Khao Mun Gai (ข้าวมันไก่) - Thai Style Chicken Rice

I have a low spice tolerance and this would be one of my favourite dishes to have eating out as a kid because I could enjoy it with no spice. I've always kind of known that this wasn't originally a Thai dish because in Chiang Mai we needed to have it for breakfast. This is because the good restaurant run by the old Chinese man would sell out by lunchtime!

It directly translates to chicken (gai) fat (mun) rice (khao) and is basically the twin sister of Hainanese chicken that has a different dress sense (I'll get there). When immigrants from Hainan, China settled in different parts of Asia, they brought their version of this chicken dish (known by them as Wenchang chicken) with them. In Singapore/Malaysia this was adapted to become Hainanese chicken and in Thailand we adapted our version into Khao Mun Gai. From what I can tell, the basic make up of the dish is almost identical, the main difference being in the sauce the dish is served with (told you I'd get there).

The Singaporean/Malaysian version of Hainanese chicken has a light soy sauce and bright red fermented chilli sauce whereas the Thai Khao Mun Gai is served with a fermented soy bean sauce. I'm glad I built up my tolerance for chilli a little over the years because I've come to love this sauce! Here, I've served it up in the traditional way with a broth made from cooking the chicken and some cucumber and blood tofu on the side. Delicious!

For this dish you need:

-1 whole chicken

-enough water to cover the chicken (about 3 litres)

-1 tbsp salt

-350 g white jasmine rice

-2 tsp fried garlic

-2 tsp fried garlic oil

-2 tsp light soy sauce

-7 tbsp fermented soy bean sauce (เต้าเจี้ยว)

-3 tbsp distilled vinegar

-3 garlic cloves, minced

-1 tbsp grated ginger

-handful of chopped coriander, about 10 g

-1 chilli, finely chopped

-1 daikon radish, chopped into even sized chunks

-3 spring onions, sliced

-blood tofu, sliced (optional)

-sliced cucumber

• In a stockpot, cover the chicken with water and add the salt. Bring the water to the boil and then gently simmer for about 1.5 hours. (Let's be honest, I set the burner to the lowest heat and then promptly forgot about it until I could smell the chicken but 1.5 hours should be about right).

• Take out the chicken and set aside, you should see a layer of oil on the top of the stock you've made, this is the good stuff!

• Thoroughly wash your rice. Then, skim off the chicken oil from the stock and add it to your rice. Top up with some of the stock (I used about 750 ml of chicken fat and stock for using a rice cooker-yes, I measured it for you!) and add the fried garlic, fried garlic oil and light soy sauce and cook the rice.

• To the rest of the stock add the chopped daikon radish and slowly simmer to cook. (Do not let the stock boil, it will make the stock go cloudy. I may or may not have discovered this and had to clarify it using egg white to make it presentable)

• Combine the ingredients for the sauce, you can also use a mortar and pestle as this is the traditional way.

• If serving with blood tofu, slice up the amount you want and add it to the stock to simmer for a few minutes and fish back out. It helps if you use a slotted spoon or something for this.

• Once the rice is cooked, stir to make sure everything is combined well.

• Once the daikon is cooked (you should be able to easily pierce it) then add the spring onions and turn off the heat.

• Cut up your chicken (it does not need to be hot), assemble your plate and enjoy with some sliced cucumber!