PreparationPairs with
Nam Jim Jaew
Isaan dipping sauce of toasted dried chilli, toasted sticky rice, fish sauce and lime
The table sauce for this chicken.
Gai Yang Isaan, oven
Recipes · Gai Yang Isaan, oven
First revision · 23 SEP 2026
RecipeFirst revisionVariationVia mcp
Gai Yang Isaan, oven
Fan oven with a steam tray below, then the top grill for the char
A variation of Gai Yang Isaan. Fan oven with a water tray, finished under the top grill, in place of the wood fire
The same bird and the same paste as the fire method. The heat is different. A 1.2 kg spatchcocked chicken roasts on a rack at 220 degrees C fan. A tray of boiling water sits on the lowest shelf. The steam keeps the sugary paste from burning while the meat cooks. Take the water out when the skin takes colour. Baste with coconut cream. Then move the chicken under the top grill on maximum for 5 to 7 minutes. That gives the char the fire would give. In an oven the heat is even, so the probe leads. Take the thigh to 76 degrees C. The whole cook takes 40 to 45 minutes.
Batch
Why the first revision
First version in the store. Records the fan oven method for a 1.2 kg bird with an overnight marinade, as cooked back in Berlin. The water tray, the legs to the fan and the 76 degrees C thigh target come from earlier runs.
Tap a step to cross it out0 / 24 done
Prepare
3 steps-
Put the chicken breast down. Cut along both sides of the backbone with shears. Remove the backbone.
Work Butchery -
Turn the chicken over. Press on the breastbone until it cracks and the bird lies flat. Dry it with paper.
-
Cut 3 to 4 shallow slashes through the skin into each thigh and the thickest part of each breast.
Paste
6 steps-
Scrape the coriander roots clean. Pound them in the dry mortar to a fibrous pulp.
Work GrindingTool mortar and pestle -
Add the bird's eye chillies last. Pound them coarse. Leave pieces in the paste.
Work Grinding -
Stir in the fish sauce, the oyster sauce, the palm sugar and 25 ml of the coconut cream. Do not pound.
-
Stir in the white pepper and the black pepper last.
Marinate
2 steps-
Rub the paste under the skin, into the slashes, into the cavity and over all surfaces.
-
Cover the chicken. Refrigerate it overnight.
Time 8 h–2 d
Oven
2 steps-
Set the oven to 220 degrees C with the fan on. Put a wire rack over a sheet pan on the middle shelf.
Temp 220 °C
Roast
3 steps-
Put the chicken on the rack, skin up. Point the legs to the back of the oven, at the fan.
The back wall near the fan runs hotter. The thighs need the extra heat. The breast stays nearer the cooler door.
-
Roast for 15 minutes. Then turn the pan through 180 degrees.
-
Roast on. Start to probe the thigh at 25 minutes.
Grill
6 steps-
When the skin takes colour, remove the water tray.
The grill stage needs dry heat. Wet air stops the skin from browning.
-
Mix the remaining 50 ml of coconut cream with any paste that is left. Baste the skin.
-
Move the chicken to the top shelf, 10 to 15 cm below the grill element.
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Set the top grill to maximum. Keep the oven door open a little.
An open door stops the thermostat from turning the element off.
-
Grill until the skin is deep brown with patches of char. Watch it all the time.
The sugar in the paste goes from brown to black in under a minute.
Time 5 min–7 min -
Take the chicken out when the thigh reads 76 degrees C. 78 degrees C is also correct.
Temp 76 °CTool probe thermometer
Finish
2 steps-
Rest the chicken on a board for 10 to 15 minutes. Do not cover it.
Time 10 min–15 min -
Carve. Scatter the coriander leaf. Serve with lime wedges, sticky rice and nam jim jaew.
Provenance
The first gai yang was cooked this way in Berlin, with no fire available. The water tray was the cook's own addition after the first run, to stop the paste burning.
Related
2RecipeComponent of
Gai Ob Hom Yai
Chicken Marylands braised on a bed of deep-gold onions, with the heat dosed from a chilli tincture
Keep the drippings from the sheet pan. They are the gai yang stock in that braise.
The pattern
The plain idea under this dish. Cook it with what you have. The full recipe is on the Method tab.
This is the pattern of Gai Yang Isaan, the dish this one varies.
flattened whole chicken + pounded root, garlic and lemongrass paste + fresh chilli + salty-sweet seasoning + coconut cream baste + radiant heat, bone side first + sticky rice and jaew
The parts
7protein
A whole chicken, backbone removed, pressed flat and slashed
A flat bird cooks evenly. The slashes let the paste reach the meat.
aromatics
Coriander root, garlic and the inner core of lemongrass, pounded to a paste
Give the main flavour of the marinade.
heat
Bird's eye chilli, pounded coarse into the paste
Gives heat. Coarse pieces stay in the paste.
