Recipe: Thai Chicken and Ginger (Pat King Gai)

Thai Chicken and Ginger (Pat King Gai)
rec.food.cooking/Kylie Evans/2002

One of our favorites, this one is a bit surprising the first time you make it as it does have quite startling amounts of ginger, but it's really yummy (if you like ginger of course).

1/2 kilo chicken (sliced into stir fry sized pieces)
1 medium hand of ginger
1 large onion, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar

The first step is preparing the ginger, which is a bit time consuming, but then the rest of the dish is very quick. Peel the ginger, then slice each knob thinly, then slice again so you end up with lots of julienned strips, 1-2 mm wide. Put the ginger in a small bowl and cover with hot water. This helps to soften it. You want to end up with a big handful of ginger.

Stir fry the chicken in a large pan. When cooked through add the onions, fry for half a minute, add the garlic, fry again.

Drain the ginger (save the liquid), and add the ginger to the pan. Fry all together until the ginger and onions have softened. (You can add other veggies too if you want, green beans are good, or mushrooms. Traditionally in Thailand it would be straw mushrooms, but regular mushrooms are OK too).

Add fish sauce and brown sugar (again, in Thailand this would be palm sugar), and a splash of the ginger liquid (just to give you more sauce). The amounts are a bit hit and miss. You need to taste at the end and add more fish sauce and sugar as you like. Serve with rice.