cook oriental food and buy authentic Asian ingredients online Thai Spicy Ground Chicken and Toasted Rice, "Larb Gai"

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This is one of our all-time favorite Thai dishes, and it is a very common dish served throughout Thailand as well as Laos. It's quick to make and often extremely spicy, but the lime juice and mint leaves make for an exotic and splendid combination. It can be found on Thai restaurant menus in America as "chicken salad Thai style", which might be the best description for this dish. Larb is pronounced "lawb" and that means salad. It can be made with beef (lawb nuea) or pork (lawb muu) instead of chicken. You can make a more fancy lawb by adding beanthread noodles (see our recipe for lawb woonsen). The spice mix is fairly simple but we have a ready-made larb spice package-- Click here if you're interested in our instant larb mix.

Ingredients

1 lb ground chicken
2 tablespoons sliced shallot
2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onion
1/4 cup chopped mint leaves
3 tablespoons roasted rice powder (khao koor)
2 tablespoons ground Thai chile (be sure to use real Thai ground chile)
3 tablespoons lime juice
2-3 tablespoons fish sauce

Garnish

Always serve with a good portion of fresh cabbage, and add green beans, parsley, sliced radish, cucumber, & coriander leaves if you like.

Method

You can use ground chicken from the supermarket, or chicken ground in your food processor. Cook the chicken with 2 tablespoons lime juice in a pan over moderate heat. Stir until done. Transfer cooked chicken into medium mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, and mix well. Taste and season as desired. You might want more or less ground chile and/or fish sauce, etc. Serve with fresh vegetables (as shown) and warm, freshly-steamed sticky rice (or if you prefer you can use Thai jasmine rice). Note: if you like chicken giblets, cut them up into small pieces and cook in boiling water. Drain then add to cooked ground chicken before you add the other ingredients.

The usual way to eat this is to get a small ball of sticky rice in the fingers and use it to pick up a little lawb, then eat it with the raw veggies. You can also use a fork and spoon as a lot of Thais do.

lab gai, thai spicy chicken salad
lawb gai, thai spicy chicken salad
Ingredients ready Cook the chicken
larb gai, thai spicy chicken salad
larb gai, thai spicy chicken salad
Mix ingredients Serve and enjoy
Larb -- Street Style! See a favorite Bangkok vendor prepare it with pork, Laab Moo (click to enlarge).
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August 25th, 2008 7:09 PM

Andy Taylor said:

This recipe is FANTASTIC! In fact, it is one of my all time favorite meals. My wife and I have it every week and we even look forward to it! My two year old son loves it as well. Make sure you follow the recipe and don't deviate from it too much. It is a gem! Use fresh ingredients especially fresh mint. Make sure you add the toasted rice. It adds a wonderful crunchiness. Finally, use sticky rice. It makes a world of difference than regular rice. Sticky rice compliments the Laab beautifully. Thanks to importfood.com for this recipe. It is an absolute winner! Andy Corning, NY

October 16th, 2008 9:46 PM

Anonymous said:

this is not the end, thai and lao food is awesome. get real authentic without fear, and i guarantee you will love it!

February 10th, 2009 7:25 PM

Anonymous said:

This is GREAT! Just like I remember, I've cooked it several times and just can't get enough. Fresh mint does the trick for this dish. Thanks

April 20th, 2009 5:42 PM

JoJo Collins said:

This is so easy and soooo good!

June 30th, 2009 1:26 PM

Anonymous said:

I make the same recipe with ground beef

September 29th, 2009 1:03 PM

Anonymous said:

Ground pork is the way to go with this dish. It is the most authentic Larb Moo recipe I have found since I've been back in the States.

November 11th, 2009 3:17 AM

Anonymous said:

Its not pronounced "lawb" - there is no "orb" like sound in the word at all. The only person I could think of that would pronounce it like this would be Lloyd Grossman. It is pronounced "laarb" with the double A highlighting the emphasis on making the "aah" sound longer. I promise you that if you go anywhere in Thailand and ask for "lawb" or "lorb" you will be not be understood at all.

November 12th, 2009 12:00 PM

ImportFood.com said:

Just go to our video here and a native Thai speaker demonstrates how it's pronounced, frankly it is quite similar to Lawb, but any further comments about a proper English spelling is welcome.

