Thai Street Food - GRILLED CHICKEN Basin BBQ!! 🐓 🍗 Most FAMOUS Grilled Chicken in Thailand!!

hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day it's mark wiens i am in khao swan guang district in the khan ken province of thailand and this district is home to what is one of the world's best grilled chicken and that's because two main reasons number one is the actual chicken breed the variety of chicken and then number two is the way the unique style of grilling this chicken which they use this basin grill which you'll see the whole process but that seals in the juices of this amazing chicken and so this is one of my favorite chickens to eat in the world i am thrilled i am excited to be at the origin where it comes from i'm going to share this entire experience and we we're gonna eat some serious grilled chicken in this video [Music] so again welcome to khao suan guang which is a district in the khan ken province of thailand but at the very north end of khan ken and yeah you can probably hear the loud trucks going by this uh district this city is in khan ken but it's really kind of halfway between the city of konkan and the city of udantani and so it is a must that whenever you drive between konkan and udantani you have to stop in this town for some grilled chicken and there are literally we just did like a little loop around the city before finding the restaurant we were looking for but there are literally more than a dozen there could be like 50 uh different kaswan guang restaurants on the side of the road all displayed on the side of the road you can actually just driving through this town you just get chicken aromas just through your windows in the car there's that much grilled chicken going on here [Applause] so he's just putting the fresh batch on for the morning to cater to the lunch crowd that's gonna roll through here but uh what a move next he takes this like poker poker and just pokes holes in the chicken oh man i'm i guess that's gonna make the the smoke maybe the the juices absorb more into the meat oh man what a technique the poker i love it really quickly though before we get started before we see the entire process of how they marinate the chicken and how they wrap the chicken on the bamboo skewers a few more bits of information and the background of caiong house wang guang so the chicken is called the grilled chicken is called gayan khao swan guang gayang is grilled chicken and then khao swan guang is this district of congence if you mention grilled chicken in thailand this is one of the number one one of the most legendary one of the most well-known famous chickens in all of thailand for grilled chicken and it's the type of chicken that's available at every fair every event circus if you go to some of the big fairs throughout thailand from the south to the central to the north to isan you are guaranteed to find guyance so i remember it had to be 10 or 12 years ago my first time to eat this special type of grilled chicken first i was drawn in because of the unique girl style which is literal well i'll tell you more about the grill basin style later but it just looks so cool and the way the chickens just rest over the grill that will just draw you in and then i tasted the chicken for the first time i still remember that and i was like oh man it looks scrawny and it does it's like a it is a very small very slender chicken we should say uh but the flavor is just incredible and the texture and the way the skin melts into the meat okay i'm getting a little too excited for myself right now uh but anyway we're gonna see but it was just that first moment that first taste i knew this was a special guild chicken and i was i knew at some point in my life in thailand i needed to come to the source to the origins so this is a special moment for me to be here in khao san guang today we definitely chose the right place they're so cool they're so friendly and we just called them ahead yesterday to see if we could come in and see the process and do some filming and they welcomed us in so nicely so friendly and they've gone above and beyond auntie has created this entire platter like beautified with banana leaves to show us the different ingredients that go into the marinade of the chicken man that's just totally out of her own heart that she did that and she's gonna show us the ingredients and what goes into the marinade and then how to wrap it style so we're gonna get started with the grilled chicken now we're getting started with the raw chickens themselves and one of the things that you're immediately going to notice is how small and how kind of scrawny looking the chicken is but do not let that fool you with the taste they are skinny chickens [Music] huh dark soy sauce there is white soy sauce there's ginger there's salt there's white pepper there's coriander roots that is mandatory that is you have to have coriander roots and garlic and then a little bit of seasoning powder anyway those all of those ingredients are mixed into this huge bucket of dark marinade uh liquid marinade chickens literally go swimming in the basin for 30 minutes and it's just a quick marinade just a 30 minute uh swim in that marinade uh and then now she's gonna do the next process where she puts them onto the bamboo skewers and wraps them the signature this is another mandatory step is the way that they are the not even the girl style but the way that they're wrapped on the bamboo skewers to then grill them oh i just got hit by a foot [Music] okay [Music] [Music] the way that she wraps that chicken is impressive she is so good she's so fast you can tell that she's done this like thousands and thousands of times to thousands of chickens uh but she starts with a bamboo a bamboo skewer this bamboo skewer which they split halfway down and then she sideways fits the chicken into that slot in the bamboo it's like a giant tweezers