Thai Fried Chicken

This is a Thai/Viet inspired, simple fried chicken recipe. It was derived after looking at examples in a couple of Thai cookbooks, and simplified from them.

Ingredients

Quantity Item
4 chicken thighs, skin on
1 T fresh ginger, grated
2 lemon grass stalks, mid-section sliced, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
10-20 cilantro sprigs, minced (including stalks)
1 T Viet or Thai fish sauce

Instruction

Preheat the oven to about 250°F.

Remove excess fat from the thighs and any loose skin, being careful not to damage the skin.

Mix the herbs and fish sauce and blend if possible, otherwise macerate (use a mortar and pestle ?) to release the herbs juices. Possibly add a little water to get a loose paste.

Put ½ to 1 tsp of paste under the skin of each thigh - stick a finger between the skin and thigh on the 'outside' face of the thigh to make a space for it. There should be paste left over, reserve.

Heat an oven-proof frying pan over medium high heat and add a thin layer of oil. Add the thighs 'outside' side down and fry until the skin is well browned. A spatter screen is useful for this part. Turn the thighs over, fry for a few minutes. Add the remaining paste into the pan and then put the pan in the oven for 10-20 minutes or so.

There will be a bit of chicken fat in the pan this can be saved and used to fry other things. We ate just 2 of the thighs and put the others in the fridge for a later dinner. I used the saved chicken fat to fry the others' skins (removed from the thighs) for the later dinner - very much like bacon - yum!