Thai Grilled Chicken (Gai Yang)

Ingredients #

• 2 whole chickens (about 1.8 kg)
• Bamboo sticks or metal skewers

For the marinade

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar
• 1 tablespoon dark sweet soy sauce (substitute some Indonesian kecap manis)
• 8 tablespoons water
• 4 heads of garlic
• 2 stalks lemongrass
• 2.5 tablespoons black peppercorns
• 8 coriander roots (alternatively, coriander powder)

Directions #

Marination #

1. Add the garlic, sliced lemongrass and coriander roots into a mortar and pestle and pound into a fine paste.
2. Put all the pounded marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl, add 4 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, and 2 tablespoons of palm sugar. Mix everything together while adding about 8 tablespoons of water to the mixture. You should end up with a potent marinade that looks like a chunky garlicky sauce.
3. If you’re using whole chickens, you’ll want to butterfly cut them starting from the breast side down to the butt. Flatten the chickens out.
4. In a big pan or mixing bowl start to rub the marinade on the chicken, making sure the garlic, herbs, and soy sauce go into all parts of the chicken. Rub down both chickens using all the marinade.
5. Cover the chickens and allow them to rest overnight.

Grilling #

1. The next day, take out your chicken, and the first step is to light your charcoal. You want a low even heat, coals that aren’t too hot, but a low and even.
2. Skewer the chicken to keep its shape. Place the chicken on the grill over indirect heat, meat side down and begin cooking!
3. Wait about 20 minutes or so, until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 65 degrees celsius. Flip the chicken on the skin side over direct heat to get the skin crispy.
4. Cook until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 75-80 degrees celsius.
5. Take the chicken off the grill, and dismantle the bamboo supports.
6. If you have a Chinese cleaver, first cut the chicken in half from the neck to the butt, and from there cut off the drumstick, wing, and chop the rest of the chicken into strips.