Thai Rice Dishes

Thai Rice Dishes You Will Certainly Enjoy

While Asian dishes usually blend well with rice, Thai dishes have their own set of rice meals. Specifically, Thai dishes are known to accompany Jasmine rice during a meal. There are several Thai rice dishes out there, which are all fantastic. Usually, it has the word ‘khao’ in the name. It is because, in the Thai language, khao means rice. Let us discuss some of the best Thai rice dishes you will certainly enjoy.

Surprisingly Good Khao Kan Chin

Pork blood in rice may sound stinky, but squeezing it with lemongrass leaves can improve the smell before mixing it with rice, minced pork, then adding salt and sugar. Khao kan chin is one of the famous Thai rice dishes of the Tai Yai (Shan people) of Myanmar and northern Thailand. It is rice mixed with minced pork and pork blood, flavored with salt, sugar, a little of garlic, shallot, vegetable oil, and steamed inside a banana leaf. It is commonly served with fried chopped garlic, fried dried bird chilies, and cucumber.

Khao Kha Mu: Favorite And Famous

This dish is not only a favorite of Thailand’s Prime Minister (a celebrity chef), it’s also one of those ubiquitous Thai rice dishes served by street vendors throughout Thailand. The chef prefers to get it “fresh,” which means it has not been cured or smoked. Hock (cut from the shoulder) is also a cut that works fine. Thai chefs prefer to get a front leg, as the back legs contain more fat and less meat. Thai diners serve steamed rice with sliced pig’s trotters, simmered in soy sauce and five-spice powder. It is incomplete without a sweet-spicy dipping sauce, fresh bird’s eye chili peppers and cloves of garlic on the side. Boiled egg and a clear broth on the sides are optional.

Morning Starter Khao Khai Chiao

This omelet with white rice, often eaten with chili sauce and cucumber, is an excellent quick snack or breakfast. It consists of eggs, fish sauce, a splash of lemon juice or vinegar, and optionally some soy sauce, cornstarch, or rice flour. Chefs cook this mixture in vegetable oil until slightly brown. Unlike regular folded omelets which serve best with Thai rice dishes, this Thai version flipped the egg. Khai chiao may be served with various toppings, while chili sauce and cucumbers on the side. One variant is named khao khai chiao songkhrueang, topped with a minced pork and vegetable stir-fry.

Khao Khluk Kapi: Colorful Thai Rice Dishes

Foreign visitors to Thailand may not be aware of the dish’s existence. Khao khluk kapi originated in Central Thailand, and it is typically a lunch dish in Thailand. It is a Thai rice dish made with cooked rice fried with shrimp paste, and then topped with or served alongside several ingredients, including crispy dried shrimps, slices of sweet pork or chicken, chilis, raw mango gratings, red onions, omelet shavings, cucumbers, green onions, and cilantro. All these ingredients combined into one make for a colorful dish and create an explosion of flavors and textures in the mouth. This delicious rice and shrimp paste dish is usually sold as a takeaway food at many street stalls throughout Thailand.

Khao Mok Gai: Thai Chicken Biryani

The Thai version of a “chicken biryani” is one of the best Thai rice dishes that you must try. This Thai-Muslim dish means “rice covered chicken,” and made by cooking rice and chicken curry. The chefs prepare the marinated chicken, dipping sauce, and fried shallots a day or more in advance. This one plate dish consists of fragrant yellow rice sprinkled with crispy fried shallots and served with a piece of chicken that seems baked (but isn’t). Authentic Thai restaurants won’t prepare this dish entirely by itself, of course. Cucumber, tomato, and the essential part, Nam Jim accompanies the meal. The dipping sauce for this dish is particular.

Khao Mok Nuea: Thai Beef Biryani

You must try the Thai version of a “beef biryani” to experience the authentic Thai rice dishes. Biryani may not immediately come to mind when you think of Thai food, but Khao Mok is an incredibly popular Southern Thai dish. It borrows a lot of flavors, and it’s cooking style from Malaysia and Indian cuisine and is popular in the south where the majority of the population is Muslim, unlike central and northern areas of Thailand that have mostly Buddhist people. The chef cooks onions, shallots, spices, tomato, and meat together until it’s all paste. Fried rice and stock completes the ingredients, and then the dish cooks for more minutes until it is ready to serve.

Khao Man Gai: Thai Version Of Hainan Chicken

Imagine Thai rice dishes with steamed rice, topped with garlic, and served with sliced chicken, chicken broth, and a spicy dipping sauce. It will turn out as a Thai version of a dish called Wenchang chicken from Hainan in southern China. Thai chefs prepare the components of the recipe separately. After cooking the chicken by simmering, it undergoes deboning, and then the broth is used to make the rice and soup. The rice cooks in the chicken broth together with fried garlic, ginger, and bruised cilantro roots. Dipping sauce contains garlic, ginger, vinegar, soy sauce, and palm sugar. The soup has chayote, winter gourd, or daikon radish sliced into bite-sized pieces.

Crispy Pork Khao Mu Krop

Rice and crispy pork serve fantastic with boiled egg and a bowl of broth. A sauce always comes with the dish, served separately in the pan. The dish serves best on rice, and often covered with a sticky soya or oyster-sauce based sauce. A blender processes all the mixing ingredients, and then chefs paint it on the meat. Standing for several hours or overnight, the pork and the marinade cooks in a baking pan with water or pork stock.

The chef brings the cooking liquid to the boil on stovetop add dark sweet soy, honey, and vinegar, and reduce to a thick sauce, adding a little cornstarch if necessary to thicken it. After placing the pork on a bed of steamed Thai jasmine rice, garnished with coriander leaves, cucumber slices on the side, and a hard-boiled egg, the chef tops it with the dipping sauce.