Chicken on Rice with Hot Yellow Bean Sauce
Kow Mun Gai
In Thailand, you can spot a Kow Mun Gai street vendor by the pale boiled chickens hanging by their necks in a glass case. Kow Mun Gai is a very popular Thai lunch and also late night snack.
When I was growing up, there was a very good Kow Mun Gai vendor near our house. Their Kow Mun Gai was great in large part because their sauce was punchy and strong. You could tell that they were popular. They started the morning with their glass case absolutely stuffed with the chickens. By the early afternoon, the chickens were all gone.
Kow Mun Gai is supposed to be served with yellow bean sauce and winter melon soup. You will occasionally see vendors and restaurants cut corners by switching the winter melon soup to just chicken broth, but it is not a good substitute.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast
- 10 sprigs cilantro
- cucumber
- 7 cloves garlic
- 1 pinch ground pepper
- 1 jasmine rice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4-5 cups water
- 2 cups winter melon, cut(optional)
Method
Remove bone and skin from the chicken. You can remove the bone and skin later. But the chicken will be easier to slice when the cooked. Add the bone, skin and breast to 4-5 cups of water on high heat. If you have extra bones, skin and fat, add them for extra flavor. Leave the lid off for a clear soup. Add garlic to the soup. Also, add cilantro roots or leaves, salt and pepper. When water starts to boil, turn heat down to let the broth simmer. Remove the chicken breast when cooked.
Cook rice with the chicken broth. The ratio of rice to water is one to one. Add some of the garlic cloves along with the broth. If your broth is very lean, you may want to add a tablespoon of oil. After all, kow mun gai means rice cooked in chicken's fat. If you are cooking the rice in a rice cooker, you know what to do; just add rice and chicken broth. If you are cooking rice in a regular pot, when the water boils, turn down the heat to the lowest heat available on your stove. Close the lid and let it cook until tender. It should take about 15 minutes or so.
If you decided to add winter melon, remove the hard skin and cut the melon into big chunks, 2 inches by 3 inches. Drop the melon in the broth. Let it simmer until tender. You can also keep it simmering for a long time.
To serve, put rice on a plate and top with sliced chicken. Add sliced cucumber. Sprinkle cilantro on top of chicken and soup. Serve with hot yellow bean sauce in a small bowl and a separate bowl of soup.
Step by Step
