This Thai Rooster recipe is a simple option to make Gai Yang at dwelling, Thailand’s well-known barbecue hen. It makes use of a aromatic Thai marinade that delivers street-stall scrumptious – with out pounding pastes, lighting coals or wrestling an entire hen! Serve with Coconut Rice and swoon.
Conventional Thai Rooster
If you happen to’ve ever travelled via Thailand, you’ll know precisely what Gai Yang is and why I’m obsessive about it – smoky, savoury, fragrant Thai BBQ hen bought by road distributors who churn out excellent chargrilled hen all day lengthy. It’s the form of meals that makes usually civilised people revert to full caveman mode. Oh sure, you may completely image me proper??! Fred Flinstone would approve! 😀
Historically, complete butterflied chickens are marinated in a aromatic paste made by pounding substances like lemongrass and garlic with a mortar and pestle, then grilled slowly over charcoal till bronzed and juicy.
I needed to recreate the flavour of genuine Gai Yang to make it extra home-cook pleasant. So I take advantage of boneless thighs, a stick blender for the marinade and cook dinner it on the BBQ or range. Simplifying road meals on this manner can fall brief – however for Gai Yang, the marinade is so good, it really works nice!
Elements in Marinated Thai Rooster – Gai Yang
My rule of thumb when cooking meals on a BBQ or range fairly than smoky charcoal is to dial up the marinade flavours to compensate for the absence of smoky flavour. That’s precisely what I’ve completed right here. 🙂
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Boneless hen thighs – Conventional Gai Yang in Thailand requires chopping up an entire hen and cooking it with the skin-on and bone-in. One of the best different lower that’s simpler to cook dinner for juicy, flavour-packed Gai Yang is boneless hen thighs. They keep tender, soak up marinade brilliantly and get these attractive caramelised edges!
Rooster breast and hen tenders can be utilized too – the marinade helps retain juiciness inside. For breast, I’d both cut up them in half horizontally or pound to even thickness so that they cook dinner via extra evenly, else the thinner finish will get overcooked. I’ve popped instructions within the recipe notes.
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Lemongrass – A signature flavour of Gai Yang that’s so distinctly South East Asian! It has an earthy lemon flavour and it’s what makes this hen particular and units it aside from simply one other soy-sauce-sugar marinade!
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Garlic – Important for constructing that basic Thai savoury base.
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Fish sauce – Salty, savoury, and extra flavour than soy. The smelly fishy flavour is gone as soon as cooked! That is what makes it style correctly Thai.
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Mild AND darkish soy sauce – I take advantage of soy sauce so as to add extra salt into the marinade as a result of utilizing simply fish sauce generally is a bit too fishy. The darkish soy sauce offers the hen a fantastic bronzed end whereas the sunshine soy sauce provides the salt with out darkening the hen an excessive amount of. Darkish soy additionally has a way more intense soy sauce flavour so it’s good to use with restraint!
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Brown sugar – Balances the salty components and helps the hen caramelise for sticky, charry edges.
Methods to make Gai Yang – Thai Rooster (grilled or range)
As talked about above, I needed to make Gai Yang extra home-kitchen pleasant, so I take advantage of a stick blender fairly than mortar and pestle for the marinade, and cook dinner it on the BBQ or range. I significantly like utilizing the BBQ since you get a little bit of the street-food reminiscent smoky flavour, plus it’s simpler to cook dinner your entire batch in a single go. Nice for summer time gatherings!
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Blitz sliced lemongrass, complete garlic cloves and all the opposite marinade substances right into a jug massive sufficient to suit the top of a stick blender. Blitz till the lemongrass is pulverised into tiny bits (lemongrass is kind of powerful, not nice to chew into massive chunks).
No stick blender? No worries! Simply grate the lemongrass and garlic finely then combine it into the soy sauce and so forth by hand.
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Marinate the hen within the marinade in a single day. 24 hours is finest, to actually get the flavours all via the meat. Absolute naked minimal is 3 hours.
