Pandan Chicken Revisited

Hi hi! Happy New year one and all! Sorry again for the long silence. Have been trying to adjust to the new time schedule plus adapting back to "school life" after it reopened. :P It's never easy, but a mommy's got to do what a mommy's got to do right? Lol! Anyway, I'm also glad my kids are back in their school routine to keep them busy and learning...so I have more free time to bake, haha! (happily rubbing hands) I guess those friends in FB will notice I have been baking more often this month! So much so that I have already 5-6 backlogs for the past 2 weeks! :P 

Without further ado, let's start the new year post with a wonderful Asian dish, Pandan Chicken! Okay, I actually made pandan chicken years back, but somehow I remembered besides the wonderful pandan scent, the taste of the chicken was not flavorful enough. *bummer!* And just last Sunday, I had Pandan chicken at a Thai restaurant which left me wondering if I can replicate that wonderful taste myself! I searched on the net and realize some on the recipes online are leaning more to the "Chinese" flare rather then the authentic Thai taste, with the addition of oyster sauce? Hmmm....anyway, I found Gertrude's recipe (My Kitchen Snippets) is the closest version to Thai. She used turmeric and fish sauce for the marinate, pretty Thai I think. What's best, it can be baked! No messy frying and its healthier, I like! :)

This recipe indeed didn't disappoint. :) Although the chicken does look a little pale versus those fried ones. :P I reckon if I did fry it, it will taste pretty much like the ones I had at the restaurant. ;) However, being lazy to clean up the oily mess, I settled with baking. :) Nevertheless, the aroma from pandan was heavenly! And the chicken was still tender and very flavorful, score!

I made slight changes to the original recipe as I wanted a smaller portion and I didn't have all cilantro roots with me. :P Nevertheless, it turned out super! Thanks Gertrude!

Ingredients for Pandan Chicken (Serves 3-4)

300-400g boneless skinless chicken thighs, or chicken breast
1 tbsp of minced ginger
1 tbsp finely minced garlic
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp palm or light brown sugar
1/2 tsp of tumeric powder
pandan leaves (soaked in clean water for at least an hour)

• Cut the chicken into pieces of about 1.5 to 2 inches cube/size. 
• In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients except the pandan leaves and the chicken pieces, mix well.
• Marinate the chicken for at least for an hour or overnight in the fridge.
• Preheat the oven to 200C. Remove the pandan leaves from the water.
• Wrap the chicken pieces in the pandan leaves and secure it with a toothpick. Repeat till all the chicken pieces has been wrapped up.
• 
• Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes till clear juices oozes out and the pandan leaves turn brown.
• Once cooked, remove from oven and serve while still warm.

I really enjoy this dish very much, and will definitely make this again for sure, especially since my picky eater daughter gave compliments on how delicious it was. :) Looks like I have ways to use up my pandan leaves besides baking cakes now, heehee. :)

Okay, have a wonderful night all! Will try to post up a bread recipe before the week ends.

Cheers!