Isaan Minced Chicken Salad (Larb Gai)

Warm minced chicken tossed with lime, fish sauce, toasted rice powder, chilli and handfuls of fresh herbs.

TIME BREAKDOWN
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 10 min
Total: 30 minutes
Vegetarian
❌
Nuts
❌
Serves
4 people
Difficulty
Easy

Ingredients

  • 500g minced chicken thigh
  • 3 tbsp water
  • 1 tbsp raw sticky rice or jasmine rice
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce
  • 4 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • 1 1/2 tbsp dried chilli flakes
  • 4 shallots, thinly sliced
  • 3 spring onions, thinly sliced
  • large handful fresh mint leaves
  • large handful fresh coriander leaves
  • lettuce or cabbage leaves, to serve
  • cucumber and long beans, to serve
  • sticky rice, to serve

Method

  1. Toast the raw rice in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes, shaking often, until deep golden. Grind to a coarse powder in a pestle and mortar. Toast the chilli flakes in the same pan for 30 seconds.

  2. Put the chicken and water in a non-stick frying pan or wok over a medium heat. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring and breaking up the mince, until cooked through. No oil is needed.

  3. Take the pan off the heat and let the chicken cool for 2 minutes.

  4. Stir in the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, chilli flakes and ground rice, then the shallots and spring onions.

  5. Fold in most of the mint and coriander. Taste and adjust the balance of salty, sour and hot.

  6. Serve warm, scattered with the remaining herbs, with lettuce leaves, cucumber, long beans and sticky rice.