It’s feeling like summer here in San Diego! Chinese medicine encourages eating with the seasons, so with the warmer weather comes a change to your meals. Summer time calls for quick cooking methods like stir frying, blanching or steaming, lighter foods with fresh ingredients, and more salads with a mix of raw and cooked ingredients.
This is a great time to make chicken larb. Larb is a meat dish that consists of ground meat, fish sauce, lime, chilis, herbs and toasted rice. This dish is originally from Laos, and is also commonly seen in parts of Thailand.
This is one of my go to meals for summer time – quick and easy to make, high impact flavor of sweet, salty, sour and spicy, nice texture contrast between crunchy and soft, and of course delicious.
Larb can be served in lettuce cups to make wraps, or with rice or noodles. As lettuce wraps, they can be served warm or at room temperature, making it a great dish for parties, picnics or as an appetizer or light meal. I wish we could throw a party right now, but I guess it means more food for me! I’ll be enjoying these this weekend on my patio, soaking in that sunshine and warm weather.
Ingredients
1/4 cup jasmine rice, uncooked
3 tablespoons sesame oil or other cooking oil
1 lb ground chicken
1 red onion, sliced thin
1 Thai chili or other chili of choice, chopped
1/2 cup mint, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
2 green onion, chopped
2 limes, juiced
2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
2-3 tablespoons coconut aminos
Butter, romaine, or bibb lettuce – wash and dry, and keep the leaves whole
Directions
Heat a small dry saucepan on low heat. Add dry uncooked rice and toast, stirring frequently so the rice doesn’t burn. It will probably smell like popcorn as it cooks, and remove from the heat once the rice turns golden brown. Grind into a coarse powder using a high speed blender or mortar and pestle. Set aside to cool.
Heat one tablespoon of oil in a small saucepan on medium high heat. Add half of the sliced onions and stir fry until crispy. Set aside to cool.
Heat a wok or large saucepan on medium high heat. Add remaining oil and ground chicken, breaking up big pieces and crumbling until browned and cooked through. Add remaining red onion and chilis and cook for 2 minutes to soften.
Take the wok off the heat and add mint, cilantro, scallions, lime juice, fish sauce, coconut aminos, and toasted rice powder. Mix to combine. Taste to adjust seasonings to your liking – this is one of those recipes that you can really customize to your taste preference, so feel free to adjust the lime, fish sauce, chilis, and coconut aminos depending on how much sweet, salty, spicy, umami and sour you like.
Serve in lettuce cups and top with crispy onions and hot sauce.
Substitutions / Alterations
I’m a wimp when it comes to heat from fresh chilis, so if you want a milder heat, or you can’t find Thai chilis, you can use red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, or serve the larb with your choice of hot sauce.
Other optional ingredients to add if you have access to an Asian supermarket – lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, Thai basil (I’ll have to track these down for next time).
If you can’t find fish sauce, substitute 3-5 anchovy fillets – mince them and add while the chicken is cooking.
I used ground chicken in this recipe, but you can also use ground turkey or pork.