Kai yang

As tradition built it

Serves 4. Marinate 2 hours to overnight, then about 40 minutes over coals.

Ingredients

The method as the tradition gives it, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them, lead dishes first.

• 1 whole chicken, butterflied and flattened
• 4 tbsp, 2 tsp, 1 tsp, or to taste lemongrass, garlic, white or black peppercorn, pounded
• fish sauce, soy sauce, palm sugar
• 1 tsp, or to taste coriander root, pounded

Method

1. Combine the pounded lemongrass, garlic, peppercorn and coriander root with fish sauce, soy sauce and palm sugar to make the marinade.
2. Rub thoroughly over the flattened chicken, inside and out.
3. Marinate 2 hours to overnight.
4. Grill slowly over charcoal, skin side up first to render, turning occasionally, until the skin is deeply coloured and the fat has basted the meat as it drips onto the coals, around 40 minutes total depending on the fire.

Notes

No source consulted for this chapter gives an exact marinade ratio from a Thai-language in-tradition recipe specifically; the sources behind the quantities above are Western-facing recipe writers, and this chapter treats the proportions as indicative only, in keeping with the flag already carried in the sourcing brief.

What a modern chef changes

The fat doing the basting, made deliberate rather than incidental

Rung 2

Method

1. Run a Big Green Egg low and indirect, chicken flattened under a plancha or brick, so the bird cooks slowly and evenly while its own rendering fat drips onto the coals below, rather than reaching for a hot direct sear.
2. Pound the coriander root and lemongrass in the mortar rather than blending them, for the same fibrous, textured marinade base as the salads elsewhere in this chapter.
3. Rest the chicken away from the fire for 10 minutes before carving, so the smoke-basted fat redistributes through the meat rather than running out onto the board.