Main Ingredients:

See below ingredients and instructions of the recipe

Cooking Preparation of the Recipe:

1 Chicken (4 to 5 pounds) -(optional)
Salt 1/4 c Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
2 qt Water 1/2 ts Sugar
3 Stalks fresh lemon grass 1/4 c Fresh lime juice
8 sl Fresh galangal (or fresh 1/2 c Tightly packed fresh
-ginger) -coriander leaves
6 Garlic cloves, smashed 1/4 c Fresh Thai basil leaves,
6 Fresh Thai "bird" chiles * -cut into thin strips
8 Shallots, sliced 1 ts Black pepper
6 Fresh kaffir lime leaves

* (or 4 Serranos), cut into coarse strips, seeds and all.

Salt the chicken inside and out and let stand for 30 minutes to an
hour.

In a pot the chicken will fit in snugly, bring water to a boil. Add
the chicken and when the water returns to a boil, skim the foam. Cut
off the bottom 1/3 of the lemon grass stalk, discarding the rest. Cut
the bottom on the bias into oval slices and add to the pot along with
the galangal, garlic, chiles, shallots and kaffir lime leaves (if you
can find them).

Turn the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pot, and simmer for
30 minutes. Then add the fish sauce, sugar and up to 2 teaspoons of
salt (or to taste). Simmer until the skin near the wing starts to
split, about 30 more minutes, then remove the chicken to a large,
round serving bowl leaving the stock in the pot. Cover the chicken
to keep warm.

Add the lime juice to the broth as well as the coriander and basil
leaves. Pour the broth over the chicken, sprinkle with the black
pepper and serve.

The chicken should pull off the bone easily; it's best eaten from
bowls with some of the broth and herbs poured over.

Bruce Cost, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/14/88.

Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; November 4 1992.

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