Best Mai Fun City Chicken Recipes

CHIANG MAI ROAST CHICKEN (KAI YAANG)

Steps:

• Make the Sweet Chile Dipping Sauce: To a small saucepan, add water, vinegar, and sugar; bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, roughly slice chiles and garlic. Place in a food processor with salt and pulse to a rough chop; add to the pot. Turn heat to low to maintain a steady simmer and cook, uncovered, until the liquid thickens slightly and becomes just slightly syrupy, 8-12 minutes. Cool to room temperature. The sauce will thicken further as it cools. Makes ¾ cup. You can store it in the refrigerator in a sealed container for months; the flavor improves as the ingredients continue to meld.
• Make the Tamarind Dipping Sauce: To a small saucepan, add water, palm sugar, fish sauce, and tamarind paste. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer. Add chile powder; whisk to break up the palm sugar and tamarind pulp. Continue cooking on a low simmer, 5-8 minutes. Pour dipping sauce into a bowl and cool to room temperature. Makes about 1½ cups. You can store it in the refrigerator in a sealed container for weeks.
• Make the Fried Shallot Oil: Set a fine-mesh strainer over a heat proof bowl. Set aside. Pour oil into a shallow pan a half-inch high. Set pan over high heat until oil is lightly bubbling, about 2 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the shallots by peeling, slicing in half, then thinly slicing with the grain into a julienne. When the oil is bubbling, turn heat to low and add the shallots and stir. Don't be tempted to rush the process with high heat: cook, stirring and scraping the sides occasionally and adjusting the heat to maintain a gentle sizzle, 5-10 minutes.
• When the oil stops bubbling and the shallots are starting to brown but still look raw, turn off heat. The residual heat will continue cooking the shallots. Continue stirring and flipping the shallots until they are a deep golden brown and crispy, another 1-2 minutes. Pour shallot oil through the strainer, reserving the flavorful oil. Gently shake the strainer to remove as much oil as possible, then transfer the shallots to paper towels to drain and cool in an even layer. As they cool down, they'll crisp up. Makes about ¼ cup fried shallots and ½ cup shallot oil. Storage: Fried shallots can be stored in a container, uncovered, at room temperature for up to 2 days. Alternatively, cool the shallots completely, then place into an airtight container with a silica gel packet (available online) to keep fresh for several weeks. Shallot oil can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks.
• Brine: Whisk salt and sugar with 10 cups water in a large mixing bowl until the sugar and salt fully dissolve, 5 minutes.
• Slice lemongrass into 2-inch pieces; slice a 1-inch piece of ginger; place in mortar. Add white peppercorns, then lightly pound to bruise and slightly crush. Add to the brine. Place garlic cloves in the mortar; lightly pound and add to the brine. Roughly chop cilantro stems, briefly pound in mortar, and add to brine. Cut green onions into 3-inch pieces and add to brine.
• Place chicken breast-side down in a Dutch oven. Pour brine over the chicken to submerge. (If chicken isn't completely submerged, weigh it down with a plate.) Cover and refrigerate, 4-6 hours.
• Stuffing: Trim lemongrass ends and remove woody outer layer; slice into ⅛-inch rings. Firmly pound in the mortar until fragrant, 10 seconds. Add the salt and pepper, pound briefly. Roughly chop garlic with peel, add to mortar and pound, about 10 seconds. Roughly chop cilantro stems before adding to mortar and pestle; pound to lightly bruise. (Note: You can also use a food processor and pulse a couple times.)
• Remove chicken and discard the brine. Place chicken upright, cavity-side down, in a colander to drain. After draining, place chicken on a rimmed baking sheet fitted with a wire rack; tuck wings under the breast. Spoon stuffing into the cavity. Place chicken, uncovered, back into the refrigerator to dry out, 6-8 hours.
• Marinade: In a small bowl, stir fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and pepper until the sugar is fully dissolved. Remove chicken from refrigerator after 6 hours. Brush liberally with marinade on the top and sides (it's not necessary to brush the underside). Place chicken back in refrigerator, uncovered, 2 more hours.Basting glaze: In a small bowl, stir together honey and water. Set aside. 1 hour before roasting chicken, preheat oven to 350 F, preferably convection. (If your chicken is on the larger side, raise the heat to 375 F.)
• Roast chicken: Remove chicken from refrigerator, place directly into the oven, and roast for 15-20 minutes. Raise temperature to 400 F, baste chicken with fried shallot oil, rotate pan and continue roasting, 15 minutes. Raise temperature to 425 F, baste again with shallot oil, rotate pan and continue roasting, 15 minutes. Baste with honey glaze, rotate pan and roast for a final 7-8 minutes. (Total roasting time will be about 1 hour.)
• Chicken is done when skin is glossy and golden brown, and a thermometer inserted between the leg and thigh registers 155 F. Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes. (Chicken will continue cooking as it rests.)
• Serve: Place rested chicken on a cutting board. Using a cleaver or sharp knife, split chicken down the center of the breast bone. Turn chicken halves onto their sides; one half at a time, cut the wings off, followed by legs and thighs at the joint. Then, cut between the joint of each leg and thigh. Cut each breast into three pieces. Serve on a platter with Sweet Chile Dipping sauce and Tamarind Dipping Sauce. (Note: Stuffing is meant to be an aromatic-it's not inedible, but it shouldn't be eaten.)

