Ping Gai
Grilled Chicken
Ping gai is a popular dish of marinated chicken, grilled or otherwise cooked over dry heat, that is both made at home and sold by street vendors in Laos. Recipes vary by families, but oyster sauce is usually the main ingredient of the marinade. I combined several recipes I found online into one.
The results were pretty good, though not as flavorful or tasty as the Thai BBQ chicken it resembles. It was only mildly spicy (I didn't use the seeds from the chilies), which I appreciated, but I felt it wasn't sweet enough - despite the fact that many recipes didn't include any sugar in the first place. Fortunately, it wasn't too salty. In all, I found the marinade to be too subtle, even though I marinated the chicken for a whole day.
I haven't readied my BBQ grill for the season, so I tried both air frying and oven roasting the chicken. The latter was the better method. The air fryer dried out the outer meat and basically sealed off the flesh from the marinade flavors. The oven baked chicken, meanwhile, still had a crispy skin but was softer and juicy and had just tastier.
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Ping Gai
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken legs, thighs and/or drumsticks
- 1 cup (1/2 bunch) cilantro leaves
- 2-3 red Thai chilies or other red chilies, sliced
- 5 cloves garlic, halved
- 1 lemon grass stalk, sliced
- 1 1/2 Tbsp lime juice
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 1 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce (dark, Tamari or regular)
- 1 Tbsp palm or brown sugar
Directions
Dry chicken parts with a paper towel and then make deep cuts on the skin side. Set aside.
Put all other ingredients in a blender or food processor, and process into a thick paste.
Rub the chicken with the paste, place in a refrigerator bag, and let marinade for at least one hour.
Preheat grill, oven or air fryer to 400°F. Add chicken and cook until it reaches an internal temperature of at least 165°F. If using a grill, about 25 minutes, flipping every 5 minutes. If using an oven, about 40 minutes. If using an air fryer, cook for 12 minutes, flip, and cook for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
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Adapted from several recipes.
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