Lao Chicken Salad (Lao Larb Gai)

This 15 minute chicken salad is light, fresh and filled with your favourite Southeast Asian flavours. A fragrant blend of herbs and spices give Lao Larb Gai is the perfect combo of salty and sweet.

Why We Love This

Lao Chicken Salad (also known as Lao Larb Gai) is an amazing side dish that also works well as a main. It’s rich umami flavours are balanced out with fresh herbs and seasonings that bring out the full range of spicy, sour, salty and sweet.

With similar flavour to Thai chicken salad or Thai beef salad, it’s full of restaurant quality flavour while being so, so easy to make at home.

This dish comes together quickly too, making it the perfect mid-week meal. Any leftovers make for a great lunch the next day!

While it is meat heavy, the fragrant herbs and contrasting textures make this salad light and refreshing – a healthy way cool off on a hot summer’s day.

What is Larb? 

Larb (also spelled laap or laab) is the unofficial National Dish of Laos. You can find similar versions across Southeast Asia, especially in northern Thailand, where it became popular due to migration of people from Laos.

While there are some differences in seasonings and ingredients used, the essence remains the same. This mouthwatering salad usually consists of minced meat mixed through with fresh coriander, mint, lime juice, chillies or chilli powder, and fish sauce. Toasted sticky rice powder adds a uniquely nutty flavour and texture.

Where We Learned This

Larb is one of our most treasured edible discoveries from Southeast Asia. We had our first taste in Chiang Mai, Thailand but our favourite version (and today’s recipe) comes from the sleepy village of Nong Khiaw, in northern Laos.

Laos is also where we also learned how to make mok pa (Lao steamed fish in banana leaves)!

What You’ll Need

• Chicken Mince – For the best result, make your own mince by slicing the chicken as thinly as you can then chopping it up into small pieces just like we did. Of course, if you prefer to use store-bought mince to save time and effort, you can certainly do that too. Substitute with beef, pork, turkey or duck mince. It’s also a great way to use up leftover turkey or roast chicken.
• Toasted Sticky Rice Powder – This amazing ingredient adds a burst of nutty flavour. Look for it at your nearest Asian grocery – we found our first batch near the spices section, so try there first. It’s very simple to make at home by toasting glutinous rice and grinding it with a mortar and pestle or spice grinder.
• Fresh Ingredients – These add the refreshing, cooling, summery flavours to the salad. You can use any variety of fresh mint (peppermint or spearmint both work well), along with coriander/cilantro, finely chopped shallots (or red onion) and spring onion.
• Fish Sauce – This staple Asian ingredient has a strong smell in the bottle, but is perfect for adding savoury flavour to your cooking. You’ll find it at Asian grocers or in well-stocked supermarkets in the international foods section, or online. If you can’t find it or don’t want to use, you can substitute with soy sauce.
• Other Seasonings – Along with fish sauce, lime juice, chilli and sugar team up to bring the salty, sour, spicy and sweet notes to the dish.

Wandercook’s Tips

• Use High Heat – This will sear and brown the meat, giving it a crispier edge. It will also help prevent any juices from steaming and making the meat rubbery.
• Splurge On Fresh Herbs – They literally MAKE this salad and are essential to its bright fresh flavour.
• Fresh Chillies vs Chilli Powder – We used chilli powder for convenience, but if you have fresh chillies feel free to use them. Thai red chillies are pretty hot, so if you’re worried about heat, start with 1/2-1 and increase from there.
• Garnish – Save some toasted sticky rice powder and fresh herbs to garnish the salad once you’ve plated up.
• Serve Hot or Cold – If serving cold, let the meat cool down completely before adding the fresh ingredients. This will help the herbs especially to stay crisp and stop them from wilting.

FAQs

Variations

• Amp Up the Citrus – Use fresh sliced kaffir lime leaves or kaffir lime juice instead of regular lime juice. Or swap the lime for tamarind paste and/or fresh lemongrass.
• Extra Garnishes – Try it with few drops of sesame chilli oil for a nuttier zing, or add a scattering of fried shallots or white sesame seeds for extra crunchy texture.
• Extra Veggies – Add capsicum, cabbage, boy choy, bean sprouts or baby spinach and cook in with the mince meat.
• Make it Vegetarian – Swap the mince meat for finely diced mushrooms, tofu or tempeh, and season with soy sauce instead of fish sauce.

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