Khao Man Gai (Thai-Style Chicken and Rice)

Portland is known for it’s plethora of food carts, one of my personal favourite from the beginning was Nong’s Khao Man Gai and many people would agree with me. There is always a long line! Their menu consisted mainly of a chicken and rice dish served with a garlic-ginger soy sauce and side of winter squash soup. How can something so simple be ridiculously delicious?

It’s that sauce! Typical Hainanese Chicken (Chinese-Style Chicken and Rice) is served with a dipping sauce made of garlic-ginger in oil—good but not as addictive. I was excited when Nong decided to bottle her Khao Man Gai sauce to sell and purchased a bottle to try my hand at making chicken and rice at home. I was disappointed at the result, the bottle sauce is more vinegary and doesn’t taste nearly the same quality you would find at the cart or restaurant. After doing some research on this street food, I found that fermented soybean and soy sauce are the key ingredients and decided to give it another go.

I decided to combine ginger, garlic, Thai chilies, cilantro stalks, soybean paste, white vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and diluted the mixture with chicken stock to a consistency that I felt was right. I think I got it correct! So addictive and good!

Ingredients

For chicken:

4 quartered chicken legs

3 stalks green onion, chopped into 2-inch pieces

1 shallot, minced

6 garlic cloves, minced

2-inch piece ginger, minced

½ Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

For rice:

2 cups uncooked jasmine rice, rinsed

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup water

For sauce:

¼ cup ginger, minced

¼ cup garlic, minced

5 Thai chilies, chopped

1 cilantro stalk, chopped

3 Tbsp soybean paste

2 Tbsp white vinegar

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

½ Tbsp soy sauce

¼ cup chicken stock

Garnishments:

Cilantro

Cucumbers

For the chicken, I typically gravitate toward the dark meat because retains the moisture—I use quartered chicken legs. If you prefer using just chicken breasts or a whole chicken, that would work as well. The key is to keep the skin on! Clean the chicken by exfoliating with coarse salt and rinse well. 

I have been using my Instant Pot in a lot of my recipe to make the cook time quicker, but if you don’t have a pressure cooker then use a large stockpot. In the Instant Pot, add olive oil then sauté green onion, garlic and ginger for a minute.  Add chicken and fill with enough water to cover 1-inch above the chicken. Mix salt in well.  Cook for 30 minutes on the stove or set pressure cook at high pressure for 8 minutes then natural release for 15 minutes. 

Remove chicken legs from pot with kitchen tongs and plunge the chicken legs into an ice bath.  Place on a metal cooling rack to firm up the chicken skin.

Strain the poaching liquid into another pot to remove solid ingredients. You want reserve the chicken stock for cooking the rice and to make the sauce. I use the leftover stock for making a squash soup to accompany the chicken and rice. In my next post, I’ll show you my recipe for Vietnamese-style Opo Squash soup.

Add uncooked rice, chicken stock, and water to rice cooker or Instant Pot.  Follow rice cooker directions or pressure cook at high pressure for 3 minutes and natural release for 10 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, combine garlic, ginger, cilantro stalks, soybean paste, white vinegar, soy sauce, and chicken stock in a small bowl.  Stir until mixed well. I like my sauce on the chunky side, however, you can blend it for a smoother consistency.

Serve chicken over rice and drizzle with sauce.  Garnish with cilantro and cucumber.