I first came across khao mok gai on one of my Flickr contact’s photostream and after a bit of investigation, I found some a very informative post on the dish by Austin Bush. The name translates to “buried chicken rice” and is a Thai version of a biryani and it’s notoriously difficult to replicate at home. Of course, not having tried the original on the streets of Thailand, I was happy to give it a go! From the ingredients, you can see that it’s a Thai-Muslim dish made with a number of spices not typically associated with Thai food. Some recipes use coconut milk while others use regular milk and butter and I went with the latter, as suggested by the recipe I adapted.
Now, I love my rice and I love me some Indian biryani. I found this version to be more subtly spiced than what I was used to but what really made the dish was the accompanying sauce. Spicy and sweet and fresh and green, it went really well with the rice and chicken and I found myself dousing it on the cucumber slices too. So if you do make this recipe, don’t leave out that sauce! And the fried onion (really it should be shallots but I had none to hand) slices – you also need this.
The recipe uses a rice cooker to cook all the ingredients together. Of course, if you don’t have a rice cooker, you could easily make this on the stove. Bring the water to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until done.
Khao Mok Gai
Adapted from this recipe.
Serves 4.
4 whole chicken legs, separated into thighs and drumsticks
2 cups (500mL) basmati rice, washed/rinsed
water (use the ratio that your rice cooker calls for)
1 small onion, quartered lengthwise and then sliced across thinly (or a few shallots)
1 tbsp butter
sunflower oil
1/4 cup single cream
3 cloves garlic, minced
thumb sized piece of ginger, minced
2 bay leaves
2 green cardamom pods, lightly smashed
For the Spice Mix
2 tsp curry powder (I used a Malaysian meat curry powder)
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
For the Sauce
2 green onions (mine was humongous so I used 1)
4 sprigs fresh coriander
1/4 cup ginger
1 long green chili
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup plain vinegar
I found it easiest to marinate the chicken in a large ziploc bag (due to the size of my fridge) but you could also do it in a bowl. Trim the chicken pieces of any extraneous fat, poke the thighs here and there and place them all into the bag. Mix together all the spice mix spices and place half of the mixture into the bag along with the chicken. Set aside the other half. Add the single cream into the bag and zip it up. Toss the bag around, massaging the chicken with the cream and spices, until coated evenly. Place in the fridge for at least an hour (up to overnight).
To make the sauce, roughly chop the green onions, coriander, ginger (peeled), and chili (destem) and place all into a blender or mini chopper. Process until finely minced. In a small pot, heat the sugar, salt and water over medium heat, stirring until the sugar and salt and dissolved. Take off the heat and stir in the vinegar (keep your face out of the way!). Keep stirring until any sugar that’s hardened has dissolved again. Add the green onions, coriander, ginger and chili and stir well. This will keep well in a jar in the fridge for at least a couple days.
Heat a couple tablespoons of sunflower oil in a saute pan over medium high heat. Add half the sliced onion and fry until brown. Drain the fried onion well on some kitchen paper. They’ll crisp as they cool. Set aside.
Return the saute pan to the stove and reduce the heat to medium. If there’s any oil left in the pan, leave it or else add another tablespoon of sunflower oil. Add the butter too. Toss in the rest of the onion and cook until it’s translucent. The other half of the spice mixture is added to the pan now along with the bay leaves and green cardamom pods; fry for about a minute. Add the washed rice and continue frying for another few minutes. Transfer all the now seasoned rice to your rice cooker pot.
Place the saute pan back on the stove and increase the heat to medium-high. Add a tablespoon of oil and allow it to heat. Add a layer of the marinated chicken pieces and allow to brown all over. When the pieces are browned, place them in the rice cooker with the rice and continue frying the remaining chicken pieces. As before, transfer all the browned chicken pieces to the rice cooker.
Add enough water to the rice cooker for the amount of rice inside and set it cooking. When it’s done, both the rice and chicken will be cooked through.
Serve with the sauce alongside.
Sun, 31 Jan, 2010 at 22:54
looks gorgeous, Su-Lin. i love the medley of spices. making biryani (Pakistanis make it too 🙂 is such a labour or love, i hardly ever make it. it’s really impressive that you went through the whole process. love to hear how different cultures have their own versions of the same dish.i’d love to have some of your Thai Biryani tonight. x shayma
Sun, 31 Jan, 2010 at 23:32
The best thing about chicken is the flexibility. Chicken can be made in so many ways, it’s pretty hard to get bored from it. The same can probably be said about rice. But I’m fine with eating steamed rice everyday.
