Ever eaten chicken rolls?! If you’re looking for a quick, super flavorful and spicy meal, look no further than this twist on Lao chicken. Use either ground chicken or turkey and serve in sweet, buttery salad wraps.
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If the idea of a meal of flavorful meat punctuated with lime, mint and cilantro swims your boat, then add this Chicken Larb recipe to your weekday fast food rotation.
What is Larb?
Larb (pronounced lahb) is a Lao dish that’s also popular in northern Thailand, where the flavor customization is slightly different (the Thai version isn’t as acidic and doesn’t contain fish sauce like the Lao version here).
In the Lao version, which I’ve adapted from authentic versions of the dish here for convenience, it usually features a choice of beef, pork, chicken, duck or fish, spiked with lime juice, fish sauce, chili and mint – flavors that add to your mix Add a bunch of perks to the mix.
Another ingredient common in Lao larb is ground roasted rice – it adds a smoky note. To make this a quick weeknight meal, I omitted this step from the recipe. (I tried but ended up deciding it wasn’t practical.)
Sambal oelek is also a good ingredient for larb. It’s an Indonesian chili paste that tastes a lot like fresh chillies have been added to a dish when you cook with it. The ingredients are simple: crushed raw red chillies, some vinegar, and salt. That’s it! It’s a great chili paste when you want to spice up everything from mayonnaise to a winter squash soup.
How does chicken larb taste?
The flavors here are what you would expect and appreciate from Southeast Asian cuisine — a successful balance of hot spices (chilies), sour (limes), sweet (brown sugar and sweet chili sauce), and salty (fish sauce).
Fish sauce is loaded with umami and really rounds out the flavor. Add as many or as few chili slices as you like. Your taste buds will wake up at the first bite.
How to serve chicken meat
While it’s often served alongside rice and a green papaya salad, serving larb in lettuce wraps adds a nice freshness and crunch to the flavorful filling. Put on a pot of rice, and when it’s cooked, the filling is ready.
Dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes? Count me in.
More Southeast Asian recipes to try!
- Green Thai curry with chicken
- Cambodian Coconut Shrimp Soup
- Vietnamese style noodle bowls with chicken
- Fast Chicken Pho
- Prawn spring rolls with peanut sauce
Chicken Larb Salad Wraps (Larb Gai)
ingredients
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2 tablespoon vegetable oilplus more as needed
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1 clove garlicfinely chopped
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1 lb minced meat or Turkey
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2 shallotsthinly sliced
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1 to 2 Thai red or green chilliesthinly sliced or to taste
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water, as needed
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2 tablespoon lime juice
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2 tablespoon fish sauce
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1 tablespoon sweet thai chili sauce
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1 teaspoon Brown sugar
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1 teaspoon Sriracha or Sambal Oelek
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1/4 Cup roughly chopped mint leaves
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1/4 Cup roughly chopped coriander
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1 head Boston salad or 2 small heads of lettuce, separated into leaves
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2 Lemonsquartered, to serve
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Cooked riceTo serve
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mint, coriander etc Thai basil sprigsTo serve
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extra Sriracha or sambal oelek sauce for serving
method
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Cook chicken:
Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the ground beef and spread it on the bottom of the pan. Without stirring too much, cook for about 6 minutes or until brown on the bottom. Turn and crumble with the edge of a spatula. Cook 6 to 8 minutes longer or until meat is browned.
Stir in the shallots and chilies and cook for 30 seconds. If the mixture looks dry, stir in some water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Remove the pan from the stove.
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Add the spices:
In a small bowl, stir together the lime juice, fish sauce, chili sauce, and brown sugar. Stir the mixture into the meat along with the chopped cilantro and mint.
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Serve lamb:
Transfer the meat to a serving platter and set alongside lettuce leaves, lime wedges, and more cilantro. Prepare a bowl of cooked rice and a bowl of chili sauce. Add some rice to each lettuce leaf and top with a spoonful of larb, a squeeze of lime juice and chili sauce to taste.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 425 | calories |
| 27g | Fat |
| 16g | carbohydrates |
| 32g | protein |