to hold the chicken in uh and then she just effortlessly tucks those feet in to make each chicken have kind of a gymnastics maneuver like sitting cross-legged every single chicken it looks like perfectly cross-legged the way she's doing it it's beautiful that was extremely nice of her to show us the entire process the marinade process and that unique wrapping skewering style now we're gonna go back to the front of the restaurant where we started in the morning to see how the chickens are coming along and to see the oh oh they are coming along and they smell unbelievable and they're turning golden oh and you can see that skin just starting to turn golden perfect golden first of all we need to do a little 101 we need to go over the basics of the khao suan guang grill style and the technique at the very bottom forming the foundation in thai it's called the daotan which is the charcoal holder which is the what would the english name be it's like a circular grill that holds the charcoal and so often for other types of grilling you would then just set a grate or a grill directly over the top of that so that you get the coals so that you get that hot fire but for kaiyangkasuan guang style because they want they want a very indirect fire and a low heat they raise the grill by using these basins those same giant metal basins bowls uh cut out the bottom of it the grill sits on top of the basin so you have uh probably almost a foot of space between the charcoal and the the grill where the meat where the meat meets the grill uh and for me this kind of does two things number one it's a lower heat so especially when there's drippings you don't get that flame you don't get burned skin and then number two it's almost like an oven at the same time like that convection oven surrounding heat uh so that's the the benefit of it and then also additionally it spreads out the heat so you have a larger grilling surface area and the reason why this is so important is because uh and you saw how small the chickens are it takes approximately one hour to grill the chicken uh and so that's why you want that really low heat but you are gonna just be and like i am always just amazed even though it sits on the grill for so long and it looks kind of withered up the flavor the juiciness the moistness of the chicken is unbelievable because of that slow cooking process he has to really control the fire he keeps adding charcoal he moves things around i really does keep an eye on those chickens uh flipping them occasionally what an amazing process what a world-class grilled chicken experience and those chickens are coming along nicely they are looking beautifully golden that skin is starting to just crispify and melt into the meat and that's one of the best things about this types of grilled chicken we're just looking at the menu to get our order in but yeah you have to get grilled chicken that's what this entire restaurant this entire district is based upon but then they all they have the full isaan menu repertoire here all sorts of different pounded salads with long beans with green papaya with a cucumber they have a variety of lobs and they have a variety of soups and stews we're gonna maybe order a soup but mainly the chicken sticky rice and a salad that's what you come to eat okay let's get our yeah let's get our order in before they chop up these chickens i think they still need another 15 minutes or so i'll come to a quack [Music] so [Applause] here oh okay something that you've got to eat with grilled chicken is not necessarily the green papaya salad but the pounded long bean salad [Applause] oh man at this midway grill stage the chickens are beginning to hiss and starting to bubble that skin is starting to bubble the moment has come it is time they are ready and this is something i just learned today right now is that there's two different styles one he said some people like it fresh off the grill just cooked and then the other way is more dried out that's been sitting on the grill for a few more hours just kind of taking in that heat more like a smoked smoke i never knew there were two kind of like uh juiciness levels that you could get but when you come to khao swang you can get the juicy or the dried we're getting them both [Music] [Music] [Music] i am beyond excited and this is i mean this has been an extremely educational and learning experience for me too because again i've eaten this type of grilled chicken i think at every floating market at every event at every fair at every kind of exhibition throughout thailand for the last 10 years but then being here at the spot it has a totally different feel you know you're in the place of origin and that's always special but beyond that just that tidbit that i learned right here at the end is that some people uh he was telling me that some people like the juicier version right off the grill some people like the one that's sat on the grill for literally it can sit for hours and actually but that's something that i had always noticed is amazing about gaian guang is that it can sit on the grill for hours and somehow it just tastes amazing even after just hours of just sitting on that slow grill it just retains the moisture okay we gotta get started uh i think i'm gonna try the the one right off the grill the lesser cooked one first oh that thigh looks amazing okay let's just do a thigh drumstick comparison look at that golden perfect golden skin this one is the drumstick oh it's cooked so perfectly oh man and normally i would go straight for the drumstick but this thigh is actually calling my name [Music] oh wow yes some of my favorite grilled chicken in the world oh wow that flavor that oily moistness is insane and that crispy skin and that salty marinade the pepper in there the white pepper the ginger you taste the hint of ginger you taste the earthiness of that coriander roots i really think