as chicken breast, don’t slice them thinner than ½ an inch so they don’t overcook too quickly.
If using raw meat, add fish sauce and mix.

Process shots for making pad kra pao steps 5-8

If using cooked protein, cut into small bite-sized pieces - here I am using a cold steak, but this can by any leftover cooked meat you have, even rotisserie chicken, roast beef, or leftover thanksgiving turkey.
If using raw protein, sear it off in a very hot wok on high heat to brown the protein. Be sure to let it sit on the hot wok undisturbed until the browning develops before stirring.
Remove from the pan. No need to clean the wok unless there are burnt bits stuck on it.
On medium-high heat, add the chili garlic mixture and stir until the garlic starts to turn golden, about 2 minutes.

Process shots for making pad kra pao steps 9-12

Add the onions and cook it for 30 seconds to a minute to soften slightly.
Turn the heat up to high and add the protein and the sauce. Toss everything together just for 30 seconds or so, until the meat is well coated and heated through.
Turn off the heat and add the holy basil, or whatever basil you're using.
Toss just to wilt and that's it! Now you can make some fried eggs if you wish, and serve it with the pad kra pao on top of jasmine rice.

FAQ

What's the difference between Thai basil and holy basil the same thing?

No. If you want to see the difference, in the video tutorial I show the two side by side, and you can see that they are unmistakably different from each other. They are both used in Thai cuisine but they have very different aromas. Thai basil is called horapa โหระพา in Thai. It has an anise-y aroma and it's what you find in many Thai curries, and also served alongside Vietnamese pho. It has dark green, pointy leaves, and often has purple stems.
Holy basil is called gaprao กะเพรา or kra pao in Thai, and it's also known as tulsi in India. The leaves are lighter green, more rounded, and more delicate than Thai basil. It has a slightly peppery aroma that is not as strong as Thai basil.

What kinds of proteins can I use in pad kra pao?

The classic version of pad kra pao uses ground or finely chopped meat, but you can make pad kra pao with any kind of protein including chicken (dark meat preferred), pork, beef, shrimp, squid or even clams. You can also make vegetarian versions using firm fried tofu. This recipe will give you a formula that works with any kind of protein, raw or cooked.

Best & Worst Thai Dishes at a Restaurant: A Tier List!

December 29, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 7 Comments

"Can you order for us? I don't know what's good." This is the same thing I hear every time I go to a Thai restaurant with a friend, regardless of whether I've been to the place before or not. So I thought I'd make a tier list of common Thai dishes available in a typical North American Thai restaurant, ranked according to their likelihood of being satisfactory!

A tier list is simply a fun way of ranking items that's been popular on YouTube. Now, to be clear, I'm not ranking Thai dishes based on how good they are, because that's not possible. Every dish has the potential to be great and every dish has the potential to suck, just depends on who is making them.

So instead I'm ranking them based on something much more useful: their likelihood of being good at an average Thai restaurant in North America. So, if you walk into a random Thai place in...say...Saskatchewan, which dishes are most likely going to be satisfactory, and which dishes are most likely going to disappoint according to my standard, which I think is on par with most Thai people.

My hope is that this list will help you maximize your chances of having a good Thai meal wherever you go!

Video: Watch Me Rank Thai Dishes!

If you prefer to watch and see my reaction, you can watch me rank all the dishes in this video! Or if you prefer to read, the info is all in this article below.

The Tiers

Let's first define our tiers. Typically tier list goes in the order of S-A-B-C-D.... but what each one means can be individually defined, as I have done.

S tier - Super Choice. If I see these items on the menu I am going to order them because they're unusual for a Thai restaurant to have them, they're harder to prepare, requires a lot of prep, so if a restaurant decides to commit to one of these, it probably means someone in there is committed and skilled. So it's probably a good dish to try.

A tier - Almost Always Good. These are dishes that are easy to execute well, so you've got a good 70% to 80% chance of it being satisfactory.

B tier - Bold Choice. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not, you're definitely taking a risk on that one.

C tier - Come Home. Come home and make it yourself! Now these are not necessarily worse than a B tier but they're so easy to make well that you probably do a better job of it at home.

D tier - Do Not Order! These are almost always going to be disappointing, and unless you know otherwise don't even go there.

Caveat

Before I rank I just want to be clear that of course there are excellent Thai places that make good everything, especially this new wave of hip, fine dining, and artisanal Thai restaurants. We're not talking about those for this ranking. I am talking about your cheap and cheerful Tuesday night takeout places, I think you know what I mean!

Also, this ranking is based on my standards and experience, which may be different from yours 😉

1. Curries - C Tier

a bowl of thai green curry with basil garnish

What I mean by "curries" is actually coconut based curries as those are the most common ones in Thai restaurants. All the common ones: green curry, red curry, yellow curry, massaman curry, and panang curry.

Curries get a "come home" because they are so easy to make! The ingredients are very easy to find, and IF you're using a good brand of store-bought curry paste (and I have a post all about that) you're almost guaranteed a good result.

When you're at a restaurant, it's a B. A lot of times they make it too mild because curries can't be made to order. A restaurant has to make the curry sauce all at once in a big batch so they can't make it any spicier than they think most people can handle. And the thing with curries is if you use if you make it less spicy, you're automatically making it less flavorful because the spiciness is tied with all the herbs and spices in the curry paste.

2. Tom Yum Soup - A Tier

A spicy and sour soup with lemongrass, galangal, lime leaves usually with shrimp (tom yum goong) but most restaurants will also have like a chicken version (tom yam gai). It's an A-tier because it is so easy to do well and most restaurants do a decent job of it. It might not blow your mind, but it will at the very least be pleasant.

3. Meat & Veggie Stir Fries - B Tier

This is not a specific dish but a category of dishes. Thai restaurants will have a bunch of these - some combination of meat and vegetables stir fried in some type of brown sauce or slightly red sauce. It could be beef and broccoli, cashew chicken, sweet and sour stir fry, or a chicken ginger stir fry.

These are bold choices. Sometimes it's really good and sometimes it's just some dry chicken with chunky broccoli with a sauce that doesn't really do anything for you.

4. Rad Na - D Tier

a blue bowl of rad na with chili vinegar and chili flakes on the side

Rad na is one of the most underrated noodle dishes. It is made with wide rice noodles with a gravy on top, but I think the reason it is underrated is because it is so hard to do well. This is why in Thailand most places that make rad na are specialists.

So most of the time when you order rad na in a non-specialist Thai restaurant here, it is always disappointing. It has simple flavors, which means you have to have good ingredients, the ratios have to be right, the consistency of the gravy has to be right...a lot to ask of a restaurant who doesn't specialize in it.

5. Pad See Ew - B/C Tier

Pad see ew is a cult favorite. People who love it are so passionate about it and I'm definitely one of them. If done well it is so good, however at a restaurant it's kind of a toss up, so a B-Tier. Sometimes it's so sweet, sometimes the noodles are mushy, sometimes it's not even the right noodles, or they put carrots and all sorts of weird things in there. But sometimes it's great! You just you just never know with this one.

However, if you can get the fresh rice noodles, it's definitely a C-Tier. Come home and make it using my recipe. I don't know about anyone else's recipes, but I've heard from countless number of people who say that my recipe is better than any restaurant version they'd had. Even my brother makes my recipe constantly. It's very easy to make with a simple ingredient list!

6. Green Papaya Salad (Som Tum) - B Tier

I debated whether this should be an A or a B, but I think I'm going with B because though it's not hard to make a good papaya salad, it often misses the mark for a Thai person's taste. A good papaya salad for a Thai person needs to be strongly flavoured. Sour, salty, spicy...everything has to come at you strong.

But a lot of times in your average Thai place they make it quite mild, as though it's a side salad. It might be enjoyable, but it's definitely not having the effect that it should.

7. Hat Yai Fried Chicken - S Tier

Hat Yai Fried Chicken is marinated in this wonderful mixture of soy sauce, garlic, and white pepper with a light crisp coating. It is served with fried shallots and sticky rice. It is one of the best fried chicken in the world in my opinion and if a restaurant does choose to have it, they probably do a good job. I have yet to be disappointed by it.

Note that it might not be called Hat Yai Fried Chicken on the menu, it might just be called Thai fried chicken or simply fried chicken. But I think in general if you see fried chicken in a Thai restaurant, it's probably a solid choice.

8. Tom Kha Gai - A Tier

Tom kha gai is a popular soup made with coconut milk, chicken and gangal. It is wonderfully delicious and soothing, and not too spicy. It's very easy to make, with flavours that loved by most people, and most restaurants do a decent job of it. If it doesn't blow your mind it will at least be a pleasant experience.

It's a great soup to order if you love to have something to sip on alongside your meal!

9. Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles) - B/C Tier

A plate of drunken noodles with shrimp on red placemat

Pad kee mao or "drunken noodles" is the spicy sister of pad see ew. It's a spicy wok fried fresh wide rice noodles with holy basil. I would put it on the same tier as pad see ew, and that is C - come home and make it if you can get the ingredients, but if you're in a restaurant it's a B.

In a restaurant you just never really know what you'll get, but just like pad see ew, it's easy to make and I have a solid recipe that, if you follow it, it is guaranteed to satisfy.

10. Boat Noodles - S Tier

Thai boat noodles with condiments and side vegetables

Boat noodles, if you've not heard of it, it's because it's not a very common dish. So the places that do make it usually do a very good job of it. It is a kind of noodle soup with a rich aromatic broth full of spices. It's thickened with blood and has an intense, complex flavour, which is why we often have only small bowls of it at a time.

When done well, it is one of the best things you can eat. Someone once described it as "pho on steroids" which I think is quite accurate!

But it it requires a ton of prep. The ingredient list is long, as you can see in my boat noodles recipe here. So a restaurant who chooses to make has to be committed. Now, I have seen ONE not-great boat noodles before but I think that was an anomaly, most of the time I'd say it is a solid S-tier.

11. Chicken Satay - B Tier

A plate of chicken satay with a bowl peanut sauce and a bowl cucumber pickle.

Most of the time chicken satay is going to be fine, but for a Thai person this is a B. The chicken itself is usually tasty, but it's the sauce that's the issue. Half the time you get a sauce that's made from goopy peanut butter, and that is not what a Thai satay sauce should be. It should be made with ground roasted peanuts, with TEXTURE, so for Thai person, a smooth peanut buttery sauce completely ruins a satay.

As a side note, chicken satay is not very common at all in Thailand. You only find it in places that serve a lot of tourists and in Muslim communities. But the vast majority of satay that Thai people eat is pork satay. And I guess that's the first disappointment for a Thai person...it's not pork!

12. Yum Pladuk Foo (Crispy Fluffy Fish with Green Mango Salad) - S Tier

It's a truly unique dish, and you gotta check out the video of how it's made if you've never seen it, and you can't imagine how fish can be "crispy and fluffy". The fish gets pounded into shreds, and the shreds are deep fried. The result is a raft of crispy fish bits that is then served with a sour green mango salad. It is TO. DIE. FOR.

The crispy fish is not easy to pull off. It does require work and skills, which is why if a restaurant has it, chances are there is someone skillful in the kitchen and it'll probably be great. And once you can successfully make the fish, the rest is really easy to make tasty.

13. Mango Sticky Rice - A Tier

a plate of mango and sticky rice with mung beans on top of the rice

Mango sticky rice is our only dessert of the whole list because it's the only common dessert that there is in Thai restaurants in North America. Which is sad, because we have so many great Thai desserts.

But, mango sticky rice is almost always great IF the mango is good. That's the only caveat. So if you are in a time and place where good, sweet mangoes are available, go ahead and order it, but if not...maybe hold off.

The rice part of this dessert is very easy to make tasty, it all hangs in the mango quality.

14. Pad Gaprao (Pad Kra Pao) - A Tier

a plate of pad gaprao beef with rice and a fried egg on top, with a bowl of fish sauce on the side.

Holy basil stir fry, or a lot of places will list this as a Thai Basil stir fry because holy basil is very hard to find and they will use Thai Basil instead. I feel like most places do a decent job of this, even though it often doesn't taste like the way it does in Thailand, it tends to manage to be a tasty dish.

The combination of chilies, garlic and basil, whatever kind of basil they end up using, is so good and it does most of the heavy lifting.

15. Laab - A Tier

A plate of laab moo with a side of vegetables

Laab is a northeastern Thai salad made of ground meat and lots of fresh herbs. It's almost always good because it's so easy to make. There's really not that much to it and it's just hard to screw up!

16. Pad Thai - D Tier

A plate of pad thai with shrimp and a side of lime and bean sprouts

Pad Thai was the whole reason why I wanted to do a tier list to begin with. I wanted to tell the world that pad thai is most definitely a D - do not order! When I first came to North America I would order pad thai at every place I visited aa a test for whether or not this place is a good place.

I quickly realized that that is a terrible test because most places do a terrible job of it BUT it doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of the menu is bad. It's a hard dish to do well, but most places feel that they NEED to offer it on the menu so they make it anyway.

The biggest issue is that it is often FAR. TOO. SWEET. At one Thai restaurant I worked at, seeing how pad thai sauce was made was astounding. A 25-pound bag of sugar poured into a giant pot. Yes, it is a giant pot, but also....it's 25 pounds of sugar. It turned into a syrup, which explains why the pad thai ends up so sickly sweet and sticky, and definitely NOT the way it is supposed to be.

Not to mention the ketchup, the paprika, and all sorts of cheaper substitutes people make for the real stuff.

It's also often just...too much noodles. Pad thai is supposed to have a lot of bits in it or what we call "kreuang" The garlic, shallots, dried shrimp, a LOT of bean sprouts, garlic chives, etc. Most of the time here it's 90% noodles and a pinch of tofu and bean sprouts.

Final Takeaway

I hope you found that enjoyable and perhaps even useful! Again this list is based on my opinion and experience, and judged against my standards, which is may be be different from yours. You're going to find exceptions to the above, but statistically, I think this is probably reflective of the "average" place 🙂

What would YOUR tier list look like based on places you've been to?

Thai Glass Noodle Soup: My Weekly Staple (Gaeng Jued)

December 1, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 23 Comments

This comforting soup is the epitome of simple Thai home cooking. It's a soup that just about every Thai family makes regularly, mine included, and especially if they have kids. It's called gaeng jued which literally means "bland curry," but it is anything but bland! It's named that way because it's one of the few Thai soups that's not spicy at all, so it is named "bland" to contrast the other spicier curries.

A bowl of thai glass noodle soup with egg tofu

It is a comforting clear soup that is simple but so flavourful, and I'm going to make this version with glass noodles; which makes this gaeng jued woon sen. I'm also going to add egg tofu and napa cabbage, but you can modify this endlessly, and I'll give you all the different options in the post.

I make some version of this soup almost weekly because it is a staple of my son's diet, and a great way to use up veggies in the fridge!

What is Gaeng Jued แกงจืด?

This glass noodle soup is a very common version of a gaeng jued, which is a family of clear soups using pork broth or chicken broth as the base. It's seasoned simply with fish sauce and soy sauce, and it goes well with just about anything, making it a very popular "wet element" of a Thai meal. (For more on elements of a well-balanced Thai meal, see my YouTube video here)

Though this version is a noodle soup, it isn't something you eat by itself like you would ramen or pho. Rather it is shared in a family style meal, and yes, with rice! If you want to learn about how to eat a Thai meal like a Thai, here's a video all about that :).

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients, and I've included important notes on some of them. While you can add any protein or vegetables to a gaeng jued in theory, there are some tried and true options that people tend to stick to, and we'll go over that below. For amounts, see the recipe card below.

Chinese style chopped pork spare ribs or chicken wings drumettes. Pork is the default for gaeng jued, but if you don't eat pork, chicken will also do. You can find the pork spare ribs at any Chinese grocery stores’ meat department. (See note on this below.)
Daikon or onion, peeled and large-diced, optional; though these sweeten the broth and makes the soup extra delicious.
Cilantro stems or cilantro roots if you have them. Like the daikon, this is an optional aromatic for the broth.
Fish sauce. See how to choose good fish sauce here.
Soy sauce
Sugar
Ground white pepper
Dried glass noodles, soaked in room temp water for about 7 minutes until softened, then cut with scissors in half or thirds to shorten. Use glass noodles made from 100% mung bean starch such as Pine Brand.
Egg tofu, or regular soft tofu.
Napa cabbage, bite-sized pieces.
Chopped cilantro and/or green onions
Fried garlic and garlic oil for topping, optional but highly recommended. You make this simply by frying chopped garlic in oil over low heat, so if you have a few extra minutes of time it's worth making, and you can use it on anything to make things garlicky! Instructions on how to make this is in the recipe card.

A note on pork ribs and wings: The reason I chose these as the protein is because they are a 2-in-1 deal; we get the meat and bones all in one package. This means that we can start the soup with plain water, and you'll end up with a rich, flavorful stock by the end. A good stock is the heart and soul of this soup, so this is very important!

If you already have unsalted homemade pork stock or chicken stock to start with, you can use it instead of water, and then instead of the ribs/wings you can simply make more of the meatballs (below).

Important: I encourage you to not use store bought, boxed chicken broth for this recipe. Those are made for Western cuisines, so the flavour is different, and they are typically not very full-bodied. If anything, I'd rather you use store bought bone broth with a relatively neutral flavour.

Pork Meatballs

The simple pork meatballs are the most popular protein option for Kang too. If you are not using ribs or wings because you have a good stock to start, then you'd want to make more of the meatballs, about 1.5X the recipe.

Ground pork or ground chicken, preferably not lean.
Soy sauce
Fish sauce
Sugar
Garlic, finely grated, optional. I don't usually bother with the garlic because I make this soup so much, so I try to simplify the process; but it's a nice touch so I will add it if making a special one for guests.
A few cracks of freshly ground white pepper, black pepper will also work.

Other Protein and Vegetable Options

This soup is not only tasty and easy, it is so very modifiable! Here are some options for other fresh vegetables and proteins you can try:

Vegetables:

vegetable options for thai glass noodle soup

Napa cabbage. This is by far the most common veg for gaeng jued.
Carrots
Asian mushrooms. Enoki, shimedi, wood ear, or fresh shiitake will all work.
Baby corn
Daikon
Cucumber. YES, we cook cucumber regularly in Thai cuisine, and it's great added to soups. Also try this great spicy chicken and cucumber stir fry!
Bok choy, while not super common in Thailand, it is a good soup vegetable if you like it!

