I don’t know that this is actually a Thai dish. The flavours are mostly Thai. The roast chicken technique is actually French. The dipping sauce is all Thai. The greens could be from anywhere in Asia.
Thai roast chicken with French technique
I’m calling it Thai roast chicken though. But it doesn’t matter what you call it really. It’s just a delicious jumble of Asian flavours bolstered by a little French technique. Roast a chicken. Make a bit of pan sauce. Cook some asian greens and rice noodles. Plate the noodles, then the greens and then the carved chicken. Drizzle the pan sauce and the Thai dipping sauce overtop. Garnish. Eat. If that seems like too much, just make the chicken. Serve it over some rice noodles. Not as flashy. But still delicious. The mixture of the pan sauces and the Thai dipping sauce is what really makes this work. You get the earthy richness from the pan drippings, a bit of fat for mouthfeel and the bright herbal chili flavours from the dipping sauce. It all comes together beautifully. A marriage of French and Thai tastes and techniques.
Nam jim makes this Thai roast chicken
The star of this dish is really the nam jim. Thai dipping sauce. That’s what makes this dish. It’s a crazy delicious mixture of sweet, salty, sour and spicy. It’s great in this dish. But it’s great on pretty much everything so that’s not a big surprise. I first made it as a sauce for chicken wings but since then I’ve found all sorts of ways to use it. Grilled chicken, eggs, beef. Or as a salad dressing. A really good salad dressing. I got the idea to carve up the chicken from a brilliant local restaurant. I can take zero credit for the idea but I’m going to use it all over the place. Serve Thai roast chicken in bite size pieces. Makes a great dish to eat family style with chopsticks. It’s just fun this way but you could also serve it on individual plates. Any way you look at it though, this is good eating.
