Thai chicken larb with rice and lettuce cups
Chicken breast chopped small and fried hard, then tossed with lime, fish sauce, mint and coriander. Piled into crisp lettuce leaves with rice on the side. Very little fat for how much flavour it carries.
Notable for: vitamin C, B vitamins
Ingredients
- 720 gchicken breast, finely chopped
- 320 glong grain white rice
- 100 gbrown onions, thinly sliced
- 15 gcrushed garlic
- 5 gchilli powder
- 30 mlfish sauce
- 2limes
- 1fresh coriander, chopped
- 1fresh mint, leaves picked
- 0.5iceberg lettuce, leaves separated, for cups
- 10 mlolive oil
Method
Put the rice on to cook.
Chop the chicken small by hand rather than using pre-minced meat, for the rougher texture the dish needs.
Fry the onion and garlic in the oil over high heat for 1 to 2 minutes, then add the chicken and fry it hard, breaking it up, until cooked through and starting to catch at the edges, about 6 to 8 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat and stir through the chilli powder, fish sauce and most of the lime juice.
Fold through the coriander and mint just before serving.
Serve spooned into lettuce leaves with rice on the side and the remaining lime cut into wedges.
Fry the chicken hard, not gently
Larb is meant to taste a little charred at the edges. Keep the heat high the whole way through so the chicken sears rather than stews in its own liquid.
Storage
Chicken keeps three days in the fridge.
Assemble the lettuce cups fresh, as they go soggy if filled ahead of time.
Cost per serving is indicative, based on New Zealand supermarket prices as at September 2026. Batch prices your own week against your own store on the day. Nutrition figures, including calories, are estimates rather than label readings, so always check the packet if you have an allergy. "Notable for" reflects well-established qualities of the ingredients used, not a lab measurement of this exact dish.