Protein:

Pork meatballs. This is by far the most common protein, and in my books this is a must!
Egg tofu. Think soft tofu texture, but made from eggs. It usually comes in a tube, and when I was a kid it was the only kind of tofu I would eat. It is more flavourful than soy tofu, so something to try if regular tofu is not your thing.
Soft tofu. Always soft for gaeng jued, and I might allow medium-firm, but firm tofu really doesn't work well!
Premade Asian meatballs. These are the bouncy meatballs you find in pho. Definitely makes life easy!
Thai omelette. YES we actually put omelette into gaeng jued, and the omelette soaks up broth like a sponge. Thai omelettes are extremely easy to make, so check out my basic Thai omelette recipe here.

What about seafood or pieces of sliced meats, like sliced chicken breast? Those are not commonly added in Thailand, but there's no reason why you couldn't add them. Just a word of warning, because seafood and lean meats overcook quickly, they should be the last thing you add to the soup, and they should only cook for a few minutes before serving.

Noodles:

Glass noodles. That's it. What, you thought I was going to say you can use rice noodles or egg noodles? Nope. glass noodles are the only noodles we use in gaeng jued.

See, glass noodles, also known as mung bean noodles, have this magical ability to remain intact in soup for days. They never swell and mush the way rice or wheat noodles do. And because this soup is meant to be served family style, the noodles need to last the length of a shared meal, and maybe even the next few days if you have leftovers. Glass noodles will remain intact even reheated days later.

Rice or wheat noodles, on the other hand, once added to soup, need to be consumed asap or they will turn to mush. So they are better suited for noodle soups that are meant to be eaten on their own in one sitting, such as boat noodles or Thai chicken noodle soup.

How To Make Gaeng Jued

Here's a bird's eye view of how to make this recipe, so you get an idea of what the process involves. The full details are in the recipe card below. I also encourage you to watch the video tutorial to ensure success!

process shots for making glass nodle soup, steps 1-4

Add the ribs or the wings to a pot, cover with water and season with fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and white pepper.
Let simmer for 5-10 minutes, until you see a bunch of foam gathered on top, and then skim it off.
Add cilantro stems and daikon and loosely cover the pot so it doesn’t reduce too much. Simmer until the meat is fork tender; wings will take a total of 20 mins, and the ribs 30-40 mins depending on the size.
Meanwhile, prep your other ingredients and make the meatballs by combining all ingredients together and use your hand to knead the mixture until well combined.

process shots for making glass nodle soup, steps 5-8

Once the ribs/wings are tender, use 2 teaspoons and flick bite-sized chunks of meatballs into the soup.
After the meatballs are all added, allow the soup to come back to a boil, and then add the napa cabbage and egg tofu.
Once the soup comes back to a boil, add the glass noodles and cook for 3 mins.
Turn off the heat and taste and adjust seasoning with more soy sauce or fish sauce as needed, then finish it off with green onions and/or cilantro, and fried garlic and garlic oil.

Is Expensive Fish Sauce Worth It?

December 19, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 11 Comments

Fish sauce is absolutely core to Thai cooking, so it is very important to use good quality fish sauce, and in this post and share with you all about how to choose good quality fish sauce.

But in recent years, more "premium" fish sauces have entered the market with higher and higher prices. So at what point is the extra money spent no longer worth the quality gain? THAT is what we're here to find out.

4 Premium "first press" fish sauces for our taste test!

So I tasted 4 different "premium fish sauces" at different price points, ranging from $9 to $30 US dollars per 300 mls. I tasted them straight up, in a raw application, and then taste in a cooked application to see if the difference is worth the price.

You can read this article, but for a more complete experience below is the video of my taste test so you can see my live reactions. Everything covered in this article is also discussed in the video!

Video: Thai Chef Reviews Premium Fish Sauce!

What exactly is "premium" or "first press" fish sauce?

It is important that we first establish what exactly IS premium, or more specifically “first press” fish sauce, and how is it different from regular fish sauce? And no, just because it says "premium" on the label, does no make it so.

To understand this you have to know how fish sauce is made. Fish sauce is made by putting anchovies and salt together and letting it ferment over time. As the fish breaks down, the liquid from the fish comes out, mixes with the salt and THAT is the very purest, first press, extra virgin fish sauce. Or what we call in Thai hua nampla, which literally means "the head of the fish sauce."

You can see some great pictures of how fish sauce is made in my video above, which are images of Squid fish sauce factory, originally from this article (Thai language).

Once the first press fish sauce has been removed from the tank, you can add more water and salt to the same fish and get a second press and even third press out of it, which is obvious more diluted.

Regular, inexpensive fish sauce that we get at the store is a combination of first press with subsequent presses in whatever ratio the manufacturer decides, which is why there’s such a big range of quality out there. And the really low quality fish sauce will have so little first press in it that they also have to add artificial colour and flavours to make up for it.

Our Contenders

Red Boat 40N Fish Sauce

The OG, the pioneer in the premium fish sauce market and the one who started the new wave of premium fish sauce.

Origin: Vietnam
Ingredients: anchovies and salt
Protein per 15 ml: 4 g
Sodium per 15 ml: 1430 mg
Price as of Dec 2023: Calculated based on 300ml which is the most common size among these bottles, is $8.99 USD. Actual price per 500 ml bottle is $14.99.

The Royal Squid Fish Sauce

Regular Squid has been my go-to fish sauce for years, it’s a household name in Thailand that's been around for 80 years. Recently they entered the first press market with their first press "Royal" fish sauce.

Origin: Thailand
Ingredients: anchovies and salt
Protein per 15 ml: 2 g
Sodium per 15 ml: 1620 mg
Price as of Dec 2023: $12.99/300 ml from an online shop but it is no longer available. In stores this will be cheaper but it is not available to me locally. I've heard some people report that they can get it at their local Asian markets. Do let me know in the comments if you can find it in your stores and how much it costs!

Abalone Fish Sauce

This name is not well known at all in the Western market, but it came up a lot when I was researching popular fish sauces amongst Thai people so I got interested and turns out you can buy it on amazon!

Origin: Thailand
Ingredients: anchovies, salt and sugar (we will discuss the sugar below)
Protein per 15 ml: 2 g
Sodium per 15 ml: 1380 mg
Price as of Dec 2023: $11.49/300 ml on Amazon US, in stores this will probably be much cheaper.

Red Boat Phamily Reserve Maple Bourbon Fish Sauce

The most expensive fish sauce I've ever seen! This is Red Boat's 50N fish sauce, their highest grade, that has been aged in maple bourbon barrels. I'm very interested in this to see if the maple bourbon flavours come through, and whether that's a good thing.

Origin: Vietnam
Ingredients: anchovies and salt
Protein per 15 ml: 5 g
Sodium per 15 ml: 1430 mg
Price as of Dec 2023: Calculated based on 300ml is $29.98 US. Actual price per 200ml bottle is $19.99 US

Protein Content in Fish Sauce - What does it mean?

Protein content in fish sauce basically tells us how much "fish juice" actually made it into the bottle. Higher protein, indicates higher fish content, and the more flavourful and umami it is supposed to be.

For our lineup, the maple bourbon is highest in protein, followed by Red Boat 40N Original, then the Thai ones.

Quickly, the N number you often see on fish sauce labels is also an indication of protein content. N stands for nitrogen, which is a unique component of protein, hence its use to indicate protein content. The higher the N number, the higher the protein. You won’t usually see the N number on Thai fish sauces though because it's just not a thing Thai people look at. Most of the time this will be on Vietnamese fish sauces OR export version of Thai fish sauce such as blue label Megachef. (Domestic versions of Megachef, the brown label, does not have the N Number).

Added Sugar in Fish Sauce - Is it bad?

nutritional label of abalone fish sauce — Abalone fish sauce has 1% sugar added, too small to register on the nutrition facts.

All “regular," non-first press fish sauce has sugar added. Sugar is added to help balance the saltiness in fish sauce to make it a little smoother. In the same way that I add sugar to many of my dishes to balance the salt.

The amount of sugar added in fish sauce is so small that it doesn’t even register on the nutritional label - it will show as zero grams of sugar per 15 ml. And if you taste it, you will realize how little sugar there is!

So I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, and in fact, if it helps the flavour, why not. And if I use no-sugar fish sauce, and the saltiness of the dish isn't balanced, I'm going to have to add sugar to balance it in the dish anyway so it's a moot point for me.

Most firs press fish sauces tend not to add sugar to keep it as pure as possible, with the exception of Abalone which adds 1% sugar, and again, it is so little that it registers as 0 on the nutritional label.

The Results #1 - Straight up Taste Test

Tasting the fish sauces straight up, my favourite one was Abalone. It has a smell that's pleasant and not too strong, the least amount of sodium and added sugar make it go down very smoothly, and it has a rich, long lasting umami in the mouth.

The Royal Squid was a runner up as it was saltier and less smooth than abalone.

Classic 40N Red Boat has a very rich flavour, as indicated by the higher protein content, that really lingers for a long time. But it is a much "fishier" fish sauce than Abalone and Royal Squid, which I didn't like as much, and I can see situations where this would be too strong.

The Maple Bourbon Red Boat had a very intense aroma of both fishiness and bourbon, though not so much maple. But it also had a fermented funk reminiscent of pla ra, padaek, or shrimp paste. I thought this was interesting and wonder if this is the case for every batch. Though it doesn't have the highest sodium content, it felt the saltiest because of the strength in flavour. Too strong to be had straight up in this way, I think. It's best to see my reaction in the video!

To keep things in perspective, I also tasted it against regular, non-premium Squid fish sauce. And indeed, compared to premium fish sauces, regular Squid felt very salty, jarring, with a much lighter body. So yay, you're paying for something!

Squid fish sauce, by the way, is a decent fish sauce that's a classic in Thailand. It is perfectly sufficient for everyday cooking. It is also what I use for my recipes when I develop them for my website and cookbooks because it is the saltiest one on the market. I do this on purpose so that when people follow my recipes, they won't end up with a dish that's too-salty just because they used a different brand of fish sauce.

The Results #2 - Condiment Taste Test

Now the test that matters: let’s put these to use. First I’m gonna use it in a raw form, by making a sauce called prik nam pla, aka the condiment that can improve all foods! It’s simply a mixture of fish sauce, lime juice, chilies, and garlic, and I’m going to to be drizzling this on fried egg over rice which is one of the most common uses for prik nam pla.

All the differences that I tasted in the straight-up test carried through, but because we have introduced other ingredients, the differences are now less obvious.

My favourite by far was Abalone. The addition of sugar really made a difference in flavour for this condiment. Royal Squid was my second choice, and I found Red Boat 40N a little too fishy for this use, so I preferred the previous two, though it was still delicious.

Maple Bourbon (MB) 50N fish sauce, however, is not something I would use for prik nam pla. Not that it was bad, it wasn't, but because I had an expectation of what prik nam pla tastes like, the MB was too different that it turned it into something else. In addition, the bourbon aroma was gone when eaten with food, which was disappointing because it's kind of the whole point of this fish sauce and really what you're paying extra for.

When tasted against prik nam pla made with regular Squid fish sauce, I still prefer ones made with the 3 premium fish sauces (not the MB), but the difference is becoming very very slight.

The Surprising Results #3 - Cooked Dish Taste Test

pailin tastes cabbage fish sauce stir fry

The final test is to actually cook with these. I’m gonna make my favourite veg side dish: garlicky cabbage fish sauce stir fry because it uses only fish sauce as the seasoning, and has very few other ingredients. So it will have the highest likelihood of the differences being detectable. And of course we’re going to be serving this with rice.

In this test, I found very unexpected results! The differences between Red Boat 40N, Royal Squid and Abalone at this point is veeery very slight. I could taste the difference, but it was really splitting hairs at this point, and among these 3, Abalone was still my favourite.

However, when I tasted the MB 50N, it was the best one! The bourbon aroma was gone, and so was that fermented funk (it was in the air when we were cooking so that explains where that went), and what's left is a really rich, full-bodied fish sauce that was super delicious. It oddly didn't feel strong or fishy.

I wondered why Red Boat 40N didn't taste somewhere in between MB 50N and Abalone/Squid, and instead the 3 of them tasted very close to each other. I think it might be the level of heat that each was exposed to. Seeing as I couldn't exactly control the heat of the wok, it's a variable that could affect the taste of the sauce. Perhaps the MB 50N was exposed to more heat, and therefore evaporated the funky aroma and fishiness, and concentrated the umami? I can only guess.

I tasted one made from regular Squid next to MB 50N, the best and the worst, for the final judgment. And even though the MB 50N does taste better, I was still very satisfied with the regular Squid! It's still a delicious dish, in fact they all are, and if I wasn't doing a side by side test, there's no way I would be able to tell how they were different.

Conclusion: My Takeaway

My takeaway from this is that when you're going to cook with fish sauce, and especially if you're going to introduce a lot of ingredients and seasonings, a decent quality, regular fish sauce is totally fine. The difference at the end of the day is so small that you'll be hard pressed to taste the extra cash you spent on a fancy bottle.

However, when using it in a relatively pure form, such as in a condiment, the difference can really shine through. And for me personally, I'll be upgrading my prik nam pla to using Thai Abalone fish sauce!

This is a good time to remind you that these reviews are based on my personal preference, which may be different from yours. You could certainly conduct a similar taste test to find out what your favourite is! But I hope that this helps better inform your decision next time you're needing to buy a next bottle of fish sauce!

Recipes for Your Premium Fish Sauce

Here are some recipes that use fish sauce as the main seasoning that you might want to use your premium fish sauce for:

Cabbage Fish Sauce Stir Fry
Prik Nam Pla - The Condiment to Improve All Things
Pad Thai (I would not use Red Boat for this as it is a bit too fishy, but Abalone or Royal Squid would be great for it.
Thai Omelette
Any kind of Thai salads would probably benefit from a first press fish sauce!

Sweet and Sour Pork (No Frying!)

March 20, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 13 Comments

This recipe is an excerpt from my cookbook Sabai: 100 Simple Thai Recipes for Any Day of the Week

When you hear “sweet and sour pork,” you probably think of the popular takeout from Chinese restaurants with breaded deep fried pork in a thick, sweet sauce. Rest assured that this Thai version is much lighter, healthier, no deep frying required, and IMHO is even more delicious!

This Thai-style sweet and sour pork recipe is loaded with veggies, with a light sauce that is the perfect balance of sweet, sour, and just a touch of spice. It’ll change how you look at what a sweet and sour dish can be AND it can be done in 35 minutes!

Sweet and sour pork in a blue plate on blue napkin — Photo from my cookbook Sabai: 100 Simple Thai Recipes for Any Day of the Week. Shot by Janis Nicolay.

Is Sweet and Sour Pork a Chinese or Thai Dish?

Both! Sweet and sour pork is indeed a dish of Chinese origins, but in Thailand, many of our dishes have their roots in Chinese cuisine, such as cashew chicken and pad see ew.

This is because a large number of Chinese immigrants have come and settled in Thailand, bringing with them their delicious food. But Chinese food in Thailand has been integrated and modified to satisfy the Thai palate, resulting in something totally unique.

But if you’re thinking of the sweet and sour pork that’s iconic of Chinese American takeout, the Thai version is quite different. The meat isn’t fried, and there is an abundance of veggies. The Thai sweet and sour sauce is also not thickened so it’s quite light, and the flavour is less sweet compared to the typical takeout version.

Ingredients

Sweet and sour pork uses simple ingredients. As you can see in the video I didn't even have to go to an Asian grocery store for the ingredients! When you’re ready to cook, see the full recipe card for amounts and prep instructions.

Pork tenderloin is my preferred cut for this because it is tender yet lean. Pork shoulder will also work but do slice it more thinly as it can be a bit chewy if too thick. Pork chops are not ideal, but if you do use it, be extra careful not to overcook it as it easily becomes tough and dry.
Soy sauce
Neutral oil such as vegetable oil
Garlic
Onion
Mini cucumber. Thai cucumber are quite small so smaller cucumbers such as Japanese or Persian ones work. If not available, English cucumber will also do.
Fresh pineapple. Fresh is much better than canned pineapple in a savoury application, but no need to cut up a whole pineapple! Just get pre-cut fresh pineapple chunks from the ready-to-eat fruit section at the supermarket.
Red bell pepper, but green bell peppers would also be lovely.
Roasted cashews, unsalted preferred but salted will be fine.
Green onions. Not pictured (optional)
Jasmine rice for serving

Homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce

You can make a big batch of this sauce and it will keep in the fridge indefinitely, so it's ready to go any time for any kind of sweet and sour dishes.

Brown sugar, light or dark. If you want to use finely chopped palm sugar instead that’s fine too.
White vinegar, rice vinegar, or apple cider vinegar will also work
Oyster sauce, see this post for how to choose a good oyster sauce
Sriracha hot sauce, this amount of sriracha will result in a teeny-tiny bit of spiciness, but the sweetness of this dish really benefits from a little heat and acid to balance. If you’re serving kids and need this to have no heat at all, you can substitute ketchup. I also have a homemade sriracha recipe if you want to DIY.
Soy sauce
Toasted sesame oil, the bottle may not say "toasted" but if the colour is dark brown it is the one you need. It should have a very distinct aroma. Don't get untoasted sesame oil which is light in colour.

How to Make Sweet and Sour Pork

Here’s a bird’s eye view of how the dish is done, and when you’re ready to cook, see the recipe card for the detailed instructions. I also recommend watching the video tutorial if this is your first time!

process shots for making sweet and sour pork steps 1-4

Remove any silver skin from the pork, then cut the tenderloin in half horizontally. Cut each half into ⅓-inch (8 mm) slices. Marinate the pork with some soy sauce and let it sit until ready to use.
Make the sweet and sour sauce by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl; stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved.
In a hot work or a large skillet over high heat, add some vegetable oil and once the pan is very hot spread the pork pieces out into one layer. Sear them without moving until browned on the underside and is about halfway done, 1 to 2 minutes.
Toss and stir the pork for about 30 seconds just until most of the exterior looks cooked; remove from the pan, leaving the juices behind.

process shots for making sweet and sour pork steps 5-8

In the same pan on medium heat, add a little bit more oil if needed, then saute the garlic and onion until the garlic starts to turn golden.
Turn the heat up to high and add the cucumber, pineapple, bell peppers, and the sauce.
Toss everything for about 2 minutes or until the veggies are cooked to your liking.
Add the pork back in and toss for 30 seconds, just until heated through. Be careful not to overcook the pork.

process shots for making sweet and sour pork steps 9-10

Turn off the heat and stir in the cashews.
Serve with fluffy white rice, such as jasmine rice. Enjoy!

