--- title: 'Gai Yang Isaan' slug: 'gai-yang-isaan' kind: 'recipe' revision: 1 source: 'mcp' created: '2026-09-23T08:40:55.058Z' url: 'https://noble-notations.ryanjnoble.dev/recipes/gai-yang-isaan' --- # Gai Yang Isaan _Spatchcocked chicken in a pounded paste, cooked upright beside wood coals_ A 1.2 kg chicken, spatchcocked and slashed. It marinates overnight in a pounded paste of coriander root, garlic, lemongrass and bird's eye chilli. Fish sauce, oyster sauce and palm sugar bind the paste. A little coconut cream helps it hold to the skin. The chicken cooks upright in a hinged grid beside wood coals. The bone side faces the fire first. The skin side finishes. Baste the skin with coconut cream when it starts to look like it will burn, not on a timer. Judge the chicken by the char first and the probe second. Take the thigh to 76 degrees C. 78 degrees C is also correct. Serve with nam jim jaew and sticky rice. ## Why this revision First version in the store. Records the wood-fire method, scaled to a 1.2 kg bird. It includes the corrections from the cook after the fire run: judge by char first and probe second, take the thigh to 76 degrees C, and baste when the surface starts to burn. ## Variations The same dish taken different ways. Each one keeps its own versions. - Gai Yang Isaan (`gai-yang-isaan`) — this one - Gai Yang Isaan, oven (`gai-yang-isaan-oven`) — Fan oven with a water tray, finished under the top grill, in place of the wood fire ## Categories - **Texture**: Crisp - **Technique**: Grilling, Butchery, Grinding - **Equipment**: Hinged braai grid, Mortar and pestle, Probe thermometer - **Cuisine**: Isaan, Thai - **Course**: Main - **Occasion**: Party ## Ingredients - 1.2 kg Whole chicken, spatchcocked and slashed ### Paste - 4 piece Coriander root - 8 clove Garlic, peeled - 2 stalk Lemongrass, inner core only, sliced thin - 8 piece Bird's eye chilli - 40 ml Fish sauce - 30 ml Oyster sauce - 12 g Palm sugar, shaved - 6 g White pepper, ground - 2 g Black pepper, cracked - 75 ml Coconut cream ### To serve - Coriander leaf _(optional)_ - 1 piece Lime juice, cut into wedges _(optional)_ ## Method ### Prepare 1. Put the chicken breast down. Cut along both sides of the backbone with shears. Remove the backbone. _(Butchery)_ 2. Turn the chicken over. Press on the breastbone until it cracks and the bird lies flat. Dry it with paper. 3. Cut 3 to 4 shallow slashes through the skin into each thigh and the thickest part of each breast. > The slashes let the paste reach the meat. They matter most when the marinade is short. ### Paste 4. Scrape the coriander roots clean. Pound them in the dry mortar to a fibrous pulp. _(Grinding)_ 5. Add the garlic. Pound until it joins the pulp. _(Grinding)_ 6. Add the lemongrass. Pound until no long fibres remain. _(Grinding)_ > The smell changes when the cells open. That is the citral. 7. Add the bird's eye chillies last. Pound them coarse. Leave pieces in the paste. _(Grinding)_ 8. Stir in the fish sauce, the oyster sauce, the palm sugar and 25 ml of the coconut cream. Do not pound. 9. Stir in the white pepper and the black pepper last. > Ground pepper pounded in early spreads evenly and tastes flat. Stirred in last, it stays in pockets. ### Marinate 10. Rub the paste under the skin, into the slashes, into the cavity and over all surfaces. 11. Cover the chicken. Refrigerate it overnight. _(480 min)_ > Minimum 30 minutes at room temperature. Up to 48 hours in the refrigerator is correct. ### Fire 12. Burn wood down to medium coals: grey-white, a steady glow, no flame. _(30 min)_ 13. Take the chicken out of the refrigerator while the fire burns down. Leave the paste on. _(30 min)_ ### Cook 14. Clamp the chicken in a hinged grid. Stand the grid upright, 25 to 30 cm from the coals. _(Grilling)_ 15. Cook with the bone side to the fire. Move the coals to keep the heat even. _(25 min · Grilling)_ > The bone shields the meat and passes the heat in slowly. 