SINGAPORE MAI FUN

Steps:

• Cook rice noodles according to package directions, leaving out any fat or salt that may be called for.
• Combine broth, soy sauce, sugar and salt, and stir together till sugar dissolves.
• Heat large nonstick skillet over med-high heat; coat pan with cooking spray.
• Add 1 tsp oil.
• Add egg; stir-fry 30 seconds or until soft-scrambled, stirring constantly.
• Remove from pan, and set aside.
• Wipe down pan with cloth or paper towel.
• Heat remaining oil (about 2 tsp) in pan over med-high heat.
• Add bell pepper, ginger, red pepper, and garlic; stir-fry 15 seconds.
• Add snow peas, bean sprouts, curry, and shrimp; stir fry two or three minutes, until shrimp is nearly done.
• Stir in egg, noodles and broth mixture; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated.
• Sprinkle with green onions.

MAI FUN SALAD WITH CHICKEN

Steps:

• The day before: Steam the chicken breasts until cooked through, about 20 to 30 minutes.
• While they are steaming, mix together the dressing ingredients (if you have a hand blender, emulsify them) and set aside.
• When chicken breasts halves are just cool enough to handle, shred them and place in a zip-loc bag.
• Pour dressing over the chicken.
• Press as much air as possible out of the bag and marinate overnight (in the refrigerator), turning over once or twice.
• Toast the almonds and sesame seeds in separate pans in a 300º oven until evenly browned.
• Stir them often and watch carefully as they both burn quickly.
• Cool and store in the refrigerator.
• The next day: In a small pot, heat 1 1/2- 2 inches oil until very hot.
• Drop in small amounts of Mai Fun noodles and watch them puff up!
• (takes about a second).
• Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels.
• Do this just before serving if at all possible.
• (If it's necessary to do ahead of time, let the puffed noodles cool completely and store in a ziploc bag or other air-tight container till ready to serve.) Put lettuce and scallions in a large bowl.
• Pour chicken and dressing over lettuce.
• Add oranges, almonds and sesame and toss to mix well.
• Top with Mai Fun noodles and serve.

GRILLED HOISIN CHICKEN WITH MAI FUN

Steps:

• The night before preparing food, mix together marinade ingredients in a small bowl.
• Place chicken in a ziplock bag and add marinade and seal, removing as much air as possible.
• Refrigerate overnight, turning occasionally.
• The next day, well before preparing food, heat oil to a depth of 2-inches at 375-400F in a large skillet or use a deep fryer.
• Add small amounts of mai fun to hot oil and allow them to cook briefly (they will puff like rice cereal and float to the top almost instantly); remove them and drain as soon as they do this and set aside to use later.
• Whisk together ingredients for sauce in a small saucepan and bring to a boil; lower heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes then remove from heat and allow to cool.
• Bring chicken out of refrigeration and allow to warm to room temp- 30-45 min, then drain from marinade, reserving marinade.
• Bring marinade to a boil in a saucepan, lower heat, and simmer for 2-3 minutes, then allow to cool (if it gets too thick, add a little water); use for basting chicken as it cooks.
• Prepare grill, allowing for cooking with indirect heat.
• Grill chicken using an indirect heat method, preferably charcoal, 45 min-75 min, depending on grill temp, or until chicken reaches an internal temp of at least 170F in the thickest part of the breast, basting occasionally.
• As chicken nears doneness, apply sauce mixture to chicken and allow to glaze and cook onto it, then remove chicken from grill.
• Sprinkle chicken with toasted sesame seeds.
• Arrange a bed of puffed mai fun on a serving plate and arrange chicken on top of it; serve at once with other foods as desired.