Larb, a spiced meat dish finds it's origin in Laos. It is also eaten in Thailand, often served in lettuce leaves. In Laotian cuisine it is usually served with sticky rice and mango salad; essentially it is a meat salad. When I was first married I made larb on many occasions, however I lost my recipe and got away from making it. I was craving it again and came across a recipe in Bon Appetit magazine and this recipe is adapted from that recipe. You can make this with chicken thighs, or any ground meat. My latest version is made with ground venison and I have to say it is my favourite version yet. Growing up on Vancouver Island my dad hunted to feed his family of 6 so venison was something we had fairly often. Many complain that venison is very dry. What is so great is that all of the ingredients in the meat mixture add to the moisture so worries about dry meat here! You can adjust the spice in this recipe as well as the shallots and garlic. As I live in a more rural area certain Southeast Asian ingredients like kaffir lime leaves are not always available locally. However, I am able to find these ingredients at a small Vietnamese grocery store about 45 minutes north of where I live and I try to stock up when I am there. Many ingredients like kaffir lime leaves and Thai chili peppers are found in their frozen section, pre-packaged. If you do not have access to these ingredients they can be purchased on-line such as on Amazon and Grocery.com. More recently I have been able to find kaffir or Makrut lime leaves in the herb section of my local grocery store. You can substitute lime zest for the kaffir lime leaves, however the flavour won't be as complex or as intense. What makes this recipe so easy peasy is that it is basically a no-chop recipe. Just chop each individual salad ingredient separately in your food processor. Warning: this recipe makes a lot of food so feel free to cut the recipe in half.
Place cabbage and carrots in food processor and pulse util broken down into a chunky salad. For salad option 2, pulse each vegetable individually, one at a time. Place salad mixture in a bowl in fridge until ready to serve. Place all of the larb ingredients, except chicken and cilantro in a food processor and pulse until ingredients are finely broken down. Lemongrass is very rigid so make sure it is finely chopped.
Add chicken and pulse until until you have a consistency of ground meat. If you are using a ground meat such as venison, beef or chicken/turkey or crumbled extra firm tofu simply add it to the lemongrass, hot pepper mixture and pulse before adding to your preheated pan. Add half of the cilantro and pulse until combined. Add coconut oil to a deep and wide saucepan and turn heat up to medium. Add chicken/meat/tofu mixture to pan and stir and continue to cook over medium heat until cooked through.
It should take about 15-20 minutes to fully cook. Roughly chop the rest of the cilantro and add to chicken mixture and stir.
Prepare salad dressing by placing ingredients in a glass jar and shaking well. Set dressing aside until you are ready to serve salad. Add desired amount of cabbage and carrot mixture to bowls and then top with chicken larb and pour a little dressing on top of individual servings. Enjoy!
Ingredients
Directions
Place cabbage and carrots in food processor and pulse util broken down into a chunky salad. For salad option 2, pulse each vegetable individually, one at a time. Place salad mixture in a bowl in fridge until ready to serve. Place all of the larb ingredients, except chicken and cilantro in a food processor and pulse until ingredients are finely broken down. Lemongrass is very rigid so make sure it is finely chopped.
Add chicken and pulse until until you have a consistency of ground meat. If you are using a ground meat such as venison, beef or chicken/turkey or crumbled extra firm tofu simply add it to the lemongrass, hot pepper mixture and pulse before adding to your preheated pan. Add half of the cilantro and pulse until combined. Add coconut oil to a deep and wide saucepan and turn heat up to medium. Add chicken/meat/tofu mixture to pan and stir and continue to cook over medium heat until cooked through.
It should take about 15-20 minutes to fully cook. Roughly chop the rest of the cilantro and add to chicken mixture and stir.
Prepare salad dressing by placing ingredients in a glass jar and shaking well. Set dressing aside until you are ready to serve salad. Add desired amount of cabbage and carrot mixture to bowls and then top with chicken larb and pour a little dressing on top of individual servings. Enjoy!