fedification.com

Fried Chicken on Sukhumvit Soi 33

Bangkok, Thailand – “Are you crazy?” my friend asked before scolding me, “don’t go there. They’re shooting at each other!”  For several days then, demonstrators from the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) had taken over Suvarnarbuni airport blocking flights in and out of Thailand’s main transport hub in an attempt to force the current government out of office.  Recently pro-goverment supporters, the People’s Power Party (PPP), started counterprotesting drawing the two groups into sometimes violent encounters.  After hearing that the demonstrators were passing around fried chicken at the airport, I briefly entertained the thought of checking out protest chicken.  Briefly.  After all it’s not hard to find fried chicken in Bangkok, nearly every market, big or small, has a spot, in addition to the singularly devoted stands and Issan-style (northen Thai) restaurants throughout the city.

Thai fried chicken is a thing of beauty.  With its crisp, golden-brown skin glinting in the sun and silky, moist flesh underneath, it’s one of my favorite street snacks.  I’ve rarely come across a piece I didn’t like, though the plate I had at the famous Polo Fried Chicken was dry and perplexingly boring.  Like southern fried chicken, which includes diversity in its ranks, Thai fried chicken (or gai toht in Thai) is not a monolithic category.  At Polo Fried Chicken it’s covered in crispy slices of fried garlic, at Wun Wai in Chatuchak’s Section 26 black pepper dominates its coating, at many street stalls it’s simply balanced and served with a sticky sweet sauce, and at Benjarot it has no coating, but is brined for just a few minutes and double-fried so that its skin blisters like cracklins. Sometimes a recipe calls for fish sauce or oyster sauce, garlic or garlic powder, coriander roots or coriander seeds, tapioca flour or rice flour, but in any case I’ve been told that it’s the old, dark oil that makes the difference.  As fried chicken is popular in Thai’s northeast region (Issan), it is often served with alongside regional stand-bys sticky rice and fiery papaya salad (som tom).  However, it’s found throughout the country.  Even the PAD didn’t seem to notice that they wee fortifying themselves with morsels associated with the northeast, a stronghold of the PPP and an area where the PAD was trying to diminish individual votes through a constitutional amendment. Fried chicken, at least there’s something we can agree on.

Fried Chicken Batter at the Pak Khlong Talat

Frying Chicken on Sukhumvit Soi 23

Fried Chicken at Wun Wai in Section 26 of Chatuchak Weekend Market

Fried Chicken and Papaya Salad at Benjarot on Th Krung Kasem

Fried Chicken outside Lumpini Park on Sarasin Rd

The Secret to Fried Chicken: Hot Brown Oil