Tips for Advance Prep

Looking to serve this for a dinner party? It’s an excellent choice because there’s so much you can do ahead of time, but the stir frying should be done shortly before serving. Here are 3 things you can do ahead, and if you do all 3, the dish will be done in 5 minutes.

Mix the sauce ahead of time and it will last indefinitely in the fridge. I recommend doing this in bulk so you’ll have multiple batches of sauce ready to go any time!
Cut all the vegetables in advance. All of the veggies in this dish are sturdy and will last in the fridge for at least a few days in an airtight container.
The pork can even be cooked in advance! You can sear the pork and then cook it until done. Keep it in the fridge along with all the yummy juices. When you do the final cooking, be sure to add the pork juices back into the pan and give the pork enough time to heat through.

Storing Leftovers

Sweet and sour pork will keep for a few days in the fridge, though the cucumber might lose a bit of crunch. The most significant casualty will be the cashews which will absorb moisture and become soft. I really don’t like softened cashews, so I always throw in some extra fresh cashews after reheating the leftovers.

FAQs

I don’t eat pork, can I use this recipe to make sweet and sour chicken instead?

Absolutely! Chicken works really well as a substitute here; I prefer dark meat, but if you like your white meat, go for it. There's nothing else in the recipe that you will need to change.

How can this recipe be made vegan?

You can substitute firm tofu for the pork, and you can use my sweet and sour tofu recipe as a guide. For the oyster sauce, substitute vegetarian oyster sauce (also known as vegetarian stir fry sauce) or 2 teaspoon of Maggi or Golden Mountain Seasoning.

Why is your sweet and sour sauce not thickened?

Most Chinese sweet and sour recipes you've come across likely requires thickening the sauce with a cornstarch slurry. Thai stir fries, however, are never thickened. So the sauce is supposed to be light, perfect for moistening the rice!

Massaman Curry Burgers, Meatballs and Meatloaf!

March 16, 2020 by Pailin Chongchitnant Leave a Comment

3 Ways to Use Thai Curry Pastes with Ground Beef

This post is sponsored by Canada Beef.

When Canada Beef asked me to come up with a Thai inspired recipe that would be the perfect flavour match with ground beef, I immediately thought about curry flavoured burgers. But then after some more thoughts, a Thai meatloaf also sounded like a great idea...and while we're at it, how about Thai meatballs, too? Since all these ideas sounded so enticing, we decided to do them all, especially since all three recipes have almost identical ingredient lists and similar processes. So once you've done the shopping for one, you can also make the others while you're at it!

The Perfect Meat for Massaman

One of my favourite ways to eat beef is in a massaman curry. The robust flavour of beef can really stand up to all the spices and herbs in massaman, which is one of the richest curries we have. So not surprisingly, in Thailand, massaman and beef are a classic pairing. Massaman curry is also one of the most famous Thai dishes that's known around the world, it was even voted "world's most delicious food" by a CNN poll a few years back!

GET THE RECIPES:

Thai Iced Coffee กาแฟเย็น (gafae yen)

March 7, 2014 by Pailin Chongchitnant 10 Comments

Thai iced coffee is a classic Thai drink beloved by Thai people everywhere. And with a country as hot as Thailand, you better believe we know how to make a good iced drink! Dark, creamy, and sweetened by that magic ingredient - sweetened condensed milk - it's totally delicious.

For an equally tasty treat with a little less caffeine, check out this Thai iced tea recipe that uses almost the same set of ingredients!

What is Thai Iced Coffee?

So how is Thai iced coffee different from any other iced coffee, and why would you love it so much? Here are a few reasons:

Thai iced coffee is rich. This isn't your sour hipster coffee. Thai coffee is roasted very dark, with a robust flavour that is rather chocolatey. So even after your ice has melted, your coffee will remain flavourful.
Thai iced coffee is creamy, but with no cream added! We use a combination of sweetened condensed milk (Asia's favourite dairy!) and evaporated milk to achieve a creamy, luxurious body. This is also important to prevent the coffee from diluting after the ice starts to melt.
Thai coffee is sweet...but only as much as you want. My biggest gripe with buying Thai iced coffee it that it's often too sweet for my taste. In Thailand where they make the coffee fresh to order, I can ask for less sweet. But in N. American Thai restaurants, the coffee is often pre-mixed. This is why making it at home is the best option if you're particular with how you like your coffee!

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients you need to make an authentic Thai iced coffee at home:

Thai coffee. In theory you can use any dark roast coffee to make Thai coffee, but for the authentic taste you want to look for Thai coffee at your Asian store. It's roasted very dark, and sometimes has other roasted ingredients, such as soybeans and corn, for a more interesting flavour. See the video tutorial for what the packaging looks like.

NOTE: Some brands such as Pantai labels the coffee "OLIANG POWDER MIXED" (which makes no grammatical sense, I know 🤷🏻‍♀️). Oliang is the Thai word for black iced coffee, but this can be used for any kind of Thai coffee.
Sweetened condensed milk. Choose a brand with few ingredients, mostly milk and sugar, such as Longevity brand. If it has a lot of ingredients, especially non-dairy ones, it's a cheaper brand that you don't want!
Evaporated milk. Evaporated milk is basically condensed milk without the sugar. It's used to add creaminess without any extra sweetness, and also to drizzle on top for the classic cascade look.
Sugar. You may or may not need any more sugar, depending on your taste.
Salt. A little salt goes a long way in enhancing the sweetness and preventing it from becoming cloying. This is my secret weapon!
A lot of ice. Not a few cubes. A LOT. You should pack the cup with ice before adding the coffee.

Brewing Equipment for Thai Coffee

We can't talk about coffee without talking about brewing equipment. Traditionally, Thai coffee is made in a cloth bag, which is basically a reusable coffee filter, set inside a jug. You can watch the video tutorial for how I use it. But any of the following will work:

Traditional Thai coffee/tea bag + mixing jug.
Reusable cloth coffee filter cone + mixing jug, such as one I used in the video.
French press.
Dripper with cone paper filter + mixing jug.

How to Make Thai Iced Coffee

Combine the coffee with hot water and let it steep for 5 minutes. You can do this inside a cloth filter bag set in your mixing jug, in a French press, or directly in the mixing jug if you will filter it through a dripper later.
In a mixing glass, combine condensed milk, sugar, and salt.
Pour the brewed coffee into the mixing glass.
Stir to dissolve the condensed milk and sugar. Taste the coffee and adjust the taste with more sugar, condensed milk or salt as needed, but it should taste a little too dark and a little too sweet at this point as the ice will dilute the coffee quite a bit. You can hold the coffee at this stage until ready to serve.

Fill a serving glass completely with ice then pour the coffee over it.
Drizzle generously with evaporated milk and watch the beautiful cascade. Enjoy!

What's the difference between Thai and Vietnamese coffee?

Thai and Vietnamese coffees do have a similar vibe: they're both sweetened with condensed milk and are rich and creamy, but there are many differences.

The main difference is the coffee beans used are not the same and therefore have different flavours. Thai coffee, as mentioned above, often has non-coffee ingredients mixed in.

The brewing method is also different. Vietnamese coffee is brewed using a special Vietnamese dripper that is set directly over the serving cup, while Thai coffee is steeped and then strained through a cloth bag before being poured into a serving glass.

Thai coffee is topped with evaporated milk, while Vietnamese coffee usually only has sweetened condensed milk in it.

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success. If you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!

Ultimate Guide to Thai Mortar and Pestle

November 17, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 4 Comments

If you’ve seen more than a few Hot Thai Kitchen videos, you have probably noticed that I use a mortar and pestle A LOT. This is a tool that many cultures use around the world, but for Thai people it is a core part of our kitchens.

Every Thai kitchen has one, and in this post I want to share with you what we use it for, because I think once you realize how useful it is, you’re gonna wanna join the club. I'll also address some FAQs about these including how to choose the right M&P for you, how to use it properly, and how to clean and care for it.

Note: In this post I'm specifically addressing Thai style mortar and pestles, not molcajetes, cobeks, or any other kinds.

5 sets of mortar and pestle of various sizes — All my mortar and pestle babies. Believe it or not I own another small one; a total of 6 sets!

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Watch The Video Tutorial

If you prefer to watch rather than read, here's a video where I talk you through all the information in this post!

What can you use a mortar and pestle for?

Obviously you can use it for crushing anything, but let’s get more specific. Here are all the things I use it for ...

Peeling and “chopping” garlic

Peeling and chopping garlic is kind of the bane of my existence because I use garlic all the time, but it is way less painful with a mortar and pestle.

To peel garlic: A quick smash of the cloves and the peel slips off effortlessly, and if the bottom is hard and woody, I use the edge of the mortar as a cutting board to slice it off.

Garlic being sliced on the edge of mortar

To "chop" garlic: After peeling, I just pound the garlic to the extent that I need. For a “rough chop” I leave it chunky, and if I need it “minced” I keep going until I have kind of a paste. This whole process takes less than a minute!

pounded chunky garlic in mortar and pestle — For stir fries I keep my garlic chunky, which takes a few seconds in the M&P.

And because this bruises the garlic rather than just cutting it, more cells are broken and more garlic flavour will be released into the dish! This is why pesto aficionados will agree that THIS is the best way to make pesto.

"Chopping" Chilies

When you use a knife to chop hot chilies, you end up with pieces, and the heat doesn’t distribute evenly into the dish; AND you end up with chili landmines all over the dish. This is why Thai people like to pound our chilies into a paste. It distributes the heat more evenly throughout the food.

And FYI any thin pieces of chili skin left after pounding aren't gonna cause a problem because that’s not where the heat is. The goal is to break down the pith and flesh and disperse all the seeds.

Alternatively, if you’re making soups you can also lightly crush to break and bruise the chilies so they can gently infuse the heat; and then since it’s still in one big piece, you can easily remove or avoid it after.

Making Sauces, Dressings, Marinades, and Curry Pastes

Next is a big category of making marinades, sauces, dressings, and curry pastes. Let’s just call them “sauces” for simplicity.

Many sauces, Thai or otherwise, require that you add aromatics like garlic, ginger, or shallots. To get the flavour out of these aromatics, they need to be finely minced or grated…OR better yet…pounded!

This is one of my favourite uses of the M&P because I can pound all of the herbs at once; so it’s faster than mincing or grating herbs one at a time, and again we bruise and mash all the cells to extract maximum flavour in a way that chopping won’t do.

THEN the mortar doubles as a mixing bowl so I can finish the whole sauce in here without using more dishes.

Grind spices fresh every time

pounded coriander seeds in mortar and pestle

We all know that when it comes to spices the best flavour comes from grinding whole spices fresh, because pre-ground spices lose their flavour quickly. But many of us use pre-ground spices anyway because it is just more convenient than having to pull out a spice grinder for just half a teaspoon of cumin.

But if you keep your mortar and pestle on the counter, the process takes just seconds. In fact, in the video above I showed you how I ground up 1 teaspoon of cumin in just 18 seconds!

Chopping Nuts

If you need roughly chopped nuts, you could chase them around a cutting board with a knife, which I hate doing; OR you can just give them a couple of pounds in a M&P and you’ve got it ready to go, all contained within a bowl.

Getting more aroma out of sesame seeds

People often put toasted sesame seeds on things, but usually the seeds don’t make any difference at all because they’re kept intact. When sesame seeds are intact, the aroma is trapped INSIDE. But giving them a 3 second grind in a mortar, just until they break but still look whole, will release the nutty aromat you should be getting!

How to Use a Mortar & Pestle - The Techniques

There are 2 main techniques when it comes to using a mortar and pestle: Pounding and grinding.

Pounding is a simple up and down motion that we use for moist ingredients like fresh herbs. If there is enough volume, stuff will eventually ride up the sides, so you also want be sliding the pestle off the side back down towards the center. If you’re doing extensive pounding like a curry paste, it’s a good idea to use a spatula and give it a flip every once in a while to redistribute and make sure you don’t miss anything.

Grinding is a circular motion where you don’t lift the pestle. This is good for dry ingredients such as spices and rice for making toasted rice powder. But before you grind, you wanna give it a couple of pounds first to break them into smaller pieces as too-big pieces of spices will just roll around under the pestle. Breaking them first creates the traction needed for the grinding to work.

Usually when I grind dry things, it's combination of pounding and grinding, but don’t overthink it - most of the time it will be very intuitive what motion is best for the thing you’re working with.

Mortar & Pestle VS Food Processor & Blender?

Does it seem like "too much work" to manually grind things? Listen, sometimes, blenders and food processors are exactly what you need, but they’re not without their limitations.

Beyond the fact that it’s a pain to pull out and clean these giant appliances every time, you cannot use them for small amounts of food. If you don’t enough volume in a food processor or blender, stuff just sticks to the side, and the blade just spins in futility.

So when you’re looking to do small jobs - like a few cloves of garlic, a handful of nuts, or a few teaspoons of spices - the mortar and pestle does not have a minimum limit, even a big one can grind ONE peppercorn if you wanted to!

Sometimes, however, I prefer to use a coffee grinder for dry ingredients if it’s either a larger amount, or if it’s dried chilies, which are quite tough to break down manually.

Do I need to season a Thai mortar and pestle before using it the first time?

*It is important to note that this discussion pertains only to Thai granite mortar and pestle, and does not apply to a molcajete or Indonesian cobek, which are not made from the same stone.

You will see advice on the internet suggesting that you should pound some dry rice in your M&P before you first use it the first time to "clean" it and prevent tiny bits of stone going into your food.

First, let me say that as you use the M&P over the years, you’re grinding stone on stone year in year out, there is going to be wear and tear on it. Teeny tiny amounts of granite particles are going to come off over time. Case in point: if you look at old mortar and pestles, they are gonna be smoother than brand new ones.

But granite particles are not toxic, so it is not a problem you need to worry about. In the same way that when you cook food in cast iron cookware, some iron will come out into your food, and that’s totally fine.

With that out of the way, I personally do not do anything to my new M&P aside from giving it a good scrub with dish soap and water. A good quality, granite mortar and pestle should already be well-finished and smooth on the inside, with a very slight texture that's natural to granite. Grinding rice in it one time is probably not gonna do much to further "polish" the stone.

Empty mortar and pestle — A good quality granite mortar and pestle should be smooth when you buy it and does not need any initial grinding. I got this one from Ang Sila, the capital of granite M&Ps in Thailand!

However, if it’s not a good quality set, the inside might feel a little too rough, THEN there might be good reason to smooth it out with an initial grind in some way. You can certainly try rice, but I’ve seen people just grind it empty with a bit of water until it feels smoother (probably more effective than adding rice which will add a cushion).

BUT if you keep finding visible amounts of rock dust coming off even after using it many times, THAT is the sign of a low-quality mortar and pestle that may not even be granite. The material is not strong enough to be made into a mortar and pestle, and you should definitely get a better one. (Yes, these awful products are out there.)

But in either case, you don’t need to “season” it like a cast iron pan or a carbon steel wok; in the sense that you do not need to coat it with anything. You just want the bare stone.

How do I care for and clean my mortar and pestle?

Just hand wash it with soap and water like regular dishes and air dry, that’s it. Nothing special needs to be done to it at all; it is a basic, low maintenance tool. But I would not put it in the dishwasher because the chemicals in dishwasher detergent can be quite harsh and it might wear out the stone faster, so handwash to be safe.

Choosing the right mortar and pestle for me

There are a few factors to consider when it comes to choosing the right set for you, but the most important thing is probably size. In theory, the bigger the better, because the bigger it is the more versatile it is and the more power it has due to the bigger pestle.

The obvious problem here is that big ones are heavy and a pain to move around; and speaking from experience, the more of a pain it is to move around the LESS likely you are to use it. So there’s a balance to strike here.

3 sets of mortar and pestle in a row, smallest to largest — Left: 1-cup, Middle: 2-cup, Right 3-cup

So in the ideal world you’d be over the top like me and have one of every size, but if you’re gonna have just one, then here’s what I recommend:

1 cup capacity is the smallest I would go, because any smaller than this and it’s not gonna be very useful. This is gonna be good for light duty things like garlic, chilies, and spices. But because it's light, you will use this all the time.

2-cup capacity is probably a good all-purpose size for most people. You can tackle tougher things like lemongrass, you have more room for a larger amount of food, but it is heavy enough that I start to think twice before picking it up.
3-cup capacity is great if you want maximum versatility, you often cook for a crowd so you need to volume, and/or you wanna hand pound pesto and curry pastes. A 3-cup capacity will do it all, and for most people, I don’t see a reason for going any bigger. (It IS heavy though.)

Bottom line is, consider what do you want to use it for AND what is the weight threshold that will not deter you from using it. The last thing we want is for this to become a beautiful doorstop.

If you want to check out a version of a large-but-light mortar and pestle made in Thailand, check out Krok, which has been cleverly designed to provide the best of both worlds! (Affiliate)

About clay, marble or wooden mortar and pestles

Choice of material is another thing to think about, and obviously I love my granite one simply because it is the strongest and heaviest for the size. Wood, marble, or even metal just don't usually have the heft that's required for many tasks. Again I will stress that this discussion only pertains to Thai-style M&P, not molcajetes or Indonesian cobek.

But, you might have seen a large clay mortar and pestle in Thailand or on my channel, what's THAT all about? This is a different style of mortar and pestle where the mortar is large and more conical in shape, and is made from either clay or wood. The pestles are always wood.

This is what I call a light duty M&P, or lao-style M&P, and they are made specifically for pounded salads such as green papaya salad. The aromatics are pounded first, and then the salad is finished in the mortar, which is why it has to be big because it’s also your mixing bowl. The pestle is lighter because you don’t want to annihilate your vegetables.

If you wanna get this in addition to a stone M&P, welcome to the club, but I don’t recommend this as your only one because it’s too light for a lot of things; unless of course you make pounded salads regularly. But if you have one of these, hot tip: you can also use it to mash potatoes!

Zingy & Spicy Thai Wings Recipe (KFC Wingz Zabb!)

