Sibu Tales : Pandan Chicken

"Lord bless the hands which prepare the food and sanctify this meal before us as we partake the food with a grateful heart. Amen."

When the Foochows were first introduced to Pandan Chicken in Sibu they were as usual a bit hesitant to try. Many of the housewives were reluctant because they believed that the hands which prepared the pandan chickens were not "clean" for they were in the same way, rather discriminating when they thought about buying satay in the night market. They were rather worried about unhygienic food handling.

Naturally everyone is reluctant to buy food from street vendors because of one of the biggest worries - unhygienic food handling.

However one evening Pandan Chicken was served at a political banquet in Sibu and everyone was delighted by the taste especially when several of the VIPs and their wives highly commended the dish. I suppose it was from that time onwards that pandan chicken became a popular dish in Sibu.

Ruby Restaurant is the favourite place in Sibu which serves this dish. And many pasar malam stalls also serve pandan chicken.

The origin of the recipe is rather vague. Some people believe that it came from Thailand, others claim that it must be a Nyonya recipe. But it is indeed now a popular Malaysian restaurant dish.

Those housewives who would not consider buying street food, then they have to make their own Pandan Chicken at home. It is not that difficult.

Pandan leaves are called Aromatic Leaves or Xiang Yeh by the Chinese. The juices of the leaves are used to make cakes and food very intoxicatingly aromatic. Even rice can be perfumed by pandan leaves. Nasi lemak for example cannot be cooked without pandan leaves.

The easiest way to prepare pandan chicken is to  get deboned  chicken pieces and  cut it into bite sizes. Use spices which you like and/or it may be just lemon grass and pepper and some ginger. I would use cumin , turmeric and coriander too. Squeeze lots of pandan juices over the meat for good measure. Marinate the chicken pieces while you cut strips of pandan leaves about 6 inches by 1 inch. Get some tooth picks ready.

Roll up a piece of chicken with one piece of pandan leaf like in the picture and push a toothpick through. Then deep fry the chicken piece, followed by another one. Do not over crowd the wok.

Pandan Chicken is also a good finger food for parties. The only trouble is the leaves are rather messy.

NB All food are prepared by hands and if you want only clean food, you have to prepare yourself. But if you are too suspicious of the hands belonging to the hawkers, it is too bad. Just be polite and don't comment unnecessary.