No time to marinate? Slice up the hen into bite-size strips, toss within the sauce then pan fry it. You can toss in some greens and make a stir-fry. 🙂
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Prepare dinner the hen in a pan or a BBQ on medium warmth for about 5 to six minutes on both sides till attractive bronzed with charred edges. (I take advantage of the grill aspect of the BBQ, not flat iron, it really works higher). Due to the sugar and darkish soy within the marinade, the floor can burn in a short time so what I love to do is preheat the pan / BBQ on excessive, then I decrease the warmth to medium as soon as I put the hen on.
No oil – You shouldn’t want any oil in case your BBQ is effectively greased or in case you use a non-stick pan as a result of the marinade has oil in it, and we’re utilizing thighs which has some fats in it.
Burning? Flip a number of occasions fairly than simply as soon as, oh, and decrease the warmth! 🙂
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Relaxation the hen for 3 to five minutes earlier than serving. I simply pile it straight onto the serving plate and depart it. If cooking in batches, loosely tent with foil to maintain them heat and pile on prime of one another.
By no means skip resting! This step permits the juices to be re-absorbed into the meat fibres so that they don’t spill out onto the plate while you lower into it.
What to serve with Gai Yang
Sauce – Historically, Gai Yang is served with a sauce known as Nam Jim Jaew which is made with fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and finely chopped garlic, chillies, eschalots and inexperienced onion. You may dip items in or spoon it over the hen so it additionally flavours the rice.
For a faster sauce, you would additionally use the Candy Chilli Sauce from the Thai Candy Chilli Beef Bowls (related flavours, no want to cut something) and even simply plonk a bottle of candy chilli sauce on the desk. 🙂
As for sides, serve with Jasmine rice, and even higher, coconut rice! (PS If you happen to’ve by no means been capable of make coconut rice with out it ending up a gluey mess or burning, you’ll love that recipe – my workforce and I labored so arduous to crack the right coconut rice!).
Add a aspect of freshness with some uncooked slices or chunks of cucumber and tomato, Thai-style. No dressing, simply plain. It sounds boring, however as a result of the meat is so flavourful and juicy, the freshness actually works. You’ll crave it! Else, in case you’re after a salad, strive an Asian Slaw, Vermicelli Noodle Salad (the contemporary mint right here actually works) or the Thai Rooster Salad minus hen plus additional veg.
Fall again possibility – Asian Sesame Dressing (4 substances, pour and shake) with any leafy greens or steamed greens (lettuce, cabbage, tomato, steamed broccoli, zucchini, peas, asparagus – it really works with every little thing!).
Get pleasure from! – Nagi x
Watch methods to make it
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Thai Grilled Rooster (Gai Yang)
Prep: 8 minutes
Prepare dinner: 12 minutes
Marinating time: 1 day
Whole: 20 minutes
Barbecue, BBQ, Rooster, Grilling
Thai
Servings5
Faucet or hover to scale
Elements
Sauce choices – CHOOSE ONE
Stop display from sleeping
Directions
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Blitz – Place Marinade substances EXCEPT oil in a jug simply massive sufficient to suit the top of a stick blender. Blitz till lemongrass and garlic is totally pureed. (No stick blender? Finely grate lemongrass and garlic, then combine)
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Marinate – Pour in a bowl. Add oil, stir. Add hen, toss to totally coat. Cowl and marinate in a single day (my naked minimal is 3 hours). No marinating time? Finely slice, toss in marinade then cook dinner like a stir-fry.
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Warmth the outside BBQ grill on excessive or a non stick pan over excessive warmth on the range.
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Prepare dinner – Take away hen from the Marinade and discard the Marinade (except baking within the oven – refer Observe 3). Put hen on the BBQ or within the pan, then flip warmth down to medium (candy marinade = liable to burning). Prepare dinner the hen till golden brown – round 5 to six minutes on both sides. (If it burns, flip right away. You may flip repeatedly, as wanted.)