November 3, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 21 Comments

No one would ever expect that KFC could make the best...well...anything, right? But somehow, KFC Thailand has managed to crack the code for the best wings, which they call "Wingz Zabb". IYKYK. It is a cult favourite. They're spicy, zingy, and they taste uniquely Thai. Trust me when I say you've NEVER had wings like these. They're pretty intense.

What Exactly Are KFC Wingz Zabb?

Fast food chains in Thailand regularly come up with menu items that are locally unique, using ingredients and flavours that Thai people love. Most of these are one-offs and don't last, (RIP McDonald's green papaya salad), but once in a while an item really strikes a chord with the people, and it becomes part of the permanent menu.

That's the story of Wingz Zabb. They were first introduced in 2004, and 20 years later...here they still are. Because they're SO GOOD. KFC Thailand has introduced other chicken wing menu items, including their version of fish sauce wings, but they did not stick.

The magic is in the spicy, zingy seasoning powder that coats the wings. They’re SO loved, in fact, that many people have tried to decode the recipe, and now you can buy bags of copycat "Wingz Zabb powder" in grocery stores in Thailand! Even Lays Thailand has made Wingz Zabb flavour chips that I am very sad I missed.

I've been wanting to make these myself for a long time, but I was waiting for one more trip to Thailand so I could refresh my memory of the original flavour before I attempted my version. That trip just happened, I ate them again, and here's the recipe. I'm confident in saying that it is even better than the original. But YOU try it and let me know what you think!

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients you'll need, with a few important notes on some of them. For amounts, see the full recipe card below!

Magical Wingz Zabb Seasoning Powder

Uncooked jasmine rice. This is for making toasted rice powder, an MVP ingredient in many Thai dishes. Other kinds of white rice will also work, but jasmine is the most aromatic.
Makrut lime leaves, aka kaffir lime leaves. These are technically optional and I don't think KFC uses them, but it is highly recommended as I think it's one of the reasons why I think mine are better!
Sugar
Cayenne pepper, or another spicy chili powder. I use cayenne because it's already powdery fine, which is what we need so the seasoning powder adheres well. Always taste your cayenne pepper first to see how spicy it is though, because heat level varies significantly between brands. This will help you judge how much you should be adding.
Paprika. You could do all cayenne for super hot wings, but because my cayenne is very hot I cut it with some paprika to make it milder, while keeping the colour and flavour. The ratio between cayenne and paprika is up to you, but keep the total volume of the combination of chili powders the same. (Do not use smoked paprika.)
Lime juice powder (crystalized lime juice) If you've never used lime juice powder before, it is life changing. I have it on hand as a backup, or when I am just too lazy to deal with a fresh lime. It is especially useful for when you want the lime flavour and acidity, but not the liquid - such as in a seasoning powder! I wouldn't use it in drinks, but in dishes with enough competing flavours, the difference is hardly noticeable. In Canada I have only seen one brand, True Lime, but other brands will probably work. You can buy lime juice powder on Amazon or on iHerb.
If you can't find lime juice powder, you can substitute the lemon version "True Lemon" instead, or you can try using citric acid, which is also sour but won't have any lime flavour. Note that I have not personally tried citric acid myself so you may need to taste and adjust the amounts.
Table salt, or another equally fine salt so that it will measure the same.

For the Wings

Chicken wing drumettes. I'm usually a flats person, but for this, because the seasoning powder is so intense, it's better to use drumettes which are meatier. For your leftover flats, use them in this amazing Fish Sauce Wings recipe!
Fish sauce.
All-purpose flour
Cornstarch. Cutting the flour with a bit of cornstarch reduces gluten and creates a lighter, crunchier crust.
Water. A drizzle of water gets added to the wings after dredging, and this causes some for the flour to clump up and creates that craggy crust which helps the seasoning adhere and adds crunch!

How to Make Wingz Zabb

Here's a bird's eye view of the process, but if it's your first time, I highly recommend you watch the video tutorial to ensure success!

process shots for making wingz zabb steps 1-4

Marinade the wings in fish sauce and let them sit while you make the seasoning powder.
Toast the jasmine rice and the makrut lime leaves over medium high heat; and once the lime leaves are dry and curled up, remove them from the pan.
Continue toasting the rice until the grains are dark brown.
Grind the rice and the lime leaves in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle until fine.

process shots for making wingz zabb steps 5-8

Add the salt, sugar, lime juice powder, paprika and cayenne pepper into the tosted rice powder.
Blitz for a few more seconds until very fine. There's your zabb powder, ready to be used on wings or anything else you want!
Whisk together the flour and cornstarch and add to the wings; toss to coat.
Drizzle about 2 tablespoon of water over the dredged wings and toss again. The water will cause some of the flour to clump, creating a craggy crust.

process shots for making wingz zabb steps 9-12

Heat the oil to 375°F (190°C) and add half of the wings, then reduce the heat to medium and keep frying for 6-8 minutes until done. Maintain oil temp between 325°F-350°F during frying.
Place the wings in a mixing bowl and immediately sprinkle about half of the zabb powder over them. Toss to get them mostly coated, but they don't need to be perfect right now.
Fry the second batch of wings and put them int othe same mixing bowl. Sprinkle MOST of the zabb powder over the new set of wings, reserving about 1 tablespoon, then toss everything together well.
The wings should be completely coated - if there are any blank spots, spoon the reserved powder directly over them. The colour of the wings will darken as the seasoning sinks into the wings. Allow to cool for a few minutes and dig in with a nice cold drink!

Leftover Wingz Zabb are milder...but how?

I was first very surprised to learn that my day-old reheated wings tasted much milder than fresh ones. Still very good, but the initial hit of flavour is wayyyyy less aggressive.

This is because with fresh wings, all the seasoning powder is sitting on the surface, so when you take that bite, your tongue is hit with all the flavours at once.

But as the wings sit, the seasoning will slowly sink into the wings, and the flavour will be distributed across the meat. (The wings are basically marinating.)

So, I recommend eating these fresh if possible. Leftovers are still good, but aside from the loss of crunch, they will also taste a bit milder.

How to Reheat Leftovers

Now that you have the right expectations, here's how to reheat the wings. Bake them in a 325°F (160°C) oven for 8-10 minutes. I keep the temp low because there is sugar in the seasoning, and temp that's too high will burn the sugar. You can also reheat them in the airfryer, and I would keep the heat even lower at 300°F (150°C).

Advance Prep Tips

If you want to serve these at a party, it is wise to do as much advance prep as possible. Here are the things you can do:

Make the zabb powder a day in advance and keep it in a tightly sealed jar. The powder will technically last a long time since they're just dry ingredients, but the flavours of toasted rice and makrut lime leaves will fade over time so you don't want to do it too far ahead.
Fry the wings up to 4 hours before serving. Leave them to sit at room temp and do not toss them in the seasoning yet. Leave the oil in the pot on the stove. When ready to eat, heat the oil to 350°F and re-fry the wings for 4-5 minutes per batch, and then toss them in the seasoning as per the recipe.
Note: In terms of safety, the wings do not need to reach an internal temp of 165°F again for the second fry, but they should reach at least 135°F so they're hot enough for serving.
The double frying will have an added benefit of making the wings extra crunchy, so you can also do this anyway if you have time. When double frying though be sure to let the wings cool completely before the second fry so that you don't overcook them.

What Else Can You Use the Zabb Powder For?

Once you've made the zabb powder and experience how good it is, you'll surely wonder...what else can I put this on?

Anything deep fried is the obvious answer. Potato wedges, fries, calamari, popcorn, and roasted nuts come to mind. Whatever it is needs to be a little bit oily on the surface, otherwise the powder will not stick; so oil your nuts before roasting them and butter your popcorn before tossing them in the seasoning.

I would also try tossing roasted vegetables in these. Brussel sprouts I'm sure would benefit, as will the humble roasted carrots.

Can these wings be done in an air fryer?

Air fryers are essentially a convection oven, so they will not give you that thick, KFC-craggy crust that we want for these. So the short answer is no. But if you want to air fry the wings and toss them in the seasoning powder anyway, you can do that of course, just know that it won't be the same!

BUT if you're going to air fry the wings, do not dredge them in the flour because the flour will not "fry" and will remain floury. You'll have to air fry the wings naked, and this is why they'll end up being very different.

How to Cook Noodles in a Rice Cooker

March 31, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 3 Comments

When I found out that people in Thailand are now cooking noodles in a rice cooker, it kinda blew my mind. I always thought of a rice cooker as something to cook only rice and rice-based dishes. But turns out, you can cook noodles, sauté things, and even finish a whole dish in it without using the stove once!

Glass noodles and shrimp in a rice cooker

So in this post I will guide you through how to cook noodles in a rice cooker, when and why it works, and when it does not work. And then as an example, I’m going to show you how to make one of my absolute favourite Thai noodle dishes in a rice cooker - glass noodles with shrimp and ginger or Goong Ob Woonsen.

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How Do Rice Cookers Work?

First, why would you want to cook noodles in a rice cooker anyway? What problem does this even solve? To answer that, we first need to look at how rice cookers work.

Rice cookers turn themselves off when the temperature at the bottom of the pot increases above a certain level. And when does the temperature rise? When the water has all been absorbed, because the presence of water keeps the temperature lower.

a pot of rice with burnt bottom — The stuck-on burnt bottom rice is something that will never happen with a modern rice cooker because it turns itself off as soon as temperature rises above a certain level.

So when you cook rice (or in this case noodles) on a stovetop, you have to turn it off manually at the right time; and if you let it go for too long, or heat it too high, the bottom is burnt. By using a rice cooker, you don’t have to worry about that because the rice cooker will turn itself off before it burns.

Why Cook Noodles in a Rice Cooker?

So now that we know how a rice cooker works, it becomes clear that the kinds of noodle dishes we're talking about here are dry noodle dishes, not noodle soups or things that are saucy.

To be clear, you CAN cook soupy/saucy noodles in a rice cooker, but you wouldn't be able to take advantage of the auto-shutoff, which means that it's no different from doing it in a pot on the stove. But if you're in a dorm room with no stove, then yes, you can use your rice cooker just like a regular pot!

What Kinds of Noodles Work Best?

The best noodles to use for this technique hands down are glass noodles, also known as bean vermicelli or bean threads. This is because they are extremely forgiving; it is hard to overcook them, they have a wide window of good texture, and they don’t need to be constantly stirred to cook evenly.

Cooked glass noodles are clear and have a neutral flavour and a slightly chewy texture.

Glass noodles are considered the healthiest noodles in Thailand because they are lower in glycemic index than rice or wheat noodles. Per portion, they are also lower in calories because they can absorb much more water. And yes, they are gluten free and vegan.

Glass noodles also have a neutral flavour so they will work with all kinds of seasoning - we even make pad thai with glass noodles in Thailand! So the recipe provided here is just an example, but you can change up the seasonings and aromatics to whatever want - though keep the ratio of noodles to water the same.

Pine Brand unbleached glass noodles have a light green tint, which is the colour of mung beans.

Look for a brand of glass noodles made from 100% mung bean starch for best texture such as Pine Brand, who are a regular sponsor for our videos!

Rice noodles also work here, but they are not as ideal because they overcook more easily, and they should be stirred more frequently in order to achieve even doneness. So you can use them, but it's going to be a little bit less hands-off. See more details on using rice noodles in the ingredient section below.

Do All Types of Rice Cookers Work for Noodles?

Any rice cooker will work in theory, but because we’re going to be doing some sauteeing of herbs right in the rice cooker, AND because we’re not cooking rice, you do have to understand the quirks of YOUR rice cooker.

Basic, One-Button Rice Cookers

These basic one-button rice cookers are actually the best for this job. However, some very old models have an aluminum inner pot which noodles will tend to stick to. So I would prefer one with a nonstick pot if possible.

One thing to watch out for is that most rice cookers have a spring-loaded button at the bottom that requires enough weight pushing down on it, or it won’t cook. For many models, the weight of the inner pot alone is enough to activate it, but for some, especially cheap basic ones, the inner pot is too light to stay down.

So without enough ingredients in the pot, you may need the lid to be on to activate the cooking. This means that if you open the lid to stir the aromatics, it may switch to "warm" mode, so you'll just have to click "cook" again after you're done stirring and have closed it again. This is the issue I have with my rice cooker, so watch the video tutorial to see this in action.

Multi-Function Rice Cookers

A zojirushi rice cooker and a chefman rice cooker — A basic one-button rice cooker works better for this, though the fancier multi-function one can to, with some caveats.

The fancy multi-function models such as the popular Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy will work, but they can be a little too smart. They heat up slowly and they include a “rest period” at the end before the finish alert will sound. Both of these features are great for making rice, but not for noodles. So, if you've got one of these, here are 2 things to keep in mind:

The initial heat up will take a long time, so to minimize the wait use the QUICK COOK mode. On Quick Cook mine takes over 5 minutes before the aromatics sizzle in the oil. So put in the ingredients, close the lid, and go do something else until you hear the sizzling sound. Don't stand there waiting for it!
Unlike basic rice cookers, the "finish bell" won't ring as soon as all the water has been absorbed because of the built-in rest period. So to know when it's done, look for the countdown timer. Once it shows the number of minutes remaining, it means that the liquid has been absorbed and that the cooker has switched into its "rest" period.

Ingredients

Time to show you how it works, and for our example I’m making a super popular Thai noodle dish called goong ob woonsen, which is very well suited for this method. But don’t get too hung up on the actual recipe, this is more about the method, and you can change up the seasonings and ingredients to whatever you want.

To make things easier to substitute, I've divided ingredients up into components:

Seasonings

You can change the seasonings to whatever you'd like, but you do want to keep the ratio of liquid to glass noodles consistent because the noodles will need this water to fully cook.

Soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Black soy sauce or dark soy sauce
Sugar
Toasted sesame oil
Shrimp paste in oil (optional)
Chicken stock or water

Aromatics

The following are the classic aromatics for the shrimp and glass noodle dish, but you can make this as simple as some chopped garlic and maybe some onions.

White pepper
Sichuan peppercorns
Garlic
Ginger
Cilantro stems

Noodles, Veg, and Protein

Veg oil or bacon. It's common in Thailand to use rendered pork belly fat for this dish, but you can also use veg oil. Bacon is convenient, but uncured pork belly slices is fine too.
Dry glass noodles (sometimes labelled "bean vermicelli" or "bean threads"). Very thin clear noodles made from mung bean starch; and these are not to be confused with Korean sweet potato noodles which are much thicker and cannot be substituted in this recipe.
Shrimp, deveined with shell on preferred. You can substitute chicken, and if so I would recommend dark meat, cut into bite sized pieces about ½-inch thick. Since the protein will cook together with the noodles, you want to make sure they are not cut so thin that they will overcook, or so thick that they will be undercooked. Tofu or other plant based proteins can also be used instead.
Inner leafy stalks of celery or one stalk of Chinese celery

Using Rice Noodles

Thin rice noodles can also be used but as mentioned earlier, they're less forgiving, and you will need to stir them more often - I'd stir them every 1 minute. Thinner noodles are also better since they will cook faster and require less stirring and fiddling from you. I recommend using these 2 thin types of rice noodles:

Super thin rice vermicelli, like the ones that I use in this vegetarian pad see ew recipe. Fully soak them in room temp water until completely pliable; 5-15 minutes depending on the brand. In addition to your seasonings, add ¼ cup (60 ml) of water or stock for every 4 oz (115 g) of dry noodles to start, then you will need to taste and add more as needed because different brands have slightly different thicknesses, which you can read more about in the vermicelli pad see ew post.
Pho-style rice noodles, size "small." This is one that I use in many of my noodle soups such as ones I use in my Thai chicken noodle soup recipe. Soak in room temp water for 20 minutes or until they're completely pliable. In addition to your seasonings, add ¼ cup (60 ml) of water or stock for every 4 oz (115 g) of dry noodles to start, then you will need to taste and add more as needed because different brands have slightly different thicknesses.

Note: Exact soaking time will depend on the brand and also the temperature of your "room temp" water, but when fully soaked, the noodles should completely droop when picked up, showing no resistance to gravity. In a rush, you can use warm water to speed this process up.

How to Cook Noodles in a Rice Cooker

Here's a bird's eye view of the process, but I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success!

Soak glass noodles in room temp water for at least 10 minutes. Drain and cut the noodles roughly in half or thirds to shorten for easier eating.
Combine the sauce ingredients together, including the water, and stir to mix.
Add the drained noodles to the sauce and mix well.
Add the shrimp (or whatever protein you're using) and mix well.

Process shots for how to cook noodles in a rice cooker, steps 5-8

Place the oil or bacon and all of the aromatics into the rice cooker and press "cook". You can close the lid if your rice cooker needs the lid on in order to start heating, but if not, you can leave it uncovered.
Once the aromatics are sizzling, allow it to cook for about 3 more minutes, stirring a few times in between. (If your rice cooker switches to Warm Mode when you open the lid to stir, simply press cook again after you close the lid.)
Use tongs to grab only the noodles and put them into the rice cooker, then pour the sauce and the protein on top, spreading the protein out evenly.
Close the lid and let the rice cooker do its thing.

Process shots for how to cook noodles in a rice cooker, steps 9-12

After about 4 mins, stir the noodles to redistribute the sauce. Try to keep the shrimp on top if you can and flip them over for more even cooking.
Close the lid and let the rice cooker go until it clicks off.
Once it's done, give everything a good stir to distribute the aromatics evenly. Then taste the noodles - if they are too firm, add a splash of water (~2 tablespoon at a time) and keep it cooking until it clicks off again.
Finish it off with fresh herbs of your choice, and you're good to go!

Other glass noodle recipes to try in a rice cooker

For some flavour inspirations, check out these recipes and use the methods in this recipe as a guide!

Coconut water - What's really in it?

October 25, 2021 by Pailin Chongchitnant 16 Comments

A wide variety of cartons of coconut water line store shelves with the label “100% coconut water,” complete with pictures of green young coconuts with straws coming out of them … implying that what’s inside is just like what you get on the beach in Thailand.

Except that's not true.

Packaged coconut water available in North America.

If it's all 100% pure coconut water, why do different brands taste different?

This is exactly what I wondered for years when I came to Canada. In Thailand I always drank coconut water from the coconuts. When I found packaged ones here, I was shocked at how ... bland ... they were! After trying a few more brands, I became even more perplexed as to why they all tasted so different. What's going on here? Read on.

