Thai Pandan Leaf Chicken is a very popular dish from Thailand. Lightly marinated chicken is wrapped in pandan leaves and then steamed and deep fried. Pandan leaves also known as screw pine leaves are long green leaves which have a sweet floral flavour and fragrance.
Pandan leaf is called ‘bai toey hom’ in Thailand, ‘daun pandan’ in Malaysia and ‘takonoki’ in Japan is often crowned as the Asian Vanilla and is a widely used ingredient in most South-Eastern countries to flavour the rice, to make drinks and preparing desserts. Apart from the taste and flavour pandan also has many health benefits like natural detoxification, lowering blood sugar levels and aiding nervous system and hence used for many medicinal purposes too.
The Thai Pandan Leaf Chicken is a Thai recipe of a moist, tender chicken infused with refreshing pandan aroma and encased in the leaf packets. The amazing aroma of the leaves is infused into the chicken, giving it a distinct flavour and taste.
There are two ways to make the pandan chicken. The first way is to steam and then deep fry the chicken and second is by simply frying the chicken. I prefer to steam the marinated chicken for 10-12 minutes before frying as it makes the chicken more succulent, moist and the steaming helps in infusing it with more pandan leaf flavour.
Thai Pandan Leaf Chicken is delicious starter/appetizer which surely will become one of your favourite recipes!
