Thai BBQ chicken - authentic

[Burnt offerings]

This is the first cook in my new ProQ Excel 20.

When my wife saw the hanging hooks that came with the ProQ I just purchased, she decided then and there we had to have Thai style BBQ chicken, my wife happens to be Thai.
This helped justify the purchase to her as well

She marinated the chicken in a mixture of sweet soy sauce, mushroom sauce, oyster sauce, garlic, cracked black pepper, fresh coriander root and coconut cream, the chicken was marinated for 24 hours.

I used charcoal for this cook, without the water pan (used a drip tray on the lower rack).

Heres the chook, marinated, ready to be cooked.



Here was the tricky bit, hanging the chook in the lid of the ProQ (I did this bit by myself) and it was hot!



I BBQ'd this for about 70~75 minutes at 180ºC, I used some wood chips for the first 20 minutes (bag of "chicken mixture" wood chips - different types of wood are in the mix)!

The smell coming out while cooking was great.



Heres the finished chook.



This tasted exactly the same as how my wife's sister cooks in Thailand (who happens to be a very good cook, even by Thai standards), it was even the same golden colour! The skin was crispy, there was a 3~4 mm smoke ring under the skin (sorry, no photo of this, we ate it before I remembered) and it was very, very moist.
My wife's words were, "cooked just like in Thailand", I won't take credit, as my wife made the marinade.

Contrary to popular belief, not all food from Thailand is spicy!
You will not get chicken like this in a Thai restaurant in Australia!

Give it a go, It's easy to do!

Warren

[smokeman]

Welcome aboard...that chicken looks wicked, ive got a excel 20 also great unit. never thought to do chicken hanging in it though, im gonna give that a go

[shayneh2006]

Yes!!!!!!!!

I love Thai food. I have eaten plenty of street side meats straight off Charcoal grill lining the streets in and around Thailand.

That Chicken you have cooked looks just great.


I'm gunna try this one out for sure.


Thanks for sharing .

Shayne

[quacker]

Oh my, that is being added to the must try list, thanks for sharing!

Sent from Nokia 920 - WP8

[Windsurf]

Burnt O. can you give rough proportions for the marinade ingredients? Would love to try this.

[beachbums]

Burnt O. can you give rough proportions for the marinade ingredients? Would love to try this.

I'm with Windsurf. Would your wife PLEASE share her recipe with us?

Cheers, Wayne and Jan

[Burnt offerings]

OK, my wife never actually measures ingredients, she goes by taste, so here is what she said is close to the proportions.

2 tablespoons mushroom sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons black sweet soy sauce (if you can not get sweet say sauce, use ordinary soy and add a little palm sugar)
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/2 teaspoon black pepper corns
3 fresh coriander roots
3 cloves of garlic
1~2 pinches of salt
A little rice bran oil

Place the pepper corns, coriander root, garlic and a pinch of salt into a mortar and pestle, grind fine to form a paste.

Mix with the rest of the ingredients, taste and add more of whatever to taste.

Place in shallow dish with butterflied chicken and massage well into the chicken.

Refrigerate 24-36 hours.

Preheat ProQ to 180ºC/355ºF, hang chicken form lid, cook 70-75 minutes, (77ºC/170ºF internal temperature.

Enjoy.

Warren

[Lach72]

Geez that looks good.

I've been thinking about the ProQ for the last few days, trying to work out a way to justify it to the manageress...

I do a thai chicken Gai Yang that I reckon would be awesome on that.

The marinade is just Garlic, white peppercorns, Lime Juice and coriander roots and stems, pounded and then mixed with a touch of peanut oil. Rub it and leave for a few hours, then indirect until almost done, then straight over the coals to char a bit.

The way you've done it with the ProQ, makes it look easier.

[Al_]

Hey Burnt offerings, what is the mushroom sauce you use? Is it mushroom soy?
The only mushroom sauce i found at the asian grocers was a vegetarian oyster sauce , mushroom flavoured (with MSG and and a heap of other nasy sounding chemicals)

[Burnt offerings]

Hi Al_,

It is mushroom soy sauce.

My wife uses it in a lot of her cooking.
You will find a lot of uses for it!

Regards,

Warren

[Al_]

yep, its a nice soy sauce.

Thanks for that, Warren.

[Angryman65]

Thanks Burnt Offerings,

Made that tonight and it was without a doubt one of the best feeds I've had in ages and I've just spent a week eating in Parramatta's China Town in Church St.

Marinated it for 24 hours using a bit of dark soy in place of the mushroom sauce, because you can't buy mushroom soy in Batemans Bay and did it in the Kmart kettle. Took longer than I expected to get to 83C but it was only the second time I've used this kettle after the tried and tested got replaced. Need a bigger heat in the new one and will need to start earlier. (Damn I've got to practice a bit).

Skin was crispy without hanging it like you did and the flavour was great with a little smoke from a small banksia nut. Didn't get any photos unfortunately because we were starving by the time I'd got it on plates.

Thanks for putting the recipe up, it is now on the list of do again feeds.

Angus

[Smokey]

Yep a classic, And should be on everyones list of a to do.
I wonder what happened to Burnt offerings ? Had so much to offer and left us with this gem.

[Burnt offerings]

I'm still around!
Sill trying to prefect my BBQ technique.

Problem is at the moment, every time I cook something good, it gets eaten before any photos get taken!!!!

I will comment when I think I have something to offer on a topic.

I haven't left, I look at the forum every day for tips and ideas.

I'm glad you like this recipe, we have it once a month or so with a couple of changes to the marinade every now and then, with very consistent results.

You will probably not find this in any Thai restaurant in Australia!

Regards,

Warren

[Smokey]

Really good to hear your still about Warren
Dont take too long to add more of your ventures ok.