Gai Hor Bai Toey (Chicken in Pandan Leaves)

Chicken in Pandan Leaves, or Gai Hor Bai Toey, is another popular Thai dish with chicken marinated wrapped in pandan leaves and deep-fried, and serve with sesame sauce. This dish is more a restaurant food from middle class restaurants to high end restaurants because it is more delicate in preparing and appearing.

Pandan leaves or Pandanus Amaryllifolius, and or Bai Toey (in Thai), is a tropical plant and is used widely in Southeast Asian cooking as a flavoring and coloring. In Thailand we use commonly and wildly in dessert more than in savory food. Pandan leaves are available in frozen form at Asian grocery stores.

About 18 pieces

Ingredients

400 - 450 g           or 2 Large chicken breasts (boneless and skinless), cut into approx 1.5 inch chunks.

½ tsp                    Ground pepper

3 roots                  Cilantro (coriander), chopped and pound with pestle

4 cloves                Garlic, chopped and pound with pestle

Pinch of Salt

1 tbsp                    Soy sauce

2 tsp                      Oyster sauce

1 tbsp                    Sesame oil

1 tbsp                    Cooking wine

1 tsp                      Potato starch or corn starch

10                         Pandan leaves, cut into half

Oil for frying

Instruction

1. Marinate chicken with ground pepper, coriander roots, garlic, salt, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, patato starch and cooking wine for an hour or more.
2. Wrap each piece of chicken in a pandan leaf until finish all. (see the pictures)** It’s better let some part of chicken being exposed so that part of chicken will get nice brown color.
3. Fry in Oil until cooked or turn golden and put on the plate and serve with sauce. 

The steps of wrapping chicken

1. 

   Secure chicken with toothpicks ( in Thailand pandan leaves are cheap so we use a whole leaf for wrapping one piece of chicken and it's long enough to fold itself without using a toothpick to secure)

Sesame Sauce

4 tbsp Thick sweet soy sauce (there are two kinds of thick soy sauce; sweet and salty) if thick sweet soy sauce is not available, Hoisin sauce can be used as a substitute.

1½ tbsp White vinegar

1 tsp Soy sauce

½ tsp Ginger, chopped very fine

½ tsp Roasted sesame seeds                

Instruction

Sesame Sauce

1. In a pot, heat sweet soy sauce, white vinegar and soy sauce on medium heat until sweet soy sauce dissolved and add ginger. Combine well.
2. Remove from heat and transfer to a sauce bowl.
3. Garnish with sesame seeds.