What's really in your coconut water?

It IS 100% coconut water...but it's also not what you think. Most of these cartons are actually a mixture of young (green) AND mature (brown) coconut water. What’s the problem with that? Well, mature coconut water doesn’t taste nearly as good, it's actually quite bland. In fact, growing up in Thailand we often just threw it away.

But there’s a lot of it leftover from making coconut milk commercially, as coconut milk is made from mature coconuts, so this is where they end up. Different brands use different ratios of young and mature coconut water, and the ones that are sweeter (and, by default, more flavourful) are ones that are using a higher ratio of young coconut water.

In the documentary, I taste young vs mature coconut water side-by-side to explain the difference.

How did I know? I found this out straight from the source when I filmed the documentary below about how coconut milk is made in Thailand. As you will see, a lot of coconut water is collected in the process. I asked them (off camera) what they do with it, and the answer was a revelation.

I finally understood why packaged coconut water never tastes as sweet as ones straight from the coconut, and why different brands vary so much in how sweet they are!

In this video I also do a side by side taste test of coconut water from young vs mature coconuts. Check it out below!

YouTube video — My mini documentary about how coconut milk is made in Thailand.

Is it really that bad though?

No. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s actually good that they are not wasting the mature coconut water. And I think it's good that less-sweet options are available for people who may find pure young coconut water too sweet.

And to be honest, I've found a few brands of packaged coconut water that I'm perfectly happy with. (For those curious, I usually get "UFC" brand, and while they have sponsored a video before, this is not a sponsored post. "Chaokoh" brand is pretty good too.)

But I do think it’s a real problem when the packaging is misleading consumers into thinking that this is just like what you get on the beach in Thailand with the straw straight in the coconut - all that's missing is a mini umbrella! Ask anyone shopping for these products and I guarantee you that most people are under this false impression. After all - look at the picture on the carton!

It's not technically "lying," because it IS indeed pure coconut water, but it's certainly a bit sneaky.

How to choose the best coconut water

As I mentioned, different brands use different ratios of young and mature coconut water, and the ones that are sweeter and tastier use a higher ratio of the young coconut water.

Trial and error is the best way I think, but you can also go by the sugar content on the nutritional label (assuming that it's accurate).

I also found that brands that offer flavoured options, like pineapple flavoured coconut water and such, tend to be less sweet; presumably because they can get away with a blander base since they are adding flavours to it anyway. And as an FYI, I never buy these flavoured ones; because when I drink coconut water, I just want it to taste like coconut water!

Where can you find 100% pure young coconut water?

Outside of Thailand, you can buy whole young coconuts at many Asian grocery stores. But to be honest I don't bother with those. They have spent so much time in transit that sometimes they don't taste that good anymore (if the water is pink or purple...that's a sign that it's old). I save myself the effort, and the $$, and just get the packaged ones.

If you are in Thailand however, you can look for products that say "100% Young Coconut Water". In Thailand they sell both types, pure and mixed. They can do this because Thai people know the difference, so manufacturers can charge more for the pure one, and then consumers can choose.

Note: I have seen one brand here in Canada that indicates "Young Coconut Water" (it's from Vietnam), but I don't know for certain if that is true. It tasted pretty good, but I couldn't be 100% sure.

Want to know more about "fake" ingredients?

Check out my video comparing real vs fake sago pearls (aka tapioca pearls), and also find out about the myth about "pure palm sugar" in my Ultimate Guide to Palm Sugar video!

Quick & Easy Thai Red Chicken Curry

January 6, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 22 Comments

There are moments when I want to take my time and make the best curry possible. Then there are other times ... I just want tasty food on the table as quickly as possible. This is a Thai chicken curry for the latter. With a few shortcuts you will have a still-legit Thai red chicken curry in less than 30 minutes. ... and make sure you get your rice going first cuz your curry will be done fast!

a pot of red curry chicken with bamboo shoots

I came up with this recipe for my red curry paste review. Since the purpose was to compare different brands of curry paste, I just wanted a recipe that was quick and simple, but would still yield the true flavour of a Thai red curry. It then occurred to me that this would be incredibly handy for when I actually need to produce a curry fast!

How I made this curry faster

There are a few things I did that contributes to the speed of the curry:

I used bamboo shoots as my vegetables. Bamboo shoots are a classic veg pairing with Thai red and green curry. It conveniently comes in a can, pre-cut, and pre-cooked, so no cutting board or extra prep required!
A quick marinade allows for flavourful chicken that doesn't need to be simmered. Normally, I'd use chicken thighs and let it braise in the curry sauce slowly so it would have time to tenderize and absorb flavour. This is the technique I use in my red chicken curry with squash and green curry chicken recipe. But if you've got no time for that, a quick marinade in fish sauce will make sure the chicken is still flavourful.
Or use shrimp! Another great protein option that doesn't need to be marinated is shrimp. Drop them in at the end and cook for 1-2 minutes as with the chicken.
Saute the curry paste in oil rather than reduced coconut milk. Traditionally we reduce coconut milk until thick, then use that to saute the curry paste. The shortcut way is to just saute the curry paste in oil. This is a small flavour compromise, but still yields a tasty result. And if you use virgin coconut oil, you will still get that coconut flavour!

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients for a 2-serving curry. If you want to scale it up, or switch to metric units, use the toggle in the recipe card!

½ lb boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs, cut into about 1 cm strips.
2 teaspoon fish sauce
2 tablespoon virgin coconut oil, or neutral oil
2-3 tablespoon red curry paste. The brand of curry paste you use matters a great deal as you can see in my Thai curry paste review. Mae Ploy and Nam Jai are my top brands, but if you need a vegan paste that doesn't contain shrimp paste, Aroy-D in the white plastic tub is a good option. If using Maesri (in a small tin) or Thai Kitchen brands, you will need to increase the amount of paste by at least double. If you're feeling ambitious, here's a homemade curry paste recipe that you can make and freeze.
¾ cup coconut milk, always use full-fat coconut milk for Thai cooking.
½ cup chicken broth, unsalted or low sodium. Store-bought is fine, but it's very easy to make. Here's my recipe for homemade Thai-style chicken stock.
1 tablespoon palm sugar, or light brown sugar. It's not crucial that you use palm sugar here, but if you want to learn more about it here's my post all about palm sugar.
4.5 oz bamboo shoots strips (about half a 3can). Be sure to rinse the bamboo shoots very well before using as they can have a bit of a strong smell straight out of the can. You can also substitute other veggies that you have on hand, and if you want to make it a little more colourful, you can add some red bell pepper as well.
3 makrut lime leaves (a.k.a kaffir lime leaves). This is optional, but is a nice citrusy touch. If you happen to have some lime, you can add just a touch of lime zest instead.
1 teaspoon fish sauce, if modifying this to be vegetarian, use soy sauce
½ cup Thai basil leaves
Jasmine rice, or brown rice, for serving

How to Make Easy Thai Red Curry Chicken

Here are the steps, and as you can see it's very easy, so make sure your rice is going before you start the curry!

Mix the chicken with 2 teaspoons (10 ml) of the fish sauce and set aside.
Put a small pot over medium low heat and add the coconut oil and the curry paste. Saute the curry paste for 2 minutes, deglazing with a little water if the paste starts to stick to the pot.
Increase the heat to medium-high, then add the coconut milk, chicken stock, palm sugar, bamboo shoots and stir to mix. Grab the makrut lime leaves and twist them to bruise, then tear into chunks and add them to the pot. Simmer the curry for 5 minutes, adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a simmer, not a boil.
After 5 minutes, add the marinated chicken, and once the sauce comes back to a simmer, cook for another 1-2 minutes - just until the chicken is cooked through. (If using chicken breast, it's important not to overcook them or they will dry out. Small pieces of chicken only take a couple of minutes to cook, and they will continue to cook in the residual heat of the curry after the heat turns off.)
Turn off the heat and stir in Thai basil. Taste the sauce and add more fish sauce and/or sugar as needed. How much fish sauce you need will depend on the brand of curry paste and how much you use, so it's important to taste before adding.
Serve with jasmine rice!

Pro Tips: How to "fix" curry that's too weak or too strong.

Using different brands of Thai curry paste can result in vastly different results, as you can see in my curry paste review video. So what happens if you make a curry and it's so weak? Or so spicy? How do you fix it now that it's done?

How do I fix a curry that's too spicy?

If you've made the curry and it is too spicy, the only way to fix it is to dilute it with more liquid. Here's what you do:

Add only the curry sauce into a pot (you can strain it or scoop the meat/veggies out with a slotted skimmer). Add more coconut milk to the sauce until it is no longer too spicy; you can also add a mix of coconut milk and chicken stock as per the original curry to keep the richness the same.

Then, add more fish sauce and sugar to bring the seasoning level back up. You can add more meat and veggies at this point, too, if you like, as you will now have more sauce volume.

Finally, add the old meat and veggies back into the new sauce and heat it up just until hot enough to serve.

More importantly for next time, I would use a different brand of curry paste. You can just use less of the same paste in theory, but doing that will also result in a weaker curry overall so it's not ideal. Maesri in a tin and Thai Kitchen are two brands that are milder, but be sure to use double the amount of paste than the recipe calls for.

How to I fix a curry that is too bland?

This is a much easier fix, and in fact, I do this in the red curry paste review video where I was trying to make a curry from the weaker paste.

Simply take more curry paste and saute it for 2 minutes in oil, just like you did the first time. Then pour most of the curry sauce from the old curry into the new paste, and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. (You can just hold the meat and veggies back with a spatula and pour, no need to strain everything out).

Then, add all the meat and veggies back in and heat it up just until hot enough for serving.

Other Thai Curries You Can Now Make

The basic technique for making Thai coconut curries are very similar, you just need to make changes according to different meats and vegetables used. So once you've made this easy Thai red curry recipe, you can now feel confident to make these also:

Panang Curry Beef - a very quick curry that's more like a saucey stir fry. In this recipe I show you how to make a quick panang curry paste using store-bought red curry paste as a base.
Green Curry Chicken - an absolute classic with its own unique flavour. The main difference between red and green curry is that green curry paste uses green chilies, while red curry paste uses dried red chilies. But this one difference creates a very distinct flavour profile.
Yellow Curry Chicken - Curries in Thai cuisine tends to be on the light side, but if you want a chicken curry that is richer and more stew-like, this yellow curry with potatoes is for you.

4 Thai Coffees You Didn't Know About and How to Make Them

April 11, 2014 by Pailin Chongchitnant 1 Comment

When people in the West think about Thai coffee, most of the time they are thinking about one thing: Thai iced coffee. Sweet, milky, dark iced coffee that is served in many Thai restaurants. But in Thailand people actually drink Thai coffee in 5 different ways, and in this post I'll go through them all and introduce you to the other 4, and maybe you'll find something you like even better!

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a glass of Thai black iced coffee — Here's the second most popular coffee in Thailand, *oliang*, have you heard about it?

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

The best way to learn about all of these coffees is to see them all in action, so watch this video below! Note that the video includes only the 4 lesser-known coffees, check out this post for the classic Thai iced coffee tutorial and how to brew the coffee.

What is Thai Coffee Exactly?

What makes Thai coffee taste unique is that the coffee is not actually pure coffee. Yes, that dark, chocolatey flavour comes from other roasted ingredients. I've seen corn and soybeans as added ingredients, but I've heard that tamarind seeds used to also be added.

It probably started out as a way to cut cost, but then it became the reason for its unique flavour. Beyond that, Thai coffee is extra dark roasted (that's euphemism for burnt), which is why we never drink Thai coffee without sugar because ...that would not be very good.

In theory you can use other dark roast coffee beans to make any of the Thai coffee recipes below, and you may end up with "better" coffee, but to get the authentic taste, you should visit your Asian grocery store and get that adulterated burnt Thai coffee mix! (I sound sarcastic, but I am serious!)

Do Thai People Drink "Regular" Coffee?

Yes! Nowadays Western coffee culture in Thailand is booming and you can find Starbucks everywhere, along with hundreds of hipster cafes serving all the fancy lattes and macchiatos.

The "Thai coffee" we're talking about in this post refers to the traditional coffee that we drank before Western coffee culture took off. In Thailand, this coffee is now called gafae boran, which means something along the lines of "vintage coffee." You can find gafae boran sold by street carts and old school coffee houses in older parts of town.

How to Brew Thai Coffee

You need to brew a basic Thai coffee to make all of the different coffees below. Brewing Thai coffee isn't complicated. You do not need to be a barista to make a good brew, because as I mentioned, this isn't fancy coffee!

You simply need to steep the coffee mix in hot-off-the-boil water for 4-5 minutes. The ratio I use is 3 tablespoons of Thai coffee beans and 180 ml (¾ cup) of hot water.

You can brew it in a French press, or brew it in any cup and then strain out the beans through a coffee filter. In Thailand we use a cloth filter, but it is not necessary to make authentic Thai coffee.

For a video tutorial on brewing Thai coffee, see my post for Thai Iced Coffee.

1. Thai Iced Coffee - Gafae Yen

This Thai iced coffee is the most common way Thai people drink coffee, because Thai people love sweet creamy things, and it's always hot in Thailand so iced drinks are king. (Gafae means coffee, and yen means cold)

BUT the Thai iced coffee that your restaurant serves may not be this one! Many restaurants actually serve coffee #5 on this list, oliang yok law, because it's simpler to make. But if you're looking for the way it's done in Thailand, this is it.

Here's what you need (amounts are in the recipe card below)

Brewed Thai coffee
Sweetened condensed milk
Evaporated milk
Sugar
A pinch of salt
A lot of ice to completely fill the serving glass

How to Make Thai Iced Coffee:

Brew the coffee (instructions in the recipe card below), then add sweetened condensed milk, sugar and salt; stir to dissolve. Pour it over ice and drizzle with evaporated milk on top.

2. Thai Hot Coffee - Gafae Ron

Gafae ron is basically the hot version of the iced coffee above (ron means hot, and yen means cold). But apart from the fact that there's no ice, there's a slight difference in how you serve it.

Here's what you'll need (amounts are in the recipe card below)

Brewed Thai coffee
Sugar
A pinch of salt
Condensed milk

How to Make Thai Hot Coffee:

Start with the basic brewed hot coffee and add the sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Add the condensed milk and let it sit at the bottom for the classic layered black-and-white presentation. Serve it like this and let your guest do the fun job of stirring!

3. Thai Black Hot Coffee - O Yua

O Yua is not as popular amongst the younger generation but it's quite popular with my dad's generation. O yua meang "black hot" in Chinese Teochew dialect, which is the dominant dialect amongst the Chinese Thai population. So this tells you a bit about where this coffee came from :).

Here's what you need (amounts are in the recipe card below)

Brewed Thai coffee
Sugar
A pinch of salt

How to Make Thai Hot Black Coffee:

Simply mix and serve! You may notice that even though it's "black" we still add sugar. In Thailand, all coffee is sweetened no matter how you order it, because as mentioned, Thai coffee beans aren't the pure gourmet stuff and you really need the sugar to make it palatable.

The salt is optional, as in all the other coffees, but in this case the coffee is the strongest and I find the salt helps mellow out the bitterness.

4. Thai Black Iced Coffee - O liang

Oliang is perhaps the second most popular coffee in Thailand, especially for people who are lactose intolerant or who don't like milky drinks. O liang means "black cold" in Teochew Chinese, and it's simply the iced version of O yua.

Here's what you need (amounts are in the recipe card below)

Brewed Thai coffee
Sugar
A pinch of salt
A lot of ice to completely fill the serving glass

How to Make Thai Black Iced Coffee:

Mix the coffee, sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Pack a serving glass with ice and pour the coffee over it. Enjoy!

5. Thai Iced Coffee with Milk - Oliang Yok Law

O liang is black iced coffee, and yok law means doing a wheelie...yes, like on a bike. I have no idea what is the reason behind this strange name, but it's basically it's o liang with milk (o liang on a wheelie?).

This is what many Thai restaurants in N. America serves as their "Thai iced coffee" because it's simpler to not have t condensed milk.

Here's what you'll need (amounts are in the recipe card below)

Brewed Thai coffee
Sugar
A pinch of salt
A lot of ice to completely fill the serving glass
Evaporated milk (in N. American Thai restaurants they would use half and half)

How to Make Thai Iced Coffee with Milk:

Combine the coffee, sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Fill the glass wth ice, then pour the coffee over it. Drizzle the evaporated milk on top for that cascade effect. Stir before drinking.

Recipe Card

Easy Chicken Satay with "Real" Peanut Sauce

July 28, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 44 Comments

This recipe is an excerpt from my cookbook Sabai which is all about weeknight friendly Thai recipes.

For years I’ve been preaching about the fact that 99% of satays in Thailand are pork satay, NOT the chicken version popular in Thai restaurants in America. But it occurred to me that if you’re going to cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts one way or another, the satay treatment is one of the best things you can do to this otherwise unexciting protein.

To make it weeknight friendly, I’ve omitted the most dreaded part of making satay, the skewering. Just throw the chicken on the grill if you have one, or cook it indoors using a grill pan or a saute pan. It works as an appetizer or as the main dish. The dipping sauce, which is the "real" Thai peanut sauce, can be made in advance, and will last in the fridge for at least a week.

What is satay exactly?

Satay refers to skewered marinated meats that are grilled and served with a peanut dipping sauce. Satay came to Thailand from Indonesia, and originally it arrived as beef satay. But in Thailand, pork is the more common meat; so eventually pork satay became the most popular and basically the only kind of satay we eat.

But outside of Thailand in Thai restaurants, it's a different story. Pork is much less popular and chicken is king (and the cheapest!). So restaurants overseas chose to use chicken instead, and that's how chicken satay became associated with Thai food; even though you can barely find it in in Thailand!

What is satay sauce? Is it the same as peanut sauce?

The sauce traditionally served with Thai satay is a spicy peanut sauce and coconut milk, flavoured with Thai red curry paste. I call this a peanut sauce, but really it should be called satay sauce because it is a sauce that is ONLY served with satay.

We don't make bottles of this peanut sauce and just put it on random stuff. In fact, there is no such thing as a generic "Thai peanut sauce" made from peanut butter that we use like it were ketchup. Peanut butter is not even a Thai ingredient!