- Swap: African bird's eye chilli in place of Thai bird's eye chilli. Similar size and heat. Use the same count.
seasoning
Fish sauce, oyster sauce, palm sugar, ground white pepper and cracked black pepper
Give salt, a savoury depth and a little sugar for colour. The paste has no acid, so it can stay on the meat for a long time.
- Swap: Whole white peppercorns, pounded first in the dry mortar, in place of ground white pepper. The record calls whole peppercorns better. They give an uneven grind and heat that arrives in waves. Ground pepper goes in last, after the pounding.
fatOptional
Coconut cream: a little in the paste, the rest as a baste on the skin
Slows the burn of the sugar on the skin, then browns to a glaze. It is not in the plainest Isaan versions of the dish.
- Swap: Coconut milk in place of coconut cream. Put the can in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours. Use the fat that sets on top. If the can is still mixed, baste in 2 or 3 thinner coats.
heat source
Wood coals, with the chicken clamped in a hinged grid that stands upright beside the fire. Bone side to the fire first, then skin side.
Radiant heat chars the skin. The bone side first shields the meat. Fat runs away from the coals.
- !SAFETY Swap: Fan oven with a tray of boiling water, then the top grill, in place of the wood fireFor the same 1.2 kg spatchcocked whole chicken. Roast it on a rack at 220 °C fan, legs to the fan, with a tray of boiling water on the lowest shelf. The steam stops the paste from burning. When the skin takes colour, remove the water and baste. Grill on maximum, 10 to 15 cm below the element, for 5 to 7 minutes. Watch it all the time. In an oven the probe leads: take the chicken out when the thickest part of the thigh reads 76 °C. 78 °C is also correct. The whole cook takes 40 to 45 minutes.
sideOptional
Sticky rice, nam jim jaew, lime wedges and coriander leaf
The jaew is the table sauce. The sticky rice carries it.
The basic method
8- Cut out the backbone with shears. Press the chicken flat. Cut 3 to 4 shallow slashes into each thigh and each breast.
- Pound the coriander root, then the garlic, then the lemongrass. Add the chillies last and pound them coarse.
- Stir in the fish sauce, the oyster sauce, the sugar and a little coconut cream. Stir in the pepper last.
- Rub the paste under the skin, into the slashes and over the chicken. Cover it and refrigerate it overnight. 48 hours is the maximum.
- Burn wood down to grey-white coals with no flame. Clamp the chicken in a hinged grid. Stand it upright 25 to 30 cm from the coals, bone side to the fire.
- Cook for 25 to 30 minutes. Turn the skin to the fire. Baste the skin with coconut cream each time the char starts to look like it will burn.
- When the skin has deep char in patches, probe the thickest part of the thigh. Take the chicken off at 76 °C. Never take it off below 70 °C.
- Rest the chicken for 15 minutes. Do not cover it. Serve it with sticky rice, jaew and lime.
What the full recipe adds
The full recipe gives exact amounts for a 1.2 kg chicken and the order to pound the paste. It explains why you read the char first and the probe second over a fire: radiant heat is uneven, and one probe point near fat or bone can read done when the thigh is not. It explains why the thigh goes to 76 to 78 °C: thigh collagen softens from 70 °C, and a breast temperature leaves the thigh chewy. It explains how coconut cream cools the surface as its water evaporates and then browns to a glaze. It explains why the paste has no acid, so the meat does not go soft over 48 hours, and how much salt the fish sauce carries. It warns you to rinse a wet-brined bird before the paste so that the salt does not add up.
The science
1What is actually happening in the dish, and why the techniques work.
M1
The water tray keeps the paste from burning 220 degrees C fan · tray of boiling water on the lowest shelf · remove the tray before the grill
The paste holds sugar from the palm sugar and the oyster sauce. At 220 degrees C that sugar would burn before the thigh is cooked.
A tray of boiling water fills the oven with steam. Wet air slows evaporation from the surface of the chicken. While the surface stays wet, it stays near the boiling point of water. The sugar cannot reach the temperature where it burns.
The meat still cooks. Steam moves heat into food faster than dry air.
Remove the tray before the grill stage. The surface then dries, and the sugar and proteins brown under the element.
Variations
2A variation is the same dish taken a different way. Each one keeps its own versions, and none of them replaces another. The first is the dish the rest came from.
Gai Yang Isaan 1 version
The dish the others came from.
Gai Yang Isaan, oven 1 version You are here
Fan oven with a water tray, finished under the top grill, in place of the wood fire