Khao Man Gai (Fatty Chicken Rice)

This is one of my favourite (and most simplest) Thai street food dishes to make. It’s a really plain meal but made wonderfully fragrant by the delicious sauce it’s served with. The chicken is boiled which may seem odd but it ends up really juicy and plump.

A greedy portion for one is made from:

• A half chicken portion (a small whole chicken for 2/3 people)


• Half a cup of white rice


• a few slices of crisp cucumber


• A small handful of roughly chopped coriander

The sauce is made from:

• A thumb sized piece of peeled ginger


• Small chillies, red or green ( I like my food hot so went for 3)


• Cloves of peeled garlic (again, I like strong flavours so used 4)


• A small dash of dark soy sauce


• A larger splash of light soy sauce


• An equally large splash of white wine vinegar


• a big punch of sugar


• A big old glug of fermented soy bean paste- it looks like this:

Unless you have access to an Asian food store, this is the potential problem- it provides a savoury, salty and thickening quality to the sauce. My only real suggestion for a substitute is miso paste (but not miso soup sachets). Sainsburys sell jars of it for £1.99 and Tesco for £1.49

To start, I get things moving by getting a pan of water boiling for the chicken (only fill the pan half way or when you put the chicken in it’ll overflow). I’ve experimented with adding lemongrass, pepper, coriander etc. to the boiling water but quite frankly, I find it makes no difference to the end result. When the water’s boiling you want to place the chicken in and leave it on on a steady simmer. It will really depend on the size of your chicken as to how long it will take. For my small, half chicken portion it took around 30 mins, maybe 50 mins for a full bird. Please do test as you go; you’ll see the skin and meat begin to separate and tear easily when it’s done.

When the chicken has gone into the pot, you want to get another pan of water on the boil for the rice. The fatty part of the recipe name (Khao = rice, Man = fatty and Gai = chicken)  is because at this point you want to tip around half of the chicken cooking liquid into the rice pan, so it will absorb some of the flavours of the broth. Strictly in Thailand, the rice would be cooked by the absorption method so all the broth would be used to cook and soak into the rice- I’ve tried this, and for my tastes, it was WAY too greasy. Aim to start cooking the rice 10-15 minutes before the chicken will be done.

So for the last 10/15 minutes of chicken and rice cooking time, I make the sauce by bashing up the ginger, chillies and garlic in a pestle and mortar, or mini chopper. Put the chopped paste into a small pan and add the rest of the sauce ingredients. Give it all a stir and gently heat the sauce through. Once it’s well heated, empty it out into a ramekin or dipping sauce type pot. Slice your self a few pieces of cucumber (to me it always tastes better on a steep diagonal, no idea why but it’s usually done like that in Thailand) and if you haven’t already, chop up a small handful of coriander.

Okay, time to plate up and get eating. Drain the chicken, take off the slimy skin (unless you enjoy this sort of thing), serve whatever cuts you like the look of- I was greedy and had a breast and drumstick. Drain the rice (but don’t rinse). Plate both along with the cucumber, coriander and sauce.

Don’t skimp on the sauce- each bite deserves a dribble!