Thai Spicy Ground Chicken and Toasted Rice, "Larb Gai"

This is one of my all-time favorite Thai dishes. It's quick to make, and you can make it as spicy or not spicy as you like. The lime juice and mint leaves are perfect balance to the chilis. It can be found on Thai restaurant menus in America as "chicken salad Thai style", which might be the best description for this dish. It can be made with beef (lawb nuea) or pork (lawb muu) instead of chicken. In Thailand it is almost always a chicken recipe. It is wonderful hot or cold.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground chicken
• 2 tablespoons sliced shallot [say 2 or 3 small shallots --mrm]
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onion
• 1/4 cup chopped mint leaves [or more --mrm]
• 3 tablespoons roasted rice powder (khao koor) [I've left this out on occasion and the dish was fabulous anyway. --mrm]
• 2 tablespoons ground Thai chile [be sure to use real Thai ground chile, say the people who wrote down this recipe, but I've used either fresh chili or red pepper flakes, and it comes out fine. --mrm]
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• 2-3 tablespoons fish sauce

Garnish

Method

You can use ground chicken from the supermarket, or chicken ground in your food processor. Cook the chicken with 2 tablespoons lime juice in a pan over moderate heat. Stir until done. Transfer cooked chicken into medium mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, and mix well. Taste and season as desired. You might want more or less ground chile and/or fish sauce, etc. Serve with fresh vegetables and warm, freshly-steamed sticky rice (or if you prefer you can use Thai jasmine rice).

The usual way to eat this is to get a small ball of sticky rice in the fingers and use it to pick up a little lawb, then eat it with the raw veggies. You can also use a fork and spoon as a lot of Thais do.