Dinner w/the P's

One of my all-time favorite Thai dishes is probably one of the most unhealthy in that it involves chicken fat. Emeril says, "Pork fat rules", but chicken fat in rice ROCKS!

John and I had planned on going out to dinner last night (I was thinking pasta) and on my ride home from work, Dad called and said they were having chicken w/chicken fat rice. Surprising how quickly I wasn't feelin' the pasta anymore.

The chicken is poached and quite plain when eaten alone. Being a Thai dish, of course you don't just eat plain 'ole poached chicken with rice! There's SAUCE! I know there's soy, ginger, vinegar, and minced hot peppers in this sauce, but I think there's some kind of fermented soy beans all mashed up in there too. On the side, you also have cilantro and cucumber.

As a kid, it was one of my daily chores to make a pot of rice for dinner. In a rice cooker -- I really don't know how to make regular rice in a pot over the stove. Every couple months, it was chicken fat rice night and I was the master chicken fat rice maker. You put a little salt and garlic powder in the rinsed rice and if you have it, substitute chicken broth (from the poached chicken) for water. And then there's the chicken fat. It sounds really gross, as this is what you'd probably toss out before cooking the chicken, but old-time Thai folk, being Asian and all, decided to save that chicken fat and chop it into little bits and toss it into the rice. The secret to this recipe is to make sure there's a little less water/broth in the pot than normal for firmer rice.

The method in which this dish is eaten is the way I did it as a kid and it feels weird to not eat it this way... My mom always served the rice in small bowls (Chinese style?) with a little plate on the side to hold your chicken and cucumber. If there was leftover broth, a clear soup was made -- usually with winter melon or zucchini as the veggie in it -- and served along side to cleanse the palate. And, most importantly, you eat the chicken and rice with chopsticks. It feels weird to me to eat this dish on a normal sized dinner plate with no rice bowl and a fork and spoon. Even with leftovers, I'll eat it out of a larger bowl with the chicken on top of the rice.

I put sauce and lots of cilantro on the rice and mix it all around. I sauce the chicken on the plate too, but sometimes with just a soy/vinegar concoction instead of the ginger sauce. Then, dig in... and take a bite or two of cucumber as a chaser. YUM!