So the next time you see a "creamy Thai peanut sauce recipe" on the internet made with peanut butter and soy sauce, you now know that it's nonsense.

*Note that the Thai satay sauce is different from Indonesian satay sauce - naturally foods change as they travel to new destinations.

No Skewers Needed

Followers of the show may know that I hate skewering. I really do...due in part to my having skewered hundreds of various foods during my years in the catering and restaurant industry.

So because I wanted this to be an easy chicken satay recipe, and not one that requires messy fiddling with bamboo skewers while occasionally stabbing yourself, I have left out the skewering. What's the point of skewers anyway if we're not selling these on the street? I can use a fork, thank you.

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients for chicken satay. It only looks like a long list, but many of these are pantry staples, and there's really not much shopping to do! For amounts, see the full recipe card below.

MARINATED CHICKEN

The chicken can be marinated up to one day in advance; but if you're in a rush, just let them sit while you make the peanut sauce. A minimum of 20 minutes is ideal.

coriander seeds, preferably toasted, but if you're lazy it's fine not to.
cumin seeds, also preferably toasted.
white peppercorns
brown sugar
salt
ground turmeric
ground cinnamon
tamarind paste, store-bought or homemade
coconut milk
boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs. I suggest seeing the video tutorial for a demo for how I cut chicken so it's clear, but for breasts, cut into long ½-inch thick strips diagonally against the grain. For thighs, trim off the fat and any dangly bits, then cut in half lengthwise.
Jasmine rice and/or white toast, for serving, and optional. If you want to serve these as an appy, eating it with white toast is actually a classic in Thailand! But to make this a meal you can serve with rice.

THAI PEANUT SAUCE

This peanut sauce is the real deal. None of that peanut butter-laden stuff; which if you didn't know, is a totally Americanized invention. This sauce will last at least a week in the fridge so make it ahead of time if you wish. It will also freeze beautifully if you want to make a whole bunch.

roasted peanuts, unsalted. I always buy raw peanuts and roast them myself because the flavour is just superior to pre-roasted peanuts. I also buy skin-on peanuts because they, too, taste better despite a lot of work to skin them after. Roast them in a 350°F oven for about 15-20 minutes (timing depends on the size) until they're lightly browned.
coconut milk
Red curry paste, see this post for my review of store-bought brands. You can also make your own red curry paste and freeze!
tamarind paste, store-bought or homemade
Palm sugar
fish sauce

"AJAAD" QUICK CUCUMBER PICKLE (optional)

This is what I call an "instant pickle" that you can serve right after you make it. It is served with satay to help cut the richness of the rich peanut sauce, but it's up to you if you want to leave it out. You can also serve the satay with any other tart pickles you've got in your fridge.

white vinegar, or you can use rice vinegar, Filipino cane vinegar, or any kind of mild-flavoured vinegar.
granulated sugar
salt
cucumber
Thai chilies or another hot pepper (optional)

How to Make Thai Chicken Satay

Here's a bird's eye view of the process. The full instructions are in the recipe card below. If this is your first time, I recommend watching the full video tutorial to ensure success!

Process shots for making chicken satay, steps 1-4

Pound the coriander, cumin and white peppercorns into a powder.
Add all remaining marinade ingredients and mix well. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
Cut the chicken breast against the grain, diagonally, into ½-inch thick strips. Once you get to the flat part of the chicken, you can make it wider to even out the size. For chicken thighs, trim off excess fat and any dangly bits and cut horizontally in half. (See video for a visual of how to do this.)
Mix well with the marinade and let sit for at least 20 minutes and up to one day. Meanwhile make the peanut sauce.

Process shots for making peanut sauce for chicken satay, steps 5-8

Grind the peanuts until mealy in a food processor or mortar and pestle. Do not turn them into peanut butter!
Cook ⅓ cup of the coconut milk with the red curry paste until thick, and the coconut oil starts to separate out from the paste.
Add the remaining coconut milk, the peanuts, tamarind and palm sugar and cook for about 5 minutes until it's thick.
Taste the sauce and add fish sauce as needed. If you want to serve with pickles, make the pickling liquid now; instructions are in the recipe card, but you simply have to dissolve the sugar and salt in the vinegar and let it cool!

Process shots for making chicken satay, steps 9-10

Grill the chicken breast for a few minutes per side with the lid open. If using chicken thighs, you may close the lid as they tend to take longer. You can also pan sear the chicken on a nonstick skillet instead.
If serving with the instant pickle, pour the pickling liquid over the cucumber shortly before serving so the cucumber remains crisp.

FAQ

How can I prep this in advance?

The chicken can be marinated up to one day in advance, and the peanut sauce will last at least a week in the fridge.

Can I use other proteins instead?

See these recipes for pork satay and beef satay. Each protein requires slightly different preparation and cooking, though the sauce and the marinade is basically the same.

Is there a way to make a vegetarian satay?

You can substitute extra firm tofu for the meat and use soy sauce instead of fish sauce. The peanut sauce is so flavourful it will make the tofu super tasty!

How can I cook chicken satay without a grill?

You can pan fry the chicken instead in a non-stick skillet, and the full instructions are in the recipe card. You'll need to do it in batches so as to not crowd the pan. You may also need to wipe the pan with paper towel between batches to prevent any remaining marinade from burning.

Thai Curry Crab: The Hidden Gem of Thai Cuisine

July 14, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 4 Comments

Crab curry stir fry or pu pad pong garee is a classic Thai dish and a mainstay of Thai seafood restaurants. It's so good it's easily in my top 5 Thai seafood dishes. Yet, it's almost unknown outside of Thailand as very few Thai restaurants offer it.

Why? Probably because crab is expensive, and also because...well...it's not the prettiest dish you've ever seen, as you'll see, though it does dress up nicely. But it is out-of-this-world delicious AND extremely easy and quick to make. Perfect for some weeknight luxury.

What is Pu Pad Pong Garee?

Pu (pronounced bpoo) means crab, pad means to stir-fry, and pong garee means curry powder. But the name omits a key element: eggs. So more accurately it's crab stir fried in a soft custard flavoured with curry powder.

There are two versions of this dish: the original version uses a whole crab, still in the shell, chopped up into chunks and tossed into the stir fry (pic below). You can imagine how that would be a total pain to eat though - having to pick crab meat out from the gooey shell that's covered in a custardy sauce - so it is not my preference. So my family always opt for the other version that uses crab meat only. It's more expensive, but totally worth it.

Another version of this dish is made with in-shell crab, but this is difficult to eat.

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients for this dish with explanations. For amounts, see the full recipe card below.

The Custard

Thai chili paste or nam prik pao. You can buy this from Asian grocery stores, or you can make it at home using my nam prik pao recipe here. If you don't have it, you can omit it and substitute about a teaspoon of sugar (the chili paste is quite sweet), but the flavour will be a little different.
Chili oil. Typically we use the chili oil that sits on top of the Thai chili paste when you buy it. If you don't have enough of this left, substitute any other kind of chili oil. This is added mostly for colour; because without the red, the curry powder will leave the dish a sort of yellow and that's not, to put it delicately, very...um...appetizing.
Evaporated milk. You may be surprised by this seemingly non-Thai ingredient. Traditionally we use coconut milk to add creaminess, but in more modern recipes such as this, you'll see evaporated milk used where a more neutral flavoured creaminess is desired. Creamy tom yum soup is another dish where evaporated milk is used (and it's totally delish btw). But you can use coconut milk instead and it will still be excellent.
Eggs
Oyster sauce. See my post on choosing the best oyster sauce.
Fish sauce. See my post on how to choose the best fish sauce.
Ground white pepper.

The Stir Fry

Fresh crab meat. You want this as chunky as possible, so no canned crab! I used dungeness cuz I'm in the West Coast, but blue crab would be even better. You can also make a shrimp version which is less common, but still good. Precook the shrimp first and proceed with the recipe as usual.
Onion, if you have sweet onion, it's really good in this.
Garlic, chopped.
Curry powder. My preference is Japanese SB brand. If you can find it, the most popular brand in Thailand is Waugh's curry powder (made in England).
Celery leaves and thinly sliced stalk. I am using this as a substitute for Chinese celery, which is what is used in Thailand.
Julienned red chilies or bell pepper, optional for garnish. If you're serving guests, garnishes are VERY important because, ungarnished, this dish does not look great to be frank, lol.
Optional: fresh chilies. This dish is typically not spicy, but it is quite tasty when it's got a little bit of heat. So you can add some chopped Thai chilies, or even chili powder.
Jasmine rice for serving.
Condiment: Though not necessary, Prik Nam Pla is a great condiment for this dish because the zing offsets the richness. A little sprinkle with some chili pieces for some heat would suffice.

How to Make Thai Curry Crab

This recipe is easy but it goes FAST so you need to know exactly what you're doing once the wok is on. You also need to know the consistency you're looking for in order to not turn the whole thing into scrambled eggs. So I highly recommend you watch the video tutorial in the recipe card before you cook in order to ensure success!

process shots for how to make crab curry stir fry, steps 1-4

Combine the Thai chili paste and chili oil with a splash of the evaporated milk and whisk until the chili paste is no longer clumpy.
Add the remaining evaporated milk, eggs, oyster sauce, fish sauce, and white pepper. Whisk until smooth.
In a nonstick wok or skillet, sauté the onion and garlic in oil for a couple minutes on medium heat; just until the onion is softened slightly but is still crunchy.
With the heat on medium and no higher, add the curry powder and stir to mix with the oil for literally 5-10 seconds.

process shots for how to make crab curry stir fry, steps 5-8

Add the crab meat and gently toss to heat it up for 10-15 seconds, being careful not to break up the crab.
Add custard and stir constantly, scraping the bottom, until it looks creamy and thick.
Turn off the heat and add the celery and plate immediately so that the eggs will not overcook in the residual heat of the pan.
Garnish with more celery leaves, red pepper and some extra crabmeat, if desired. Serve with rice!

Tips For Success

This recipe is pretty simple, but there are a few tips to keep in mind for best results.

I like to use a rubber spatula instead of a wok spatula for this as you'll need to scrape the eggs off the bottom constantly. It's also more gentle on the crab and won't break it up too much.
The texture of this dish is soft and creamy, so you want the onion to still be crunchy otherwise the whole dish will lack textural variety...in other words, it'll all be mush. So don't overcook the onions or cut them too small.
Do not use high heat, especially when you add the curry powder, or you might burn it. Also, if you don't work fast enough, a high heat will overcook the eggs quickly.

What to Serve with Pu Pad Pong Garee

This is a dish that I don't think should be the only thing you're serving in the meal. It's rich, creamy, and soft, and could really benefit from another dish that is light and has some crunch for texture.

Garlicky cabbage stir fry is a super easy one if you want to keep the meal simple, or one of these Thai salads would provide the bright acidity that will complement the dish well.

FAQ

Can curry crab be made in advance?

Ideally not, because it is tricky to reheat without overcooking the eggs. But it takes literally 3 minutes to cook (you can see it in real time in the video) so if you get all your ingredients prepped in advance, there should be no reason why you can't cook this right before serving.

Is there a substitute for crab meat?

You can substitute any kind of protein you'd like, actually! In Thailand we make this dish only with crab and shrimp, but you could certainly use tofu, fish, or even chicken.

Pre-cook your protein of choice first though, and then follow the recipe as is without any modifications. Keep in mind however that if your protein is bland, like chicken or tofu, you might want to marinate it a bit with some soy sauce or fish sauce before cooking.

How do I store and reheat leftovers?

Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days, but when you reheat, don't reheat it too hot or you'll overcook the eggs. Using the microwave is fine but stir it every 20-30 seconds (depending on how much you're heating) just until it's warm. Serve it on piping hot rice and it'll be fine. You can also reheat it in a frying pan, over medium high heat, stirring constantly until it's warm.

Thai "Laab" Salad for Your Leftover Roast

December 18, 2020 by Pailin Chongchitnant 2 Comments

Laab (it is not laRb, no rolling of the r!) is the perfect way to use up any leftover meat, especially one that's a bit lacking in flavour. Tart, spicy, and fresh; and guaranteed to "fix" any less-than-stellar roast turkey or chicken. Also perfect for using up steak and roast beef as well!

A plate of Thai roast turkey salad with cucumber and green onions on the side

Laab is a very basic Thai salad made with a simple dressing of fish sauce, lime juice and roasted chili flakes. The defining element of a laab (and the most delicious part) is the toasted rice powder, which is easy to make using any kind of white rice, though traditionally it is done with Thai sticky rice. It is not laab without toasted rice powder!

For a true laab you want to have some mint and cilantro, but if you're just trying to make a quick laab using leftovers, throw in any fresh herbs you have on hand. Green onions, dill, oregano or even tarragon would work.

And laab is always gluten-free and dairy-free, bonus!

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

This recipe is part of the 4 Ways to Thai Up Your Leftovers article. Be sure to check that post out for 3 other leftover ideas!

All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success! And if you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!

Mother-in-Law's Chinese Tomato Beef Stir Fry

May 18, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 17 Comments

Tomato beef stir fry is a nostalgic dish for many Cantonese kids, my husband included. It's a popular dish in Chinese cuisine (specifically Cantonese), but kids in particular LOVE it!

With tender beef slices and a sweet tomato sauce, it's easy to see why. It's an weeknight-friendly dish with simple ingredients that comes together in 30 minutes. It's no wonder this was a regular for my mother-in-law who was cooking for 5-8 people every day!

a plate of tomato beef stir fry with green onions on top — Chinese Tomato Beef Stir Fry

My mother-in-law (whom I call Aunty Jenny) is not one to have written recipes, so I had to do primary research and watch her make it. I was delighted to able to recreate a dish that Craig said tastes exactly as he remembers it!

What is Tomato Beef Stir Fry?

In Cantonese this dish is called faan ke ngao yok faan (see how this is pronounced in the video). Faan ke is tomatoes, ngao yok is beef, and faan is rice! A simple stir fry of beef slices and fresh tomatoes in a sweet and tangy sauce served over rice.

In Hong Kong this is a dish you can commonly buy as a cheap takeout meal. For home cooks, it is a popular dish amongst parents because kids just adore this dish...likely because of the ketchup!

Ingredients

The ingredients for beef and tomato stir fry are simple and basic. You don't even need to go to an Asian grocery store to buy anything!

Beef Marinade

Flank steak. Flank steak sliced into thin strips is what my MIL has always used, but she has also made it with pre-sliced hot pot beef (you can see her cook with this beef in the intro of the video). You can use another cut of beef that is not too tough, so anything you'd grill on a BBQ wouldwork. Ground beef is another common variation that is even easier since you don't have to slice it!
Oyster sauce, see my guide to choosing a good oyster sauce.
Soy sauce, see my guide to different types of soy sauce.
Garlic powder, or substitute grated garlic
Ginger powder, or substitute grated fresh ginger
Ground black pepper or white pepper
Baking soda. Adding baking soda to beef is the Chinese restaurants' secret to tender beef in stir fries. The high pH of baking soda prevents the beef from tightening up completely when cooked, which means less liquid is squeezed out and the muscle fibers remain more loose. This means tender and juicy beef without having to splurge on premium cuts.

The Sauce

Ketchup. You may not expect to see ketchup in a Chinese recipe, but the use of ketchup has entered many Asian cuisines! In Thailand we also use ketchup in a few dishes (but never pad thai!) such as this "Macaroni" Stir Fry and American Fried Rice!
Granulated sugar or brown sugar
Salt
Cornstarch

Tip: My mother-in-law made this dish as a very busy cook who had to feed a crowd every night, so she kept it simple. But to make it a little more complex you can also add Chinese shaoxing wine and/or toasted sesame oil if you like these flavours. You can add them either to the sauce or to the beef marinade.

The Stir Fry

Garlic, chopped
Shallots or onion, chopped
Fresh ginger, julienned
Fresh tomatoes, roma tomatoes are preferred because they are the least watery and are not too acidic.
Green onions, white and green part separated and chopped
Jasmine rice for serving
Fried eggs for serving, optional. Aunty Jenny always paired this dish with fried eggs. She liked scrambled eggs but everyone else loved them fried with the yolk still runny.

How to Make Chinese Beef Tomato Stir-Fry

This is a pretty simple dish, but the cooking goes fast! So if this is your first time, I recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure that you go in with a good idea of what needs to happen and in what order.

process shots for tomato beef stir fry steps 1-4

Divide the flank steak ALONG the grain lines into pieces about 2-3 inches wide. Slice each piece AGAINST the grain into thin slices, about ⅛-inch thick. A partially frozen steak will make this job easier.
Dissolve the baking soda in water until fully dissolved.
Add the baking soda solution to the beef and mix well to ensure all the pieces are coated.
Add the oyster sauce, soy sauce, garlic powder, ginger powder and black pepper to the beef and mix well. Let sit for at least 5 minutes.

process shots for tomato beef stir fry steps 5-8

Make the sauce: In a small bowl combine the cornstarch and the water and stir until there are no more lumps. Combine the slurry with the ketchup, sugar and salt.
Stir the sauce until well combined. Note: Typically, cornstarch slurry is added at the end, a little at a time just until the sauce is thickened to the right consistency. But if you measure your ingredients, the amount of starch needed will be pretty consistent, so you can simplify by adding it directly to the sauce.
If serving with fried eggs, cook them to whatever doneness you prefer.
Tip: If you’re frying eggs in the same wok as the stir fry, fry them first so you don’t have to clean the wok in between. If you’re frying them in a separate pan, you can do them at the end so they’re still hot for serving.
Heat a wok or a large nonstick skillet on high heat until hot (or as hot as your nonstick can handle). Add just enough oil to coat the bottom, then add the beef and spread it out into a single layer as much as possible. Let it cook without moving it until browned and about halfway cooked.

process shots for tomato beef stir fry steps 9-12

Once browned, toss until the beef is about 90% done. Remove from the pan.
In the same pan on medium-high heat, add a little more oil, then add the garlic, shallots and ginger and saute until aromatic and the garlic starts to turn golden.
Add the tomatoes and toss just until the exterior starts to soften; about 30 seconds. If using especially ripe tomatoes, this will take a shorter time, so pay attention!
Turn the heat up to high, then add the beef, the white part of green onions, and all the sauce and toss just until the sauce is bubbling; another 30 seconds or so.

process shots for tomato beef stir fry steps 13-14

Once the sauce is bubbling and the tomatoes are soft but still holding shape, turn off the heat and add in most of the green onions.
Plate and top with the rest of the green onions. Cook the eggs now if you haven’t done so. Serve with jasmine rice and enjoy!