Mon, 1 Feb, 2010 at 02:26
Fantastic! This is definitely on my TODO list.
Mon, 1 Feb, 2010 at 03:01
Looks like a lovely recipe in rice cooker what a good thought! One question didn’t see where tamarind went?
Mon, 1 Feb, 2010 at 05:25
looks good!
Mon, 1 Feb, 2010 at 10:50
This looks amazing. I’m a huge fan of ‘throw it in the rice cooker and cook it all in one go’ dishes, so this is definitely something I’m gonna try.
Mon, 1 Feb, 2010 at 12:30
i am still digesting the flavor profiles here. this is a really nice application.
Mon, 1 Feb, 2010 at 13:43
I learn so much about eating well through reading your blog. I’m unlikely to make it but would be more than happy to eat it. Thank you.
Mon, 1 Feb, 2010 at 15:12
I bet that’s delicious – it’s great to finish the meat off in the rice cooker as all the flavours get into the rice. This looks great.
Tue, 2 Feb, 2010 at 00:01
yum – I’m drooling! Looks like a beautiful meal.
Tue, 2 Feb, 2010 at 19:38
I could live on thai food alone, It’s my favorite food, it all taste so fresh and smells amazing too. Your dish looks delicious.
Tue, 2 Feb, 2010 at 21:19
Sounds awesome. Your post has been referred to my wife for future consumption.
Wed, 3 Feb, 2010 at 00:19
I haven’t heard of this dish before so thankyou for sharing the recipe for it! I absolutely love spiced basmati rice with chicken 😀
Wed, 3 Feb, 2010 at 16:10
Hi Su-lin, this looks really good. I am always trying to find other uses to my rice cooker (i only use it for making sushi rice) so this is quite handy. I normally use the same amount of water as per sushi rice, but how much water did you actually use for your recipe? Thanks for this lovely recipe. Luiz x
Wed, 3 Feb, 2010 at 23:08
Oh I made this last week 🙂 The photos looks fantastic!
Thu, 4 Feb, 2010 at 00:05
This sounds like a great chicken dish, spicy but not Hot. The chicken looks good after cooking in the rice cooker. Great presentation too. I wanna try too : ) I wanna ask where did you buy the Malaysian Meat Curry Powder, from China Town? Not sure when I can travel to London again.
Fri, 5 Feb, 2010 at 00:15
shayma: I have it in my head that Pakistani and Indian biryanis are a lot more work! Please do blog it if you make one!
Dave: Hmm… I still say that if I had to eat one meat for the rest of my life, it would have to be pork. But chicken…chicken is still good. And rice is just excellent!
ivan: Hope it turns out well for you! Don’t forget the sauce!
Antoinette Baranov: No tamarind in this recipe! That’s just part of the name of my blog.
kat: Thanks!
breadetbutter: This is almost throw it all in the rice cooker. Just a little frying!
Donald: Flavour profiles! Never heard of those before. Oh, and welcome back!
Robert: You’re so kind! I try my best but there are days of frozen pizza and the like after work.
Lizzie: I’ve also seen Hainanese chicken rice cooked in this way.
LexEat: Thank you!
Anna: Thank you – I love Thai food too, both at home and at restaurants.
Wild Boar: 😀 Hope it works out for you!
Lorraine: I hadn’t either until I saw it on Flickr. I love the internet!
Luiz: I can’t say as my rice cooker has marks on the container for water levels for corresponding cups of rice. But generally my previous rice cookers have used a water to rice ratio of 1.25 to 1.
3hungrytummies: Thank you!!!
Janet: I bought it in Chinatown, I think. If you can’t find it, use any other curry powder with which you’re happy.
Sat, 6 Feb, 2010 at 18:12
That looks really good – how unexpected to use cream in a Thai dish!
Sat, 13 Feb, 2010 at 01:04
Foodycat: It is certainly different, isn’t it?!
Thu, 24 Jun, 2010 at 11:24
I made a deconstructed version of this earlier in the week, I marinaded the chicken using coconut milk as I had some then roasted this as I don’t have a rice cooker, I made the rice using all the ingredients on the stove top and just cooked for 11 minutes, then served it as your picture, it was lovely and loved by all my lot, the sauce is really tasty and fresh from the ginger and the chicken lovely especially the crispy skin, so thanks, a keeper.
Thu, 1 Jul, 2010 at 02:05
Totally Fabulous. This is great recipe. The images in your post this looks delicious and I will tried it.
Thu, 18 Nov, 2010 at 13:37
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