Pandan Chicken
Screwpine leaves or pandan leaves are commonly used throughout South-East Asia. They are used to infuse the food or dessert with the sweet and fragrant aroma. In this Pandan Chicken recipe, the essence of pandan leaves and chicken adds a pleasing flavour especially after these pandan chickens are fried.
These makes a great appetizer or finger food for your party and they are easy to make! Get some fresh pandan leaves, marinate the chicken, wrap and then fry them.
When I was living in Singapore, we often order these at Thai restaurants as an appetizer and now here in France, I serve them as apéro to family and friends but if I do make these as a family meal, we will eat them over warm rice alongside some stir fried vegetables and thai basil omelette. Yums!
Marinating Ingredients
400 Grams Chicken Breasts
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar) or Brown Sugar
3 dashes of White Pepper
2 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp Fish Sauce
1 tbsp Minced Lemongrass
1 tbsp Crushed Garlic
To wrap
15-20 Pandan Leaves
15-20 Toothpicks
Method
Cut chicken breasts into 3-4 inches long strips and leave aside
In a medium bowl, mix in chicken strips with all the marinating ingredients above. Keep refrigerated for at least 1-2 hours. In the meantime, prepare the cooking surface and pandan leaves
Prepare pandan leaves by rinsing each strand of leaf and cutting the dried ends if any. For consistency, it is best to ensure all strips are of equal length
To wrap, twist one pandan leaf into half and insert 1 marinated chicken breast strip. Starting with one end of the leaf, wrap towards the “pocket of chicken breast” and continue until it’s well secured into a diamond shape.
It’s okay to have chicken flesh exposed as these areas will be fried till crispy.
To fry, heat cooking oil into sauce pan and dip in individually wrapped pandan chicken into hot cooking oil. Fry for approximately 5-8 minutes or until they are golden brown and crispy.
Drain excess oil and serve hot
