Thai Garlic & Pepper Chicken & Green Mango Salad - Marion's Kitchen

A super simple marinade transforms these grilled chicken skewers into something so magical. Then we've got a tangy, spicy green mango salad. This is my grilled chicken with Thai green mango salad. We're going to start with what I think of as the holy trinity of Thai flavours. That is garlic, coriander and pepper. It's a paste and a flavour that's used in a lot of different dishes in Thailand. It's really simple. Just some garlic. I like to pop those skins off, so I can take them off more easily. I always think of this paste as a similar thing to when you're thinking about European dishes that often start with garlic and onion. It's kind of like that base flavour for a lot of different things. I also want some coriander root. This is the root part here. A lot of you guys have written in and told me that you can't find coriander or cilantro with the root on. But you can just use the stem part as well, or you can try growing your own. Now some white peppercorns. You could use black peppercorns too. I always like to add a little pinch of salt because I think it helps to break down the fibres in those aromatics. Now we just want to think about some people we don't like, or not. Just pound this to a rough paste. This is the kind of texture that you're looking for. It doesn't have to be all smooth and fine dining here. I actually want a little bit of those fibres to stick to the chicken, because they get kind of crispy and crunchy. That goes in here. This is chicken thigh that I've just cut into small pieces. To this, I'm going to add a little bit of turmeric. It's just going to give us a really beautiful golden colour on our grilled chicken. And then some fish sauce. Give that a really good mix. This is a marinade that you can use for so many different things. You could use it for pork skewers. It's awesome on grilled prawns as well. I've just got some bamboo skewers here that have been soaking in some water. That's going to stop them from burning on your grill or in your pan. Then it's just a matter of threading these chicken pieces onto your skewers. You can leave these guys to marinate overnight if you want. But the good news is, if you don't want to do that, you can just cook them straight away and they still taste great. I'm just going to add a little bit of oil to my hot pan here. These go in. You can also do this on a barbecue outside. It's a great summertime thing to have on the barbecue. Just with this indoor cooking though with these skewers, they're quite hefty and chunky. I'm going to show you my little technique for doing these guys really well inside and making sure that they're properly cooked all the way through. The first thing I want to do is get some really good colour on this first side. Let those go for 2 or 3 minutes. Once you can see that really beautiful deep golden colour on one side, just turn them over. Then wait for the same thing to happen on the other side. You just want a bit of colour. Don't worry about cooking them all the way through. I'm going to finish them off in the oven. These are looking good. The colour is really nice. I'm going to get them out onto a tray. If you're doing this on an outdoor grill, you could now pop these onto indirect heat, a lower part of the barbecue and cook them all the way through. But in the pan, that's a little more difficult without overcooking the outside. I like to just pop them on the tray. Once you've done both batches, cover them with some foil. Then I'm going to finish them off in the oven for about 10 minutes. That's going to keep them nice and juicy, but still cooked all the way through. While that chicken is doing its thing in the oven, we can finish off with our Thai green mango salad. What you're looking for with a green mango is simply an unripe mango. Have a look in your Asian grocery store. You really want to find a mango that is obviously green on the outside and very firm to the touch. This unripe mango is very sour and has a really crunchy texture. The way we need to prepare it is just take the skin off first. Then there are 2 different ways that you can make the fine strips of the green mango. One is to use a little vegetable peeler that is serrated like this one. That's going to make nice little julienne strips for you. You're going to get with that. The other way, which I quite prefer, because you get a slightly finer texture, is the more traditional way. That's to do it with a knife. But it is a little bit more dangerous than the julienne peeler. What you want to do is hold your mango. Make sure your fingers are tucked in nicely at the bottom edge of the mango. Then tap, tap, tap with your knife. Once you can see this kind of texture here, then you want to shave the top of that mango so that you get these really nice, fine strips. That's the kind of texture you get from doing it that way. If you can't find green mango at all, you can make a similar style of salad using a green Granny Smith apple. It's got that nice sour note that goes very well. To the mango, I want to add some of these nice little red Asian shallots. I like to cut these into little wedges. I like them to retain a little bit of their shape in the salad. Some red chilli as well. I've got some dried desiccated coconut here. Not strictly traditional, but I do love the little coconut-y hint of flavour in this salad. Now we get to the dressing part. I want some fish sauce and some sugar. The mango is really sour. You will need a sweetness to counteract that. Some chilli powder because you guys know by now, I like things spicy. Thai salads, generally spicy. The last thing we need is some lime juice as well. I'm going to start out a little frugal with the lime juice because green mango can vary in sweetness and sourness incredibly. I err on the side of caution first. I can always add more later. I can't take it out. I want to give everything a really vigorous mix for a couple of minutes because I need that sugar to dissolve into the lime juice and the fish sauce. I've made this salad like a hundred times. Every time, the balance of the fish sauce and the sugar is slightly different depending on the green mango, which as I said, can vary so much in how sour and tart it is. Let's have a look. Really punchy. I love that chilli. I'm going to need a little bit more sugar here though, and a little bit more fish sauce as well. Now mix again. Now we've got it. We've got tangy. We've got the sour mango. Then I've got the sweet and spicy dressing. Beautiful balance. I just want some herbs now. I'm going to use the leaves of those coriander stems that we had at the beginning. Some mint leaves as well. Give that a mix. That fragrance when you add those herbs. Pure magic. Now we're ready to take a look at our chicken. Perfectly coloured on the outside. I know they're cooked perfectly all the way through. I want some of that salad. Some skewers. There you go guys. A grilled chicken skewer that you're going to be coming back for time and again. Plus, a really tangy, yummy green mango salad. This is the magic of Thai food. Honestly, the beautiful garlic and the pepper coming through off that chicken. Then the tangy, slightly sweet and coconutty salad is such a perfect match. Yum. If you've got any comments or questions, pop them below. If you enjoyed the video, why not hit that subscribe button plus the little bell one. That way you'll get notified every time I release a new video. Thanks guys.