Claire's Thai Fried Chicken

It's really fragrant

Mmm. Ooh, it's garlicky. The smells in here are incredible. Y'all, I'm so excited

Michael's favorite food, Heinz Southern, is Thai cooking. Well, I can't tell you how happy I was to meet this chef

Claire Handelman. She has lived in Thailand, and she's gonna share a recipe with Jamie and me

one that we can even do. I figured since we haven't done Thai together before

we would start off with a very easy dish. So this is basically a little fried chicken

that we are gonna marinate with some garlic, some ginger. This is some white pepper and some coriander seeds

What does coriander taste like? You know, I don't know that I've ever used it. It's the seed of cilantro

Jamie thinks cilantro tastes like soapy dish wine. This is not just me, a lot of people

A lot of people do. It's actually, it's a genetic thing. Some people just don't like it

So this is oyster sauce. So we can do about two tablespoons of oyster sauce

Okay, and you just buy this at the grocery store. You could probably find that at most supermarkets

So that's actually made with oysters. It is? Yeah. That sounds so gross

But it's really nice. It has a really rich flavor. It's salty. I hate oysters. Let me try this

You might like all of these things. Together it doesn't taste... It's very salty. It's salty

This is our big seasoning. Oh, I like that. Yeah, see? You do? Whoa. Yeah

So let go ahead and add we add about a tablespoon of sesame oil Also you can find that at almost any market And then we do about Two of this low Yes Okay yeah you want to use light because of that oyster sauce

Yeah, because that's our heavy seasoning. So then into here, we're going to add about 10 garlic cloves

All right, how much white pepper? Let's do about half a teaspoon

And then we're going to need a little paring knife just to, we want to cut off a knife. Jamie uses a spoon

We could do a spoon, too, just to get off the skin. Do a nice nub

Look how quickly he did that, y'all. And then let's do about two tablespoons, the coriander seeds

And so I don't know if you use a lot of white pepper, but it's totally different than black

You could substitute black here, but white, I think, is also really nice. How much ginger flavor you said

Yeah, let's do that. That looks great. All right. So we can go ahead and put the top on

And we don't want to turn it into a paste. We still want some chunks in there

They teach you how to operate this in Thailand? No baby. It sticks. You always got it

Perfect. So let's just pulse it. That's perfect. So we can go ahead and take this out

All right. So you're just going to marinate your chicken thighs. And you've cut those into

About two to three pieces per boneless, skinless chicken thighs. So I like to let this marinate for minimum an hour, preferably overnight

And then this is called a candan. It's palm. I don't know if you can smell it

This is one of their main... Where do you find this? We actually found this at an Asian store here in Savannah

So we were saying if you can find it here I think you can find it most anywhere It comes frozen You want to keep the shiny side on the outside and then you want to keep the root end in your right hand You both right Uh

So then we're going to make a little pocket out of this. A little pocket. Perfect

And you can make it smaller, because we're going to set a piece of chicken in here. Okay, so you want it small enough to hold that piece of chicken. Exactly

So we're going to stick the chicken in there. Okay. Like that. I'm going to reach in there and get my piece of chicken

Can I just have a sandwich? I don't want you. Most of the tying is already done

You just have to do this. Oh, I just love this. Oh, I got it. OK, you take this piece. We're going to work with this piece the whole time

It's like tying a tie. So Jamie, you should be able to do this. OK, so you stick it in there. I wear a tie all the time. Yeah

So get to work. So down through the front. That's amazing. First try

You turn it around. Hold it in your hand. Right, I turn it back around. I don't see you do this, Jamie

I'm not doing it. Uh-huh. You should be able to do this. No, it's kind of

Mr. Tyler. I know, I'm totally, completely comfortable right now. Okay. You see that

That is awesome. So then we take our... Okay, so then, and then I just like to do it at an angle

It looks complicated, but once you do one or two... That's easy. You get it down

All right, so then the next step is to have a pot of water with a steamer set in it

We're just gonna put these in. Okay. And we're gonna steam them for five minutes

Not to cook all the way through, just to cook a little bit until they're okay. What about raw chicken

No, they're going in the fry. Well, we're gonna fry them. Oh, oh, oh, I gotcha

Yeah, no, this is gonna be a fun. This is getting better, y'all. Yeah, so these ones are already steamed

You know what you got a ton of aromatic things in there and the biggest smell coming out of there is the grass You can really smell it right It really adds a lot of flavor Yeah that what it smells like So we can go ahead and put these here

And then we can just move right to the fryer. We have to be careful because they're a little wet, so it should take off

Are we going to coat them with anything? Nope. Or just fry them next to it

They go straight into the fryer. Hey, Fry Cam. Whoa! There's a little bit of liquid in there

Yeah, just shake the water. Yeah. Now, how long do we fry them for, Claire

These take five minutes. And you want them to get really deep golden brown

not just, like, light brown. You can do, I mean, you can fry them without the leaves, too

Oh, but the leaves are so pretty. The leaves are what make it really beautiful. That color's perfect

We can take them out. And you don't want to eat the leaf. Purely presentation and flavor

So that's the perfect color. They've taken on the color of the oyster sauce. Mm-hmm

Yeah, there's some sugar in there, so it caramelizes. It looks awesome. That's perfect

That's the way to do it. What do you think? I love the coriander, you know, the little

like, bursts of flavor when you bite into the seeds. Mmm! It's got a really nice texture, too

To bite into that coriander seed is so delicious. Thank you, Claire

I can't get over the coriander seed. How do we say thank you in time? Kapun ka

Kapun ka, y'all. Thank you. Kapun ka. Thank you. Thank you, Claire

Y'all gotta taste this. It is awesome