Feral Cooks

Good food shouldn't be tame

Thai Fried Chicken

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Let’s start by agreeing that this is going to taste great. This recipe is from the True Thai cookbook by Hong Thaimee. It’s called midnight fried chicken, in the book, being perfect for eating well after dinner if you get hungry again before bed. That name is obviously a cultural thing in Thailand.

Note that this is actually two recipes, in that you need to make the crazy-delicious marinade separately from the chicken. Also note that the marinade can be used for a ton of different uses, so don’t be afraid to make the entire amount and freeze what you don’t immediately use.

This recipe is very similar to Japan’s tori-no-kara-age and Hawaii’s Hawaiian chicken, in that it’s marinated chicken deep-fried without a batter. As such, it’s pretty low-fat for something that’s fried. Besides the marinade, the only difference between the Japanese and Hawaiian versions is that this recipe called for dredging in flour instead of potato or corn starch. I’d actually like to make this again with the starch instead of flour to see how that turns out.

I departed significantly from the recipe in that I used boneless chicken thighs cut in half, instead of the whole pieces of chicken. The Feral Cooks avoid chicken bones like Covid-19. If you go the boneless route, be sure to adjust the cooking time downward.

What you’ll need for the chicken:

  • A bunch of chicken pieces, whole or boneless.
  • 2 cups Ngam’s House Marinade (you likely won’t need that much—maybe half. Depends on the amount of chicken you’re cooking)
  • Neutral oil for frying
  • Salt (Why, I don’t know, the marinade has tons of salty fish sauce)

What you’ll need for the marinade (makes about 2 cups):

  • 0.25 cups roughly chopped cilantro leaves, stems and roots
  • 1 cup peeled garlic cloves—yeah, a cup
  • 2t whole white peppercorns
  • 1 cup fish sauce
  • 0.5 cups shaved palm sugar (you could probably get away with using light or dark brown sugar, but you’d need maybe 0.25 cups, as it’s more dense than shaved palm sugar.)
  • 1 cup oyster sauce
  • 5 stalks lemongrass, trimmed and cut into short lengths
  • 2T ground turmeric
  • 1t salt (Again, why? Fish sauce is crazy-salty)

What to do for the marinade

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor (or use an immersion blender) until chopped up and well combined.

What to do for the chicken:

In a large bowl or gallon-size sealable freezer bag, add the chicken and enough marinade to cover each piece. Refrigerate for at least 45 minutes or up to overnight.

Heat your fry oil in whatever vessel you use to 375 degrees F.

While the oil is heating, dredge the chicken pieces in the flour to coat them, shaking off the extra. Carefully add the dredged pieces to the oil and cook until crisp. For full-size bone-in pieces, this could take up to 20 minutes or so. 

When cooked, transfer the chicken to a wire rack to drain. Serve hot.

Rye Berry Salad

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I have rye berries! A lot of them. “What’s the big deal,” you may ask. Well they’re really cool to cook with. The short version of the acquisition story is that my friend’s brother has a hobby farm, and they grow rye, which they just harvested. My friend and his wife came back from a visit with about 15 pounds of rye berries, a significant amount of which was gifted to me.

At first, I had no idea what to do with them besides grind them up and make flour out of them, which I’ve since learned from my friend takes a ridiculously long time to grind them without the proper equipment.

Another great use is cooking them like rice and using them in various ways, including this salad, which is loosely based on a recipe I found online. 

Another thing I plan to do with them is use as a substitute for rice in fried rice. I’ll post that recipe when I get to it.

It’s really cool to learn about and acquire a previously unknown food. I’m not sure where to actually buy them, but some brick-and-mortar stores have to sell them. I found some online for $4 a pound, and on another site for $65 for 50 pounds.

What you’ll need:

  • 1 cup rye berries
  • Water for boiling the rye
  • 1t kosher salt for the rye berry boiling water
  • 1T maple syrup
  • 1T oil (maybe olive oil would be best)
  • 2T lime juice
  • 2 avocados, diced
  • 2 mangos, diced
  • 0.25 cups fresh mint, chopped
  • 0.33 cups macadamia nuts, roughly chopped

What to do:

This recipe is basically cooking the rye berries and letting them cool before adding the fruit and the dressing.

There are a couple of easy ways to cook the rye berries: 1) soak them overnight before boiling them for about 30-35 minutes, then draining them, and 2) boil non-soaked rye berries for about 1 hour before draining them. For either method, let them cool completely at room temperature before completing the salad. Obviously, they can be cooked ahead of time. Just make sure to refrigerate them after cooking.

When the rye berries are ready, whisk the syrup, oil and lime juice in a small bowl. Set aside.


Add the cooked rye berries to a bowl and mix in the avocados, mangos, mint and nuts. Gently mix well, so all the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Stir in the dressing and serve. This is a little more flavorful at room temperature, as opposed to right out of the refrigerator.

Fudge-like Brownies

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These are so crazy-good that it’s hard to put into words. 

There’s a place near our condo called Legacy Chocolates, and they sell good coffee (so I’ve heard, as I’m not a coffee drinker) and absolutely outstanding bars, cakes and and truffles. I had one of their brownies a ways back, and I vowed to replicate them. The thing is, someone else unknowingly already did: this person.

I’m sure there are several recipes for something similar, but this one seemed most inline with my dessert goals.

The thing to remember is to use high-quality chocolate. Crap chocolate = mediocre brownies. In this case, I splurged and bought Legacy Chocolate chocolate and cocoa. It was comparatively expensive, but well worth knowing I could make bars that rivaled theirs. Obviously, two of their secrets are 1) they’re professionals, and 2) they use really really good chocolate.

Try these. You’ll love them.

What you’ll need:

  • 0.75 cups (175g) unsalted butter
  • 4 oz (113g) semi-sweet chocolate, either in chip form or a coarsely chopped bar
  • 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar (you can also use 1.5 cups white and 0.5 cups light-brown for a richer caramel-like flavor. I made mine this way.
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2t vanilla extract
  • 1 cup (85g) unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or dutch-process)
  • 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour—maybe err on weighing instead of measuring
  • 1t salt
  • optional: 1.25cups (225g) semi-sweet chocolate chips—I used them

What to do:

Heat your oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13-inch pan or line it with parchment paper, leaving overhang on the sides to lift the finished brownies out. Set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the butter and 2 ounces of the chopped or chipped chocolate. Melt in 20-second increments, stirring after each increment until melted and smooth. Whisk in the sugar until completely combined, then whisk in the eggs and vanilla. At this point, the batter will be light brown and dull looking.

Now, add the cocoa powder, flour, salt, remaining 2 ounces of chopped chocolate and the chocolate chips, if using. Fold it all together with a spoon or rubber spatula, making sure every ingredient is evenly distributed. The batter will be very thick at this point. Spread evenly into prepared pan, using an offset spatula to even it out.

Bake for 30 minutes, then test the brownies with a toothpick. To do this, insert the toothpick into the center, and if it comes out with batter stuck to it, cook for one more minute. Check again, cooking in one-minute increments until the toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely in the pan. After they’re cooled, cut ‘em and eat ‘em!