Destination
Krabi
The story
"Chicken butcher" (kai yang chub, or literally "chopped grilled chicken") is the Bangkok-Chinatown-style butcher-chopped version of Isaan grilled chicken: a whole chicken is marinated in the classical Thai coriander-root-and-fish-sauce paste, grilled over charcoal until deeply glazed, then chopped Cantonese-style through the bone into serving pieces with a heavy cleaver on a wooden board. Served with sticky rice, jaew dip and raw vegetables. The specific technique of butcher-chopping (through the bone rather than filleting off the bone) is the specifically Chinatown-Thai touch — every Bangkok Chinatown grilled-meat shop chops rather than fillets.
Method
Whisk marinade ingredients. Rub all over spatchcocked chicken. Marinate 4 to 24 hours.
Toast 3 tbsp raw sticky rice 5 minutes until deep gold. Grind to a coarse powder.
Heat charcoal grill to medium heat.
Grill chicken 40 to 45 minutes total, turning every 5 to 8 minutes and basting with any remaining marinade. Cooked through when internal temperature reaches 75C at the thigh.
Rest chicken 10 minutes on a warm board.
Using a heavy cleaver on a wooden chopping board: chop the whole chicken through the bone into 3cm pieces. Cantonese-style. This is the specifically Bangkok-Chinatown butcher technique.
Combine toasted rice powder, chili flakes, fish sauce, lime, tamarind, palm sugar, spring onions, coriander and shallot in a bowl.
Arrange chopped chicken on a wooden board. Serve with sticky rice, som tum, cabbage wedges and jaew dip. Diners pick pieces up with fingers, dip in jaew, eat with rice.
Tips
- Butcher chop, not fillet. This is what distinguishes chicken butcher from regular gai yang.
- Very sharp heavy cleaver. Cheap cleavers bend when chopping through bone. Invest in a proper Chinese cleaver.
- Wooden board. Bones dull knives on glass or plastic boards.
- Jaew is essential. Do not skip.
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