Tips for Success

I recommend watching the video tutorial first if you have never cooked this before. This dish goes fast, so you need to know what's happening and in what order, and the video will really help with that. In the video I show the cooking in real time so you can see how fast it goes!

When searing the beef, do not cook it well-done. The beef will cook more when you put it back in at the end.
Don't add too much liquid. When you're done stir frying, you may feel like there isn't enough sauce and you might be tempted to add a splash of water. But as the dish sits the tomato juices will continue to come out and create more sauce, so keep that in mind before you add anything!
If you're going to eyeball ingredient amounts, leave the cornstarch slurry for the end. In this recipe I am able to mix the starch right into the sauce because I measure all ingredients and I know exactly how much starch is needed to thicken the sauce. So if you love to cook intuitively and eyeball ingredients, make the starch slurry but leave it until the end so you can add only as much as required to get the right sauce thickness.

FAQ

Can this dish be made in advance?

The dish is best eaten fresh; however the leftovers do keep pretty well. The tomatoes may be a little more mushy than ideal after it's been stored, but the flavour will all still be good. Be careful not to overheat the leftovers to avoid overcooking the beef and tomatoes.

Can I use chicken or pork instead?

If you don't eat beef, you can use another meat and there is no need to change any of the methods or ingredients. I would cut chicken bigger however; ½-inch thick pieces is good. If using pork, use pork shoulder and cut into thin slices just like the beef.

Other Chinese Recipes You Might Like

A great side dish to the tomato beef stir fry is this simple gai lan oyster sauce stir fry.

If you love tomatoey dishes, you must also check out this Chinese tomato egg stir fry. It's even simpler and easier than the beef version.

Aunty Jenny also makes these amazing braised chicken wings with lots of soft sweet onions. But her signature dish might actually be these dim sum turnip cakes (lo bak go) which are the best I've ever had anywhere.

Real Sago vs Tapioca Pearls + Sago Pudding Recipe

October 15, 2021 by Pailin Chongchitnant 6 Comments

If you’ve had sago desserts before, did you know that you’ve been eating fake sago pearls all this time?? Confused? Read on, or just watch the video where I explain everything AND do a taste test comparing real vs fake sago pearls!

Mango sago pudding made from "fake" sago pearls.
Credit: "Mango sago" by NukelarBurrito is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

When Sago is NOT Sago

If you do a Google search of "sago desserts" you'll come across lots of recipes for mango and coconut sago puddings. But look into the recipes, and you'll notice that these puddings are actually made from tapioca pearls.

But if they’re made from tapioca, why are they called sago? WELL, "Breaking News" ... that is because these tapioca pearls have been used as a cheaper imitation of REAL sago pearls. And real sago pearls are made from a plant actually called sago palm.

Sago palm trees growing along the water. — Sago palm trees growing in Southern Thailand. Source: Thailaemthong.com

What Happened to Real Sago?

So why did we need an imitation of sago in the first place? The problem with true sago is that they are precious. It takes sago palms at least 8-10 years to reach the right maturity, and then the harvesting and processing is super labour intensive.

This means that true sago pearls are limited in quantities and are much more expensive, so people started using tapioca pearls as a substitute, and the real stuff was forgotten for a long time. Only recently did it make a bit of a comeback thanks to social media spreading news of the original substance.

So What is the Fake Stuff Then?

A tray of white tapioca pearls. — "Fake sago" a.k.a. tapioca pearls.

The fake stuff is tapioca pearls, made from tapioca starch. Tapioca starch is made from cassava (pic below), a widely available root vegetable that's a staple in the diets of many cuisines around the world. Needless to say, harvesting a root vegetable is much easier than harvesting a 10-year-old tree, making it a much more accessible and cheaper product.

Cassava roots are what tapioca starch and pearls are made from. Credit: "Cassava roots" by IITA Image Library is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The sad thing is that in Thailand we actually call tapioca pearls "sakoo," our term for sago; which as we now know is categorically wrong. But there was no other name given to it, presumably because they were originally "snuck in", pretending to be the "real thing". So now we're having to call the real one "true sago" or "tree sago," when really it should just simply be "sago."

How is Real Sago Made?

sago flesh being squeezed by hand — Source: https://readthecloud.co/sago-trang/
Squeezing grated sago palm trunk is a step in making sago. For more pictures of traditional sago making, see the original post here (in Thai).

So what is so hard about making sago? Why are they so precious? In a nutshell, here's the traditional process:

Cut down a massive tree (the sago palm) that's been growing for 8-10 years.
Chop it up into manageable chunks.
Grate the flesh of the trunk and pound or blend it into mush with water.
Squeeze the grated flesh to extract the starch, then strain.
Let the starch in this "tree juice" settle, then pour off the excess water.
Break the starch up into small clumps and roll into small beads.
Dry the beads completely for storage and packaging.

Video: How sago pearls are made in Thailand

To really appreciate the process, watch the video below to see sago harvesting and processing in Southern Thailand (the video is in Thai, but it's mostly visual.) In the video some machines are involved in the process, but as you can see it's still pretty basic. If seeing this doesn't make you want to savour every bite of real sago...I don't know what will!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b997sN5DurI

But how different are they, really?

This is where I will direct you to my video to find out! In the video you will see how they cook up, and also my reaction to tasting real sago for the first time. I'll then give you my verdict and whether it's worth searching for.

But here is some further analysis regarding the differences between the two that I didn't include in the video:

Left: Cooked "fake sago" or tapioca pearls are pure white and even in size. Right: Cooked real sago pearls are dark brown and have uneven sizes.

Colour

Real sago is made from unrefined starch and therefore has a colour; they can be anything from brown to pink. The lighter pink ones are more "desirable", presumably because they're prettier, though I don't believe they are superior in flavour.

Tapioca pearls, however, are pure white because they are made from refined tapioca starch. This has implications on flavour because the refining process removes all the flavour from the original cassava plant.

Note: You can find tapioca pearls that are pink and green; those simply have food colouring added and are not flavoured.

2. Shape

Tapioca pearls are made in factories, which can turn them out in perfect little spheres.

Sago pearls are turned into beads manually by rolling around little clumps of damp starch in a flat bamboo tray until those clumps turn into little balls, as shown in this video. This manual process means that the pearls have uneven shapes and sizes. This has implications on texture, as you will see in my comparison video.

3. Density

I tried to eat these pearls raw (though sadly I did not do this on camera), and real sago instantly disintegrated into powder in my mouth, but the tapioca pearls were so hard they could've broken my teeth! This explains the volume difference between equal weights of the two pearls; 50g of real sago looks like a lot more than 50g of tapioca pearls.

This also explains the difference in cooking time as shown in my video; tapioca pearls took much longer to cook since the water takes longer to hydrate the denser pearls, while real sago cooked up almost instantly.

A tray of raw real sago pearls next to raw tapioca pearls. — Left: raw sago pearls are much less dense, so they break easily into smaller pieces during transport. Right: tapioca pearls are very dense, hard, and practically indestructible during transport.

4. Flavour and Texture

This is where words don't suffice, and you'll have to watch the video below so you can see my reaction to get the full sense of how they differ. You'll also see how to cook them.

Watch My Verdict: Tasting Real vs Fake Sago

Where to buy real sago pearls?

Now that I've convinced you that real sago pearls are worth trying ... next I have to apologize for having to tell you that, if you DO want to try them, you'll have to go to Thailand or another country that produces them.

I've looked around the internet and could not find an online source for true sago pearls. When you do a search for "sago pearls" even "real sago pearls" all that comes up are listings for tapioca pearls. Even if you see some brown ones most likely they are large tapioca pearls made for bubble tea which get their colour from food colouring and/or brown sugar.

If you do go to Thailand, don't be looking for them at the supermarket though. Because these are produced in such small volumes, you'll instead find them at places that sell locally made, artisanal products.

The future of the sago

Real sago is making a bit of a comeback in Thailand thanks to the media which has made people become more aware of their existence. I am one of those "media"; and quite frankly I'm a bit concerned that if the demand for them increases, what will this mean for the environments where the sago palms grow?

On the one hand, it would create a new source of income for people in the villages that make these pearls. In fact, this has already started to happen with the increased demand in Thailand, and it has helped raise the standard of living for some people in the poorer areas.

On the other hand, over-harvesting is always a concern. So while I wrote this post as a source of knowledge to expand our awareness of where our foods come from and how they evolve, it's equally important to be aware of the vulnerability of these sources and helping to protect them.

Real Sago Pudding Recipe

I can't leave you without a recipe now can I? Should you be so lucky as to get a hold of real sago pearls, there's no need to do anything fancy to them. This simple pudding lets all of their natural flavours shine. The important part is to serve it while still warm for the best texture - don't refrigerate!

Some tapioca recipes you might like

I don't mean to offend our old friend the tapioca pearls here! They are great in their own right! Try them in this refreshing tapioca melon dessert, or use tapioca starch to make fun bubble tea noodles!

A bowl of sago pudding with young coconut meat

Real Sago Pudding

By: Pailin Chongchitnant

Experience the real sago pearls, made from actual sago palm, in this most iconic dish - a simple pudding that allows the true flavours of the pearls shine.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 10

Course Dessert

Cuisine Thai

Servings servings

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Ingredients

▢ 1.8 oz true sago pearls
▢ 1 ½ cups water, see note 1
▢ 3 tablespoon sugar
▢ ½ pandan leaf, optional, see note 2
▢ ½ cup young coconut meat, julienned, optional

Salted Coconut Milk

▢ ½ cup coconut milk
▢ ⅛ teaspoon table salt

Check Out Ingredients and Kitchen Tools I Use

Notes

If using pandan leaf, you will need to increase the water to 2 cups (480 ml)
In the video I did not use pandan leaves because I wanted to taste the pure flavour of the sago, but traditionally pandan leaves are infused either into the pudding or the coconut milk.

FULL VIDEO TUTORIAL

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Instructions

(If not using pandan leaf, skip to step 2). Tie the pandan leaf into a knot to shorten and help bruise the leaf and release the aroma. Add the pandan leaf into a small pot and add 2 cups (480 ml) of water; bring to a boil and let it boil for about 3 minutes to extract the aroma.
½ pandan leaf
If not using pandan leaf, add 1 ½ cups (360 ml) of water to a small pot and bring to a full boil.
1 ½ cups water
Once the water is fully boiling, remove the pandan leaf, if using, then gradually sprinkle in the sago pearls while quickly stirring - then keep stirring constantly for about 1 ½ - 2 minutes; most of the pearls should be translucent on the outside, with the white center still visible. If it is too thick, add a little bit of water to loosen.
1.8 oz true sago pearls
Once cooked, turn off the heat and add sugar and young coconut meat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Let it rest and cool down a bit while you make the salted coconut milk.
3 tablespoon sugar, ½ cup young coconut meat, julienned
To make the salted coconut milk, combine the coconut milk and salt in a small pot and bring to a simmer to dissolve the salt and remove from heat. Alternatively, you can just heat it up in the microwave.
½ cup coconut milk, ⅛ teaspoon table salt
To serve, while still warm ladle a portion of the sago pudding into a bowl and top it with about 2 tablespoons of the salted coconut milk. How much coconut milk to add is up to your preference, so feel free to add more or less.

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How to Cook Rice Noodles Properly (No mush, no clumps!)

May 5, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 24 Comments

Maybe this has happened to you, you try to cook pad thai, and the noodles are soggy and clumpy. Or you try to cook pad see ew using fresh rice noodles, and they end up broken into bits. Or at the Asian supermarket your eyes glaze over at all the noodle options because you have no idea what to choose. Sounds familiar?

In this post I’m going to give you everything you need to know about all the different kinds of rice noodles used in Thai cooking, including how to cook them properly so you'll have perfectly cooked noodles every time.

A pile of different kinds of rice noodles

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VIDEO: Rice Noodles Explained

Everything discussed in this article is covered in this explainer video below. It really helps to see in action how to properly cook rice noodles!

But first, what are rice noodles anyway?

When it comes to dried rice noodles, the various types are all made from the same two ingredients: rice flour and water. Fresh rice noodles, however, have other starches and additives mixed in to make them sturdier and last longer.

ingredients for dry rice noodles and fresh rice noodles — Top: Ingredients for dry rice noodles. Bottom: Ingredients for fresh rice noodles.

Unlike pasta or wheat noodles, rice noodles are gluten free and are not chewy. They are quite tender, which also makes them harder to work with because they can go from cooked to mush much more quickly. (Al dente is not a thing we aim for in rice noodles; that's just called undercooked 😂.)

Different Types of Rice Noodles:

Despite the many options at the store, rice noodles can be divided simply into two major categories: Fresh and dry.

Dry Rice Noodles

Dry rice noodles are made from ground up rice (a.k.a. rice flour) and water. The mixture can be steamed into a big sheet, dried, and cut into "rice sticks," or they can be extruded into round noodles. To see a Thai rice noodle factory in action, check out my short documentary here!

As there are different types of pasta, there different types of dry rice noodles:

a grid of rice vermicelli in package and out of package, and small size rice noodles in package and out of package — Top: Thai rice vermicelli. Bottom: Small size rice noodles

Thai Rice vermicelli or Sen Mee in Thai. These thread-thin rice noodles and are the smallest ones and they can be used in soups or stir fries, like this pad see ew vermicelli. These are not this is not to be confused with Vietnamese rice vermicelli which are very different and are discussed below.
Size small (2 mm wide) or sen lek. These are my preference for Southeast Asian noodle soups such as Vietnamese pho and Thai boat noodles, but you can also stir fry them.

a grid of rice noodles size medium in package and out of package, and large size rice noodles in package and out of package — Top: Medium size rice noodles. Bottom: Large size rice noodles.

Size medium (3 mm wide) is what we use as pad thai noodles and indeed in Thai we call them sen pad thai. They can also be used in noodle soups.
Size large (4 mm wide) isn’t actually a size that exists in Thailand and so it might be for export only, but some people use these for pad thai. These are too large for noodle soups and I recommend using these only in stir fries.

a gred of thick rice noodles in package, out of package, and fresh rice noodles — Top: Extra Large size (aka "thick") rice noodles. Bottom: Cooked fresh rice noodles

Size extra large (9 mm wide) or sen yai, which also doesn’t exist in Thailand in dried form because these are made to be a shelf stable version of fresh rice noodles (pictured at the bottom) that you associate with pad see ew, rad na, and drunken noodles. These are best used in stir fries.
Vietnamese rice vermicelli or sen kanom jeen. Despite the similar name to the one above, it's an entirely different type of noodle. Vietnamese rice vermicelli are thick and round, similar to spaghetti. They are cooked by boiling in hot water just like pasta (timing varies depending on the size) then rinsed in cold water to remove excess starch. They are a little different in that they are not served hot but there are many things you can do with them! You can make a cold rice noodle salad, a healthy lettuce wrap, or make kanom jeen which is basically the Thai version of pasta!

Vietnamese rice vermicelli of *kanom jeen* in Thai are much bigger than Thai rice vermicelli.

*Glass noodles, bean threads, or cellophane noodles are often misunderstood to be a type of rice noodles. The Thai/Chinese ones are actually made from mung bean starch, and the Korean ones are made from sweet potato starch.

Fresh Rice Noodles

Fresh rice noodles are found in the refrigerated section at Asian grocery stores, usually next to all the tofu. There are two main types:

Cooked fresh rice noodles (ho fun)

These are the tender noodles with a slightly chewy texture that has gained a cult following for dishes like pad see ew. In Cantonese these are called “ho fun”. They are made mostly from rice flour but often have other starched such as tapioca starch mixed in.

This is a fresh, fully-cooked product that simply needs to be tossed with seasonings, meat and veggies. It's highly perishable which means they are usually made locally, so what you get from city to city is going to vary a lot in size and texture.

These can actually be made at home, check out my video tutorial for making your own fresh rice noodles!

Preparing Fresh Rice Noodles for Cooking:

Before cooking them, you’ll want to peel apart the noodles. But cold noodles are often stuck together and are impossible to peel apart without breaking. If that's the case, separate them into chunks best you can, spread them out on a plate and microwave them for about a minute.

Take them out, see if any noodles are hot and soft enough to be peeled apart and peel them and set them aside. Return the hard noodles into the microwave for another minute, and repeat this until all the noodles can be separated. It usually takes me 3-4 minutes of microwaving for 1 lb of noodles.

Raw fresh rice noodles

Bag of raw fresh rice pad thai noodles and the noodles being pulled out of the bag. — Raw fresh rice noodles sold in vacuum sealed bags in the fridge.

You may also see vacuum packed bags of rice noodles in the fridge that look very similar to the dried noodles. You can think of these as semi-dried version of the Small and Medium size dried noodles above. This type of noodles is what most restaurants use because they do not need to be rehydrated before using.

Choosing the Right Noodles for the Job

Best Noodles for Soups

For noodle soups you want to go small. Anything from the vermicelli to the medium size is fine. This is because rice noodles have no flavour whatsoever, so all the flavour will comes from the broth. With small noodles there’s a lot of surface area for the broth to cling to. If you go too big, in each mouthful it’s going to feel like too much bland noodles and not enough broth flavour.

Fresh wide noodles (ho fun noodles) are the exception because fresh noodles are more tender and are less dense than the dried version, they can work fine in soups IF they’re not made too thick.

In Thailand, we actually have two types of fresh wide noodles: One for soups, which is thinner and more delicate, and one for stir fries, which are thicker and sturdier so they’re less likely to break in the wok!

Best Rice Noodles for Stir Frying

The good news is that any of these are good for stir fries and it really comes down to your preference for which type of texture.

How to cook rice noodles without making them soggy, clumpy, or broken.

Cooking rice noodles is not actually hard, but most people misunderstand how they need to be treated.The #1 reason why your rice noodle stir fries are a soggy mess is that you’re cooking them before cooking them.

What I mean is that people often boil the noodles and cook them to perfection, and THEN they put them into the pan. But when you stir fry, there is a lot of liquid that comes from sauce, the meat, and the veggies. It doesn’t take much for rice noodles to over cook, so if they go into the pan already cooked, then they’ll very likely end up overcooked by the end.

