Chicken Larb Bowls - The Most Popular Recipe From My 2nd Book (2024)

FAQs

What does Laab mean in Thai? ›

Laab / Larb (Lao: ລາບ; Thai: ลาบ, RTGS: lap, pronounced [lâːp], also spelled laap, larp, or lahb) is a type of Lao meat salad that is the national dish of Laos, along with green papaya salad and sticky rice. Laab in the Lao language is a noun that refers to meat or other flesh that has been finely chopped and pounded.

While typically perceived as Thai, larb actually originated in Laos — where it is largely considered the national dish! Over time, the dish migrated and became popular in Thailand. Today, the dish is regional to both Laos and Isan, the northeastern region of Thailand.

You can serve chicken larb warm, or lightly chilled making it a refreshing and light meal. I love serving chicken larb in bowl form with steamed rice, cucumbers, lettuce cups, and loads of fresh herbs.

Heat oil in wok over high heat until just smoking. Add the pork and cook, stirring with a wok charn or metal spatula to break up any lumps, for 10 minutes or until pork changes colour and begins to brown. Add the lemongrass, garlic, ginger and chilli and cook, tossing, for 2 minutes or until aromatic. Remove from heat.

Yum, meaning “mix,” is a hearty dish consisting mostly of meat, fish, or seafood together with many other typically Thai ingredients which may include peanuts, fruit, and herbs.

Beef larb tends to have spicy heat followed by salty and sour flavours. Bitter larb gets its signature taste from the animal's digestive juices. Back to the fish version, that distinctive tartness adds a brightness to the dish's texture,” explained Saehu.

Laab is often made with chicken, beef, duck, fish, pork, mushrooms, shrimp or tao (algae), and flavored with fish sauce, padaek, toasted ground rice, lime and fresh herbs, including galanga, makrut leaves, scallions, cilantro, mint and either fresh chilies or chili flakes for spice.

Why? Authentic larb gai is made with padaek which is a fermented fish made into a thick fish sauce. Fermented fish is what makes larb smell. If you can't get over the smell, this is one of the ingredients that can be omitted from the recipe without any substitutions.

Punyaratabandhu informs readers of her book Simple Thai Food that larb should be “predominantly sour, then salty” – something echoed by Plunkett-Hogge, who describes its flavour profile as “sharp, hot and salty”. This means lots of fish sauce and lime juice, but not sugar – or at least not more than a pinch.

Yes, laab and larb are the same thing. The same goes for laap and larp. That said, laab and laap provide much better approximations of the correct pronunciation for the word in Thai, as the "ar" sound in English resembles the Thai pronunciation the least. With that out of the way, we can turn to the recipe.

How do you pronounce laab? ›

You may have seen it spelled laap, lahb, laap, and larb. Many people mispronounce it when they see larb because they think there is a hard “r” sound in the word. Laab is pronounced with no “r” but with a long “a” vowel and soft “b” sound.

Nam tok (Lao: ນ້ຳຕົກ, Thai: น้ำตก, RTGS: nam tok, pronounced [nám tòk]) is either a soup or a meat salad from Southeast Asia. In the Lao and Thai language, the phrase means waterfall. The meat salad in Lao cuisine is a sliced beef steak instead of minced meat version of larb, Laos' national dish. Nam tok.

In Thai, you can reflect your bonds with “you.” Peers might refer to each other as ter (เธอ), gae (แก), or eng (เอ็ง). Taken even further, Thais, especially the closest of friends, might use the most impolite ku (กู meaning “I”) and mung (มึง meaning “you”).