16. Turn the grid so the skin faces the fire. _(Grilling)_ 17. Watch the skin. Baste it when the char starts to look like it will burn. > Use the remaining 50 ml of coconut cream mixed with any paste that is left. Do not baste on a timer. 18. Repeat the baste each time the surface needs it. Keep the coats thin. 19. Cook until the skin has deep char in patches. Then probe the thickest part of the thigh. > Char first, probe second. The whole cook took about 70 minutes on the first fire run. 20. Take the chicken off when the thigh reads 76 degrees C. 78 degrees C is also correct. _(76 °C)_ > Do not take it off below 70 degrees C, even if the char looks ready. ### Finish 21. Rest the chicken on a board for 15 minutes. Do not cover it. _(15 min)_ > A cover traps steam and softens the skin. 22. Carve. Scatter the coriander leaf. Serve with lime wedges, sticky rice and nam jim jaew. ## Notes ### Over a wood fire, read the char first and the probe second _(science)_ Radiant heat from coals is not even. It changes as the coals burn down and as you move them. The skin records every one of those changes. The char is the sum of all the heat that reached the bird. A probe reads one point. Near a pocket of fat or near the bone, the reading runs ahead of the deep muscle. One reading can say done when the thigh is not. So over a fire, read the char first. Use the probe to confirm it. In an oven the heat is even. There the probe leads and the colour confirms. The target is for leg meat, not for breast. Thigh collagen starts to turn to gelatin slowly from 70 degrees C. A pull at 71 degrees C is correct for a breast and leaves the thigh chewy. At 76 to 78 degrees C the thigh is softer. Conditions: 76 degrees C in the thickest thigh · 78 degrees C is correct · never below 70 degrees C ### Coconut cream is a brake and a glaze _(science)_ The paste holds palm sugar and oyster sauce. Both carry sugar. Under strong radiant heat that sugar goes from brown to black fast. Coconut cream is about two thirds water. A thin coat on a hot surface takes heat away as the water evaporates. The surface cools for a short time. Then the water is gone. The coconut fat and its proteins stay. They brown and build a lacquer on the skin. So one baste slows the burn and adds colour. Put it on when the surface is close to burning. That is when it does the most work. Conditions: thin coats · baste when the char is close to black ### No acid in the paste, so it can sit for two days _(science)_ An acid marinade denatures the surface proteins of the meat. Over many hours the surface goes soft and mealy. This paste holds no lime and no vinegar. It can sit for 48 hours and the texture does not change. The salt still moves in. 40 ml of fish sauce carries about 7 g of salt. A longer marinade seasons deeper, and a very long one seasons harder. Conditions: 30 min minimum with slashes · overnight is the default · 48 h maximum ### Rinse a brined bird before the paste _(warning)_ A wet-brined bird already holds salt. The paste adds about 7 g of salt from the fish sauce, and more from the oyster sauce. Over a long marinade the two amounts add together. The result is too salty. Take the bird out of the brine. Rinse it. Dry it with paper. Then apply the paste. ### Swaps that have worked _(substitution)_ **Ground white pepper for whole white peppercorns.** Stir it in after the pounding. Whole peppercorns pounded first give an uneven grind and heat that arrives in waves. **Coconut milk for coconut cream.** Put the can in the refrigerator. The fat sets on top in 1 to 2 hours. Use that fat. If the can is still mixed, baste in 2 or 3 thinner coats. **Honey for palm sugar in the paste.** Use 15 ml of honey for 25 g of palm sugar. Honey holds glucose and fructose. Both take part in the Maillard reaction on the skin at once. Sucrose must break down first. **African bird's eye chilli for Thai bird's eye chilli.** Similar size and heat. Use the same count.