February 3rd, 2010 5:15 PM

ed long said:

great recipe thanks!!!

February 16th, 2010 5:53 PM

megan bomgaars said:

i really like the way you cook the rice and the chicken and the other things you make how do you cook them? i really like to try some of the recipe you made yourslef and i went online to look up taI food to make for dinner for me and my mom kris and i am your huge fan and i am a evergreen cheerleader and my name is megan bomgaars and how do you cook rice and beans thanks

March 18th, 2010 1:45 AM

Anonymous said:

I've found adding fresh string beans slightly cooked but still crunchy adds an awesome new level to the dish. Just mix them in directly with the chicken!

March 18th, 2010 9:59 PM

Mercy said:

I prepared this for my visitors and they all loved it! I used fresh in gredients. This is soooooooo yummy! I always look for Thai restaurant in every places I go. This is 10 out of 10+

April 25th, 2010 10:30 PM

Holly B. said:

I live in Mexico. Almost any chile you can think of probably grows here. I don't understand why I must use one grown in Thailand. Can't it be just as good with, say, serranos or jalapenos? Since I can't use the Thai chiles, can someone recommend a truly fine substitute?

While we have a store that carries an awesome number of imports, I don't think they have roasted rice powder. Could I roast some rice and then try to grind it? It'd be hard on my equipment, so isn't there a viable substitute? What drew me to this recipe was the promise of toasted rice, but a powder is hardly going to give the crunchiness that Andy Taylor said his family loves. So how did I manage to miss all references to toasted rice? I hope it isn't incipient senility...

Before moving to Mexico, my hometown had an oriental restaurant (and I think it was Thai), who served many of their dishes on top of toasted and PUFFED rice, brought to the table still vigorously sizzling. It was phenomenal! I've been trying to figure out ways to duplicate it at home, so far with no success. Does anyone know how to make that sizzling puffed rice? I'd grovel at your feet if you could! That same restaurant often handed me something to munch while waiting for a carry out order (kinda sweet, huh?) And it was usually a wonton filled with a creamy mixture containing crab meat. Also out of this world, and I can't FIND anything that might duplicate it. I'd truly like to find a recipe I could use at home. For which I would similarly grovel.

Chinese and Japenese foods are still enjoying their days in the sun. I think other oriental cuisines - and Indian, too - can achieve the same thing, but only IF we can get around the kind of ingredients that you have to order from overseas. I don't buy ANYTHING online, ever. If domestic made versions of these ingredients could be made available broadly, I think it would elevate the popularity of these other cuisines tremendously, even if it DID remove some sales from the ingredients that have to be ordered from Thailand or India, etc. I might order some kind of specialty food from far away, but only if I was about to entertain visiting royalty... And maybe not even then. I'm saving this recipe, because I want to try it, but not unless I know I can come VERY close to the real thing. Anyone offering some help would be appreciated.

December 22nd, 2010 3:32 PM

Ronald Stepp said:

Personally I use ground white turkey. It processes better than chicken which turns stringy and gets mushy when you add the lime/fish sauce.

June 5th, 2011 10:01 PM

Anonymous said:

Asking for a proper English spelling of a Thai word is like asking for a halal pork chop. I believe the 'official' transliteration would be larb, but that's not particularly helpful as there's no 'r' sound in the word. Think 'lap' as in 'put your napkin on your lap' but with a long vowel sound (ah) and a falling tone (imagine stamping your foot as you say it); don't pop the p.

July 6th, 2010 2:35 PM

Anonymous said:

Holly B: I think the creamy crab wonton you're referring to is called a Crab Rangoon. Be sure to search for its history and recipes at google.com. ImportFood: Thank you for having this AWESOME website. I enjoy the recipes and newsletters!

March 22nd, 2011 9:14 AM

chris said:

Hi there I have also a problem with the "toasted rice powder". Where can I find that one OR can I make it myselft whilst I roast the rice corns myself??? And then grind it in the coffee grinder???? Please help! Otherwise I find this receipe pretty good and easy to make as all the recipes from you. I would like to try it out pretty soon therefore it would be pretty much appreciate your help

July 2nd, 2011 9:48 PM

Stan Perkins said:

lawb muu is super!




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