Laab Gai (ลาบไก่)

Name: Laab Gai (ลาบไก่)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 2-3 servings
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 300 g chicken (thigh or breast), minced; 1/4 cup water or chicken stock; 1 tsp fish sauce, for poaching; 2 shallots, thinly sliced; 2 tbsp fish sauce; 2-3 tbsp lime juice; 1 tbsp roasted chilli powder; 2 tbsp toasted rice powder; 1/2 tsp sugar (optional); 1 handful mint leaves; 2 stalks sawtooth coriander, chopped; 1 spring onion, sliced; 2 kaffir lime leaves, very finely sliced (optional); Fresh vegetables and sticky rice, to serve

Northern Thai · Salads · "Chicken larb"

What is Laab Gai?

Laab Gai is the chicken version of larb — the minced-meat salad that anchors every Isaan and northern Thai table. The meat is cooked fast, dressed sharp (lime, fish sauce, roasted chilli) and lifted by toasted rice powder, which is what gives larb its nutty, smoky signature. Chicken makes the lightest, cleanest larb of all — it takes the dressing without the fat a pork larb carries.

Two schools exist. The everyday one poaches the mince in a little water, the way it is done at Isaan food stalls. The northern one, laab khua, stir-fries the chicken dry with a roasted spice blend — and, in its most traditional form, adds crispy fried chicken skin, giblets and even a little blood. Both finish with the same bright herbs and toasted rice.

Ingredients

300 g chicken (thigh or breast), minced
¼ cup water or chicken stock
1 tsp fish sauce, for poaching
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 tbsp fish sauce
2–3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp roasted chilli powder
2 tbsp toasted rice powder
½ tsp sugar (optional)
1 handful mint leaves
2 stalks sawtooth coriander, chopped
1 spring onion, sliced
2 kaffir lime leaves, very finely sliced (optional)
Fresh vegetables and sticky rice, to serve

Method

Bring the water or stock to a gentle boil with 1 tsp fish sauce. Add the minced chicken and poach, stirring, for 2–3 minutes until just cooked — do not overcook or the meat turns tough.
Lift the chicken into a mixing bowl and leave to cool slightly. Stir in the shallots.
Season with fish sauce, lime juice, chilli powder and toasted rice powder, plus sugar if using. Toss well.
Fold in the mint, sawtooth coriander and spring onion. Scatter over the kaffir lime leaves if using.
Serve with warm sticky rice and fresh vegetables — cucumber, cabbage, yardlong beans.

Where Thai Sources Disagree

Cooked wet or fried dry. Kapook and Aroifin poach the mince in water; the northern recipes (Health & Cuisine's laab khua, Cookpad) stir-fry it dry with a spice blend. The dry version is darker and denser; the wet one is the Isaan stall standard.
The spice base. Northern sources coat the chicken in phrik laab khua — a roasted blend of dried chillies, coriander seed, long pepper, makwaen and star anise. The common version uses chilli powder plus toasted rice, nothing more.
Liver and giblets. Pholfoodmafia minces chicken liver into the larb; Kapook suggests it as an option. Health & Cuisine goes furthest — fried giblets and crispy chicken skin are a garnish, not an extra.
Blood. Cookpad's northern recipe mixes a spoonful of blood into the raw mince, an old tradition most modern recipes have dropped.
Sugar. Kapook adds half a teaspoon to round the dressing; Health & Cuisine a full one. Aroifin and Phol season with fish sauce and lime only.

Notes & Sources

Aroifin's tip: if you can find Thai village chicken (gai baan), its firmer, sweeter meat makes the best larb — and rooster over hen. Poach gently and stop the moment the mince loses its pink; toughness is the one real failure mode.

Kapook — ลาบไก่ (poached version with kaffir lime leaves, 287k reads)
Pholfoodmafia+ — ลาบไก่ by Phol Tantasathien (thigh + liver, stock-poached)
Aroifin — ลาบไก่บ้าน (village rooster version)
Cheewajit / Health & Cuisine — ลาบคั่วไก่ (northern dry-fried with crispy skin and giblets)
Cookpad — ลาบไก่สับ by Hazem (northern style with fried herbs and spice blend)