Note that this isn’t an issue with egg noodles because they don’t overcook nearly as quickly, and in fact, you want egg noodles to be fully cooked before you stir fry them.

1. Do not boil dried noodles. Soak them.

All dried noodles simply need to be soaked until fully rehydrated before being stir fried or blanched for noodle soups.

The reason we want to soak rather than boil is because rice noodles overcook very easily. Soaking allows the noodles to hydrate evenly, and then the heat from the pan is cooking the noodles using the water that’s already IN the noodles. This results in even cooking inside out, and a very low chance of over cooking.

Soak them in room temperature water using the following timing as a guide, keeping in mind that they vary between brands.

Rice vermicelli: 5-15 minutes, depending on the brand. Wai wai brand is smaller and takes only 5 minutes, Erawant takes up to 15 minutes.
Small size: 20-30 minutes.
Medium size: 50-60 minutes
Large size: 90 minutes to 2 hours
The XL size is a bit of an exception because they’re usually used as a substitute for fresh rice noodles: use hot off the boil water and soak them for 15 mins, then drain and rinse under cold water. These are gonna be partially cooked by this point, and are ready to go into the pan.

How do You Know When Noodles Have Soaked Enough?

Pick the noodles up and they should droop completely, not resisting gravity. If they’re still trying to hold their original shape, they’re not ready.

soaked rice noodles being lifted up from a bowl — Fully soaked rice noodles should droop completely when lifted and do not hold on to their original shape at all.

2. For stir fries, add soaked noodles directly into the pan.

Once soaked, noodles are ready to go into the pan. Generally they will need a little extra liquid, but how much depends on how much liquid is already in the sauce, how crowded your pan is, how high your heat is, etc.

So I recommend following a trusted recipe amounts before winging it so you add the right amount of liquid for the dish. And when in doubt, add less water, then taste and add more as needed.

3. Push, flip and toss. Don't stir.

Noodles break because your spatula cut them into bits while you're stirring. Once you add noodles into the pan, especially delicate fresh cooked rice noodles, don't use a spatula and haphazardly stir them which can cause the edge of the spatula to cut the noodles. Use a flipping motion or push the noodles from the edges inward. Watch my video demo to see this technique in action!

4. Use a wooden spatula.

Metal wok spatulas are like blades to these noodles, and they can easily chop your noodles without you realizing it!

5. Use a nonstick pan or a well-seasoned wok.

Whatever pan of your choice, the surface should be nonstick because rice noodles, especially fresh ones, are notorious for sticking. And if you’re having to scrape them off, that’s one sure way to get broken noodles.

6. Don’t crowd the pan

Crowding the pan is all sorts of bad news, but when it comes to noodles, this is likely the most common reason people end up with soggy and mushy noodles. Crowding traps moisture, and this moisture steams the noodles and you're basically boiling them, which causes the noodles to overcook. Overcooked noodles are too soft...too soft noodles break into bits.

This is why I stress so much that you should only cook pad thai in batches of 2 servings, and the most delicate fresh noodles should be cooked ONE portion at a time. There is a reason why street vendors cook them one order at a time!

On a related note, you should always use high heat when stir frying noodles to maximize liquid evaporation and prevent excess moisture in the pan.

7. For soups, blanch soaked noodles for just a few seconds

While stir fried noodles get a little extra liquid from the stir fry sauce, noodles for soups are going to be sitting in a bowl of hot broth. This means that they should go into the bowls still a little al dente, and the heat of the broth will cook them through.

To get al dente noodles, blanch them in boiling water for just a few seconds: rice vermicelli noodles take 3 seconds, size small take 5 seconds, and size medium take 8 seconds. Cooking time will vary between brands.

Pro Tips

#1: Emergency Noodle Soak

I use room temperature water as a default because it takes so long for them to over soak that I don’t even have to set a timer. But if you're short on time, warm water will make the soaking go faster. However, the warmer the water, the faster they over-soak, which results in too-soft noodles, so check them often.

If you totally forgot to soak but need the noodles NOW, there is an emergency solution. Use hot water, and I mean off-the-boil, and soak the large size for 4 minutes, the medium size for 3 minutes, and the small size for 2, and immediately drain and rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking. I wouldn’t risk this method with the vermicelli, but they don’t take long anyway.

#2: Do not trust package instructions on Asian products.

Not saying they’re always wrong, but they often are. The package instructions on Erawan brand noodles for sizes S, M and L all tell you to boil them for 6-8 minutes. You can probably guess that different sizes of noodles should not have the same cooking time! And I’ve seen many other Asian products with instructions that just don’t work, so I never assume they’re right.

#3: Soak noodles in advance

If you can plan ahead, soak the noodles, drain them, and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge. Make sure there is no pooling water in the container which will over soak the noodles at the bottom. I recommend putting them on a tea towel before storing them to dab off excess water. Soaked noodles will last in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Some Rice Noodle Recipes to Try

Now that you know everything there is to know about rice noodles, you're ready to get cooking! Try one of these popular classics!

Aunty's Best Vietnamese Pho Recipe

April 21, 2023 by Pailin Chongchitnant 53 Comments

I've had many bowls of pho in my life, and then I had the one that blew everything else out of the water. It was made by Aunty Jacqueline, my mother in law's childhood friend from Vietnam where the two of them grew up together. Her beef pho (pho bo) recipe was so much richer, more flavourful and fragrant than everything I've had from a Vietnamese restaurant here.

a bowl of oxtail beef pho with a lime wedge and thai basil on the side

Now in her 70's, Auntry Jacqueline has been known for her pho bo for decades, but she was the only person who knew how to make it; so I knew I had to preserve it. To my delight, she was happy to share ... and so I present to you, "Aunty Jacqueline's legendary beef pho" recipe!

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Pho: Traditional Vietnamese Noodle Soup

Pho is a noodle soup that is arguably the "national dish" of Vietnam; or at least it is the most well known dish from the cuisine. While you can make pho with different kinds of meat, the classic version is made with beef, or phở bò.

The version I'm sharing here uses a few different kinds of beef, but the one that makes a real difference is oxtail. Rich in bone marrow and connective tissue, oxtail is responsible for the ultra rich beef broth. You can omit it, of course, but do follow my suggestions for substitutions to make sure you're not missing out on the richness!

Ingredients

There are two main components to making pho: the beef broth, and all the stuff that goes into your bowl. For amounts and full instructions, see the recipe card below.

Pho Broth Ingredients

Beef bones: joint or marrow bones preferred, as cartilage and marrow make for a rich, full-bodied broth. I get my beef bones from a Korean grocery store; and in general Korean stores have a good supply of beef cuts and bones.
Stewing beef: such as brisket or chuck, which will be stewed until tender right in the broth.
Oxtail: aside from the marrow and connective tissue that results in a delicious broth, oxtail meat is also one of the best cuts for stew. If omitting, use more bones and more stew beef.
Fresh ginger
Onion
Daikon: I add daikon to all the stocks I make because it makes the soup naturally sweet. It's a must-have veg in Thailand when making any stock or broth!
Cinnamon stick
Green cardamom
Star anise
Coriander seeds
Black cardamom: these look like oversized green cardamom pods, but the smell couldn't be any more different. It has an aroma reminiscent of leather and smoke. A little goes a long way, and it is beautiful when done right. We also use black cardamom in Thai khao soi!
Salt
Rock sugar: this is the traditional sugar used, but granulated sugar will work just fine and will not make a difference in this recipe (they are the same sugar compound, just in different forms!)
Beef stock powder: a little bit of "fairy dust" that makes this extra special. Aunty Jacqueline swears by Dasida brand which she's been using for over 10 years, but other brands are also okay I'm sure. If you're anti-MSG, you can leave it out and add a little more fish sauce and sugar, but to be honest pho just won't taste like pho without a little MSG magic 😉
Fish sauce: See my post on choosing a good fish sauce

Pho Bowl Ingredients

ingredients for pho bowl — Ingredients for pho bowl

Dry rice noodles: I use Erawan brand, size small. They need to be rehydrated for 20-30 minutes in room temp water until they turn an opaque white and are fully pliable. Drain after soaking as you don't want to over soak them! Size medium will also work if needed, but they will take up to an hour to soak.
Bean sprouts
Raw beef slices: (Pictured under the broth ingredients by mistake) This will be added raw to your pho bowl, and it will cook from the heat of the broth. Because the beef needs to be very thin, I recommend buying pre-sliced beef which you can get from Asian supermarkets in the "hot pot" section. If you're going to manually slice, do it when the beef is partially frozen as it'll be easier. Choose any cut of beef that fits your budget here; if it's sliced thin enough it won't be chewy. I used rib eye in my video but sirloin steak also works fine.
Asian style beef meatballs (optional): (not pictured) I didn't use this in my bowl, but they're a classic if you like them. Buy them frozen or fresh at Asian supermarkets, or here's a homemade Asian pork meatballs recipe where you can simply substitute beef instead.
Lime wedges: Technically optional but I think a little bit of acidity really makes a difference!
White or yellow onion, thinly sliced: Soak the sliced onion in cold water and it'll soften their pungency and make them crisper.
Fresh herbs - choose any of the following: green onions, cilantro, Thai basil, sawtooth coriander.
Hoisin sauce and/or sriracha hot sauce: I don't think these are traditional and I don't add them, but wanted to mention them, as in N. America they are standard pho condiments. The hoisin sauce is used to dip your meat in, and the sriracha can be used as a dip or can be added to your bowl for a little heat.

Tools

There are a few tools you'll need to make pho:

Large stock pot - a minimum of 7 qt in volume; 8 quart is better
Noodle strainer or a metal sieve for cooking the noodles
Soup infusion bags or cheesecloth to wrap the toasted spices
Fine mesh skimmer for skimming scum

How to Make Beef Pho

Here's a bird's eye view of the process, for full instructions, see the recipe card below; and if it's your first time I highly recommend watching the video tutorial first as it'll make a lot more sense once you see it put together!

Wash the bones and meat and place in the stock pot. Cover with 4L of water and bring to a simmer.
Broil the onion and ginger for about 10 minutes, or until the onions are charred. Slice the broiled ginger into a few pieces.
Toast the cinnamon stick, star anise, black cardamom, and green cardamom in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until the green cardamom pods brown slightly. Crush the cardamom pods until they break open.
Reduce the heat to medium and toast the coriander seeds.

process shots for how to make beef pho, steps 5-8

Place all the spices in a soup infusion bag or wrap them in cheesecloth.
Add the salt, sugar and beef stock powder to the broth. Simmer gently (don’t let it boil) for 1 hour.
Skim off the scum and fat once a bunch has collected on the surface.
Add the onion, ginger, spice bag, and daikon. Simmer for at least 2-2.5 more hours, or however long it takes for the largest piece of meat or oxtail to be fork tender.

process shots for how to make beef pho, steps 9-12

Soak noodles in room temp water for 20-30 minutes until fully pliable (don't over soak). Drain and separate into portions and place each portion into their own serving bowl.
Once the broth is done, remove the spice bag, ginger, onion, and bones and discard. Pick off any meat or tendon attached to the bones as they're delicious!
Final seasoning - add all of the fish sauce, then taste and add hot water as needed until it is no longer too salty. If you find that it actually needs more fish sauce, go ahead and add more fish sauce. You can also add more sugar.
Slice the brisket into thin slices. Cut the daikon into smaller pieces. Leave the oxtail in the broth.

process shots for how to make beef pho, steps 13-16

Blanch the bean sprouts in boiling water for 5 seconds and fish them out with a slotted spoon or skimmer and place on a serving plate.
Bring the water back to a rolling boil, place a portion of noodles in the noodle strainer and wiggle it in the water for 5 seconds. Place into serving bowl.
Top the noodles with the raw beef slices. Make sure the broth is boiling and ladle it over the beef until the noodles are submerged.
Top the noodles with the oxtail and whatever toppings you like and enjoy immediately!

Is it necessary to blanch the bones for pho broth?

Traditionally the beef bones and all of the stewing beef are first parboiled in water for a few minutes. The water is then discarded, the pot scrubbed clean, and you start making the broth with fresh water. It's a hassle to be sure, but people do it in order to remove "impurities" (a term I take issue with...but that's for another day) and achieve a clearer broth. A clear broth is a desired characteristic of traditional pho.

I have always been skeptical of this practice because having made all kinds of stock all my life, including during my time at Le Cordon Bleu ... and I've never done this. And I always felt my stocks were fine.

So it was a sign of relief when Aunty Jacqueline told me ...

I used to blanch the bones, but it was a hassle, so I wondered if it was necessary! So I tried not doing it, and simply washed my bones and meat under hot tap water, and my broth turned out fine. I couldn't tell the difference. So I haven't done it that way for years.

There is my confirmation. Yay. I took it a step further though and I don't even use hot water because a brief shower of hot tap water isn't going to draw out anything that room temp or warm water doesn't. But let me explain why blanching is not necessary, and why this might have been necessary back in the day.

Achieving Clear Pho Broth

When you boil bones and meats, you'll notice that there is a lot of scum that floats to the top of the broth. These "impurities" are basically coagulated proteins from the beef juices. It's totally edible, but it doesn't make for an appetizing bowl of pho. The parboiling or blanching of the bones and beef removes much of this scum.

Scum or "impurities" naturally floats to the top when you make any kind of stock using meat and bones. A fine mesh skimmer can remove the scum and much of the fat very quickly and easily.

The thing is...you can also just skim off the scum. A fine mesh skimmer makes a few minutes' work of this. Not to mention, even with the parboiling, you'll still have some skimming to do, so it doesn't really save you any steps. And you gotta wonder how much flavour is lost with that initial boil ... maybe it's nothing significant ... but maybe it is?

As you can see in the video, my broth is pretty darn clear by the end of it, so I don't see any reason to make this any more work than it already is to achieve something purely aesthetic.

You might notice that there are some bits of coagulated beef juice floating in the broth that didn't float to the top. This might have been reduced with the blanching step, but if these bits bother you (they don't bother me) you can run the broth through a fine mesh strainer after you're done, and it'll still be more convenient than blanching.

Why blanching might have been needed in the past (my theory)

Traditional cooking methods are rarely done without a good reason, but those reasons may no longer be applicable today. In Thai cuisine, I see other recipes that call for cooking beef in water first before putting it in a final dish. But Western stock recipes never call for this step ... so something is going on here.

My theory is that back in the day, without refrigeration in a hot tropical climate, by the time people get around to cooking beef, (a large animal that takes a long time to butcher and consume), it might eventually have started to smell a bit "off". I know this, because in rural parts of Thailand today meats are still sold without being refrigerated, and I have experienced this "off" smell personally. It hasn't gone bad to the point of making people sick; but it's not smelling fresh anymore.

So the blanching was likely key in getting rid of the "off" smell, which is mostly on the surface of the beef. This smell also would've affected the flavor of the broth, so this step was important. The impurities (the scum) that were removed in the process was a bonus, but because it is the visible part, it came to represent the "bad stuff" that needed to be removed.

Nowadays with refrigeration our beef no longer smells, but you can still SEE the scum, so the practice stuck. Again, this is my theory, but a pretty sound one if you ask me!

Tips for Advanced Prep

After having made this all in one go for the filming of the YouTube video ... I don't recommend doing it this way! It's much easier to spread the work out over a day, or even a couple of days. Here are some things you can do in advance:

Soak the noodles in advance. Drain and keep the noodles in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. After draining, place the noodles on a tea towel to absorb excess water; you do not want the noodles sitting in a pool of water in the container.
Prepare all of your toppings on a platter the day before or the morning of, so you don't have to mess with a million little things while you're trying to finish your broth. (But don't blanch the bean sprouts until serving time.)
Make the broth in advance and it'll keep for up to 7 days in the fridge. The broth and the beef can also be frozen.

FAQ

Can pho be made in a pressure cooker?

Yes, though experience with other stocks tells me that broths made stovetop vs in an Instant Pot never taste the same, so I prefer stovetop broths. However, it's possible, but I would suggest following an Instant Pot pho recipe as a guide for instructions, and you can use my mix of seasonings and spices instead. I would use slightly less water to account for the lack of evaporation, start with 3 L instead of 4.

Can I use fresh rice noodles instead?

You might have seen bags of fresh rice noodles at the refrigerated section of Asian grocery stores. They're usually vacuum sealed in clear plastic bags. This is what noodle vendors would use so they are perfect. Treat them like pre-soaked dried noodles, so you skip the soaking and go straight to blanching. 5 seconds in boiling water should do it, at least to start, and you can adjust as needed.

If you have rice noodles that are already fully cooked (they usually come tossed in oil), a 2 second dunk-and-wiggle in hot water just to warm them up and remove any oil will suffice. These overcook easily so don't let them linger!

Can I omit the oxtail?

If you want to leave out the oxtail, increase the amount of bones and stewing beef by about 30%.

The BEST Waffles I've Ever Had!

May 15, 2020 by Pailin Chongchitnant 41 Comments

Jump to video!

What Makes a Great Waffle? The best waffles, to me, have a crispy exterior and a tender, moist and fluffy interior. They also need a great flavour that's good enough to enjoy even without any toppings. This recipe ticks all the boxes.

There are a few secrets, but most important of all, cornstarch. The cornstarch cuts down the amount of total gluten in the flour, making a super light and tender waffle. A good amount of oil keeps everything tender and crispy. And the perfect amount of sugar makes them just sweet enough so you're not relying completely on toppings to make them tasty.

Waffles Done Ahead of Time

These can totally be prepped in advance, and there are even a couple of ways to do it:

If you want to enjoy "fresh-off-the-iron waffles", you can mix all the dry ingredients the night before and leave them covered in the mixing bowl. Mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl and keep it covered in the fridge. In the morning you first preheat the iron, and while it's heating up mix the wet and dry ingredients together. This way you'll have waffles on the table in less than 15 minutes! I would not make all the batter in advance as batter with baking soda needs to be cooked shortly after mixing.
If you want to have them within 5 minutes of getting up, make the waffles and freeze them. To reheat, microwave them for about 15-20 second just until they're no longer frozen. Then pop them in the toaster or toaster oven until they're hot throughout and crispy!

Waffle Iron

For this you want to use a Belgian waffle iron. This is the one I use and it's great. Makes 4 slices at a time, which means you only have to cook the waffles in 2 batches, and it has been working for us for over 10 years!

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