Gai Yang Recipe - Thai Grilled Chicken (Kai Yang)

An easy and delicious recipe to prepare Thai Gai (Kai) Yang (grilled chicken). There’s no single recipe for Gai Yang, different regions and cooks throughout Thailand like to add their own twist to a marinade packed with authentic and fragrant Thai ingredients such as white peppercorns, coriander root, palm sugar and more. Traditionally, Gai Yang is made with a whole chicken but for practicality, using chicken thighs is a good time and effort saving alternative. This Thai grilled chicken dish is great to enjoy alone but equally great to accompany sticky rice, Thai papaya salad and a range of fried rice and vegetable stir fry recipes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 600g Chicken Thighs 
• 6 Garlic Cloves
• 2 Tbsp Whole White Peppercorns
• 10g Coriander Root
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Palm Sugar

 INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Chop the coriander root into small pieces and set aside. 
2. Grind the white peppercorns into a rough powder in a pestle and mortar.
3. Follow by adding the garlic cloves and coriander root pieces and grinding these into a paste in the same pestle and mortar. 
4. Next add the palm sugar and soy sauce then mix into a paste. 
5. No marinade the chicken with the paste for at least 3 hours.
6. Grill the chicken in the oven or air fryer for 25-30 minutes until cooked through (turn occasionally to ensure the chicken is cooked evenly throughout).

Watch our quick recipe video: