Thai Recipes

Another beautiful classic Thai recipe from our new favorite chef Jet Tila:   A Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, served with skewers and the classic dipping sauce featuring creamy peanut butter, spicy curry, and rich coconut milk.

Chicken Satay, Chef Jet Tila

Serves 6.

For the Chicken:

1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white or black pepper
1/4 cup coconut cream (from one 14-ounce can)
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
12 to 16 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes

For the Peanut Sauce:
1 14-ounce can coconut milk, unstirred
11/2 teaspoons red curry paste, or more to taste
2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter, or more to taste
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar, or more to taste

Prep:

For the chicken: Mix the curry powder, salt, sugar, garlic powder, and pepper in a baking dish. Mix in the coconut cream. Set the marinade aside.

Slice the chicken breasts at an angle and against the grain into 1 1/2-inch-wide slices. Add the chicken to the marinade and stir to coat evenly. Insert 1 skewer through the center of each slice of chicken (do not weave the chicken on the skewer), covering the top half of each skewer. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.

Meanwhile, to make the peanut sauce: Spoon 4 tablespoons of the coconut cream from atop the coconut milk in the can. Heat the coconut cream in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the cream to a simmer. Add the curry paste and stir to blend well. Cook until the mixture thickens slightly and is aromatic, about 1 minute.

Stir in 3/4 cup of coconut milk and the peanut butter (reserve any remaining coconut milk for another use). Stir constantly until the mixture is well blended and the sauce simmers, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low.

Add the fish sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar, to taste. Simmer gently, stirring constantly, about 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat. If any oil rises to the top, skim it off with a spoon.

Preheat a heavy large grill pan over high heat or prepared a barbecue for high heat. Grill the chicken satays just until the chicken is cooked through and grill marks appear, about 3 minutes per side.

Transfer the chicken satays to a platter and serve the peanut sauce on the side.

We just moved after traveling and are unpacking once again, sigh.  And…after 3 months of no television, we just connected to a new provider, and discovered the channel Veria Tv.   It’s a refreshing change from the typical trash cable programming, with yoga classes, wellness education, and best of all cooking class videos with Chef Jet Tila, in a great show “Chasing the Yum”.  Chef Jet is a renowned chef specializing in Asian cuisine, whose passion began as a child at the Bangkok Market.  In addition to Veria, his many recent featured tv appearances include the Food Network, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, Take Home Chef on TLC, and Smart Solutions on HGTV.  His Pan Asian restaurant Wazuzu at the Encore resort in Las Vegas is based on a balance of four flavors:  hot, salty, sour, and sweet, with the perfect midpoint between them, a Thai word called “Yum”.  What we like best about him is that he is a phenomenal teacher, using straightforward basic techniques to help you create restaurant quality food at home.

Today’s featured recipe with Chef Jet Tila teaches you how to cook a healthy Thai staple , Chicken Larb, which is a ground or finely chopped meat, in this case chicken, served with Thai spices, red onion, and mint.

Chicken Larb Gai,
Chef Jet Tila, Wazuzu Restaurant

1 Tbsp. Tamarind Paste
1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
3 to 4 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 Large Shallot, sliced
2 Lbs. Ground Chicken Breast (or finely chopped)
1/2 – 3/4 cup Red Onion, thinly sliced
1/2 Cup Mint leaf
1 -2 tsp Thai chili powder
2 1/2 oz Fresh Lime Juice
2 oz. Fish Sauce
½ Cup. Palm Sugar or brown Sugar
¼ Cup Roasted Rice Powder (purchase or see below to make yourself from Jasmine Rice)
3 – 4 Green Onions (scallions) , chopped

Add tamarind paste to ground chicken and let stand for 15 minutes.
Heat a medium pan to medium an add oil. Sauté garlic and shallot until translucent, about 2 minutes.
Stir in the chicken to the pan, stir-fry until chicken is cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Reduce heat to low, stir in fish sauce, lime, sugar, and chili powder then mix well. Adjust ingredients as necessary.
Add Mint, onion, and roasted rice powder. Give it a good toss and sand remove from heat.
Serve with sliced carrots, lettuce, and or cabbage.
(Roasted rice powder can be bought in the store, but making it yourself is fun and easy. Take 3 to 4 tablespoons of jasmine rice and roast it in a dry pan. Keep stirring as the rice cooks. Once the rice is dark brown and fragrant, put it into a blender or food processor. Grind until a coarse powder is formed. Rice powder makes a great topping for Larb and any other salad.)

For more from Chef Jet, check out Average Betty as she visits his restaurant and learns his secret recipe for delicious Drunken Noodles, with video here, and his Chicken Satay Recipe.