Quick and Easy Chicken Pandan

Chicken Pandan is a famous Thai cuisine wherein the chicken is wrapped in a Pandan leaf to keep its juicy taste. The main reason why they wrap the chicken with pandan leaves is because it has an irresistible sweet aroma that can increase a person’s appetite. Chicken Pandan can be cooked in different ways. You may opt to fry it, grill it, or bake it.

For this recipe, we will use a traditional way of cooking it which is through frying. To start with, these are the ingredients that you will need.

For the Chicken marinate, you will need:

•  500 grams or 1lb of Chicken thigh, cut into large bite size
•  ¾ tbsp white peppercorns
•  1 ½ tbsp chopped coriander roots or cilantro
•  1 ½ tbsp minced garlic
•  1 tbsp palm sugar (you can also use white sugar)
•  2 tbsp soy sauce
•  1 tbsp sesame oil
•  2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
•  1 tbsp sesame oil
•  1 tbsp cow milk
•  30 pieces pandan leaves

For the sauce, you will need:

•  4 tbsp water
•  1 tsp white soy sauce
•  2 tsp black soy sauce
•  2 tbsp palm sugar
•  Small amount or about ½ tsp ginger
•  1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Follow these steps:

1. Create a paste – Smash the garlic in a stone mortar and pestle. Add the peppercorns to the smashed garlic. Add the cilantro and continue smashing to make a paste.
2. Marinate the Chicken – Cut the chicken into a bite size and leaving the skin on. Transfer the paste into a bowl and add the soy sauce while mixing together with the palm sugar. Add the Chinese cooking wine, the sesame oil and the cow milk and mix well. Add the chopped chicken and mix well. Marinade the chicken into the mixture for about 2 to 3 hours in the refrigerator.
3. Make the sauce – Dry and roast the sesame seeds into a pan with a medium-low heat until it is golden brown and then set aside. Mix the water, the black and white soy sauce together with the palm sugar, ginger and the sesame seeds into a saucepan and simmer the sauce ingredients using a medium-low heat for 5 minutes or until the mixture is thicker.
4. Wrap the chicken – When the chicken is completely marinated, wrap a piece of chicken into an inter locking pandan leaf. It is like tying a piece of chicken in a pandan leaf to make a leaf packet.
5. Fry the leaf packets – Heat oil for frying into a medium heat. Fry the leaf packet on the frying pan for about 3 to 4 minutes for each side or until it is brown.
6. Serve – put the sesame seeds on top of the sauce and the fried leaf packet on a nice serving plate and serve.

Here are some important tips that you should know:
Pandan leaves – if it is frozen defrost them and clean well. Do not rinse it with hot water because you will lose its flavor.