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Relaxation and serve – Relaxation for 3 minutes. Serve alongside a mound of steamy coconut rice with lime wedges, garnished with contemporary chilies and coriander/cilantro, and your chosen sauce.
Recipe Notes:
To make use of bone-in, skin-one items, flip ceaselessly and cook dinner for longer till cooked via. You can additionally bake at 200C/400F (180C fan) for round 45 minutes – baste in direction of the top for beautiful caramelisation.
2. Lemongrass is available in supermarkets in Australia as of late. Peel the outer inexperienced layers off to reveal the white half on the backside of the stalk (~15cm/6″). Solely use the white / pale inexperienced elements – the opposite elements are powerful and “reed” like.
3. Soy sauce – You may substitute the darkish soy sauce with extra mild soy however do NOT substitute the sunshine soy with extra darkish soy sauce (it’s far too intense and can spoil the dish!).
4. Oven – If you wish to use the oven, it’s best to broil/oven grill, on a rack, for round quarter-hour on excessive, turning as wanted. You’ll get good caramelisation with out overcooking the hen!
Common oven bake – 200C/375F (180C fan) for round 20 – 25 minutes, relying on the scale of your fillets although you received’t get the identical quantity of caramelisation. Flip as soon as and baste at the least as soon as (ideally twice) utilizing the remaining Marinade.
Initially revealed 2015. Up to date in 2025 with improved marinade, glowing new images, a recipe video and most significantly, Lifetime of Dozer part added! I up to date the marinade to scale back the variety of substances however nonetheless ship the identical high quality flavour – for instance, I eliminated honey and elevated sugar barely. I eliminated Chinese language cooking wine as a result of it’s not historically utilized in Gai Yang, and I didn’t really feel the recipe was missing after I took it out. And eventually, I reverted to utilizing a stick blender which isn’t solely quicker than finely minced lemongrass and garlic, but in addition extracts extra flavour out of the lemongrass.
Lifetime of Dozer
Dozer had his Story Time Spectacular on the weekend, to rejoice the launch of Row Row Row your Boat (with Monsters!)! That is the kids’s guide that includes Dozer which is elevating cash for One Meal, the meals reduction charity that distributes our RecipeTin Meals to these in want.
There was a run sheet and schedule and scripts, we did rehearsals and all knew our roles.
Does it shock anybody that nothing went to plan?? 😂 “By no means work with youngsters or canine,” they mentioned! In the meantime, I spent 80% of the time stroking Dozer’s head attempting to maintain him calm as he barked persistently, irritated he was trapped within the row boat fairly than waddling across the stage just like the star he thinks he ought to have been.🤣
He turned significantly bark-y when youngsters have been introduced up on stage to hitch within the interactive studying half!
And right here’s the creator, Adam Simpson. He’s really my firm lawyer – that’s the connection! Is your lawyer as enjoyable as mine?? 🤣 Adam wrote the guide and is donating all his royalties to One Meal.
Dozer and I additionally handled the children to some Dozer cookies! These have been made by Claudia from Monogram Cookies. I’ve used her just a few occasions now, it’s such a good way to do an edible thank-you reward for big numbers and have the ability to customise it with a message, or branding and so forth. and I feel it’s superb worth for what you get. Plus she’s native to my space (Drummoyne – although providers all of Sydney), makes the entire course of seamless and is such a stunning individual to work with. I’m going to make use of her for some Christmas cookies for gifting too!
It was a giant day for Mr Dozer! He’s spent the final couple of days slothing – and he deserves it. He’s an previous creaky boy now (nearly 14!) and technically in retirement, however was comfortable to come back out of retirement for this good trigger!
PS In case you didn’t decide it, the automobile under is a row boat! Dozer was tucked in with Madeline, the daughter of the creator Adam.
Love you Dozer! Sharing these experiences with you is so particular, particularly in your golden years. You make every little thing extra enjoyable! – N x
