Pandan or known as screwpine leaves in English, is truly one of my favorite leaves to cook with. The smell of fresh pandan leaves are simply amazing. It’s hard to describe. My dad used to place a bunch of fresh pandan leaves at the back of the car as an air freshener 🙂 Pandan leaves are also very commonly used in Southeast Asia cooking. The leaf itself is not consumed. It is used to flavor both savory and sweet dishes. This pandan-wrapped chicken was inspired by Thai cooking with a bit of modification on my end. Love them ! They are great as appetizer for sure. They are easy to pick up and just the right size to munch 😉
PANDAN-WRAPPED CHICKEN
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs
- About 8-10 fresh pandan/screwpine leaves - cut into about 6-inch length pieces if frozen, just thaw before use
- 25-30 pieces of toothpicks
- Oil for deep frying
Marinade:
- 3 cloves garlic peeled and grated
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 Tbsp of ground coriander
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into about 3-inch cubes. Place in a large bowl and add in all the ingredients for marinade, cover and pop into the refrigerator to let it marinade for at least 1 hour. Meanwhile, you can prepare the pandan leaves by cutting them into about 6-inch pieces
- When ready to wrap, take one pandan leave and place one piece of marinated chicken meat and wrap the leave around the chicken and secure with one toothpick. Repeat with the rest of the chicken
- Preheat oil in a large frying pan. When you throw in a cube of bread and it browns, the oil is ready. Add in the chicken (I recommend frying in batches) and fry until golden brown and place on absorbent paper towel. Serve immediately and unwrap the magic inside 😉
Did you make this recipe?Please leave me a comment below and tag @whattocooktoday and #WhatToCookToday on Instagram