it's just all of those factors combined the chicken breed itself the grilling technique the marinade that just encases all of that flavor seals in the oils that skin is insane and just on that first bite it is that much better at the source at the origin and there are two different sauces one of them is more of just a sweet sauce one of them is the probably a little bit sweet too but the more of a chili tamarind chili tamarind sauce i believe but to be honest i'm hesitant to even go to the sauce because that chicken is so flavorful you don't even maybe need that sauce okay yeah you don't actually need the sauce but the sauce does taste pretty good too it is kind of a sweet tamarind smoky chili sauce almost works like a barbecue sauce actually oh wow that chicken is incredibly tasty and now moving on to the the dry one in order to make this test right we better choose the thigh of this version too so that we each get the the thigh so this one is the dried out version you can see that it's a little more withered up you can see it's a little more dehydrated a little smokier and i think normally if you get kyon kasuan guang at fairs or it's normally the dry version maybe because well just naturally it can sit on the grill for as long as it needs to until it's sold so it keeps longer uh but okay dry version oh wow okay wait i think the dry version why i think i might like it there you go because it's amazingly still moist it's kind of scrawny it looks a little withered up and then you take that bite and you're just blown away by how moist and juicy it is yet crispy at the same time and that's what you get with the dry version um the skin is crispy the meat is a little more dehydrated yet it's still so oily moist i'm gonna say that they're both incredibly good but tasting them back to back the dry version and the wet version the dry version spoke to me i think i might be a drive it has the edge i think i should see it's dry but it's not dried [Music] out [Music] this is a life-changing grilled chicken wow it's so good i'm going to switch up my milk juices with some of the the bean salad and ying has been telling me that her pala peppermint and viscose which she makes herself is extraordinary [Music] wow yes [Music] not only her pala her fermented food shops which is so fragrant actually in issan they say nua which means like well-rounded um full flavor pungent man her fish sauce is incredible and then she added in a good amount of lime juice to give it a really refreshing acidity it's a perfect marriage a perfect partnership with that grilled chicken and then you gotta have some sticky rice to really make the most of this dressing [Music] absolutely spectacular flavors [Music] [Applause] and then one of my favorite pieces is the drumstick you just have to appreciate the size and the skinniness of this drumstick it's just a beautiful thing i mean it could be a one bite drumstick uh but i'll just i'll just slowly nibble it so we can so we can see that interior and you know come to think of it even though it's a really fast marinade only 30 minutes somehow that flavor seeps all the way to the bone i think it might be because of the grilling process the long grilling process but just like flavor all the way through [Music] one more thing i have to mention is that i mean if you say you're going to eat a whole chicken yourself i mean that sounds a little extreme like a whole chicken to yourself but let me tell you well first of all there's not that much meat on this chicken and then second of all uh it's just that good that you're gonna eat a whole chicken yourself maybe two i think i remember my first time to eat guy young house did i eat three did i eat three i think i eat three of them in one meal three chickens another dish we got just as an extra is some gang alm which is a an herb stew with dill with kakua with lemongrass oh there's some cabbage in here too i love the dill i love the lemongrass in [Music] there [Music] [Applause] [Music] herbalism [Music] even the chicken breast remains unbelievably juicy although i would say that for the thigh for the drumstick it doesn't need sauce applied at all whereas for the chicken breast it does taste good with the sauce [Music] check out this chicken wing that wing [Music] skin oh oh that feels oh that feels amazing to sit back and relax and recline we finished the two chickens and they charge 120 baht per chicken so that's right about four dollars per chicken the place that we came is called um and amazing place they're so friendly just a laid back business so it's great to support them uh and they're grilled chicken that is the best guy young housewife i've had incredible oh and their pala is amazing too but anyway food is outstanding and they're so cool they're so nice and so when you pass through this area um or if you are in need of a grilled chicken pilgrimage which i would highly recommend this is the spot i'll have all the information in the description box below and i want to say a big thank you for watching please remember remember to give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it leave a comment i'd love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed click subscribe and also click the little bell icon and that way you'll immediately get notified of the next video that i published thanks again for watching goodbye from kauswan guang in khan ken isan thailand and i will see you on the next video

Channel: Mark Wiens

Views: 903,413

Keywords: Thai street food, street food, Khon Kaen, Mark Wiens, ขอนแก่น, Khao Suan Kwang Grilled Chicken, ไก่ย่างเขาสวนกวาง, Isaan, Mark Wiens street food, Mark Wiens Thailand, grilled chicken, street food grilled chicken, Thai food, Thai cuisine, Thailand, Thailand street food, best street food, street food videos

Id: SqqkQBcQG0o

Length: 26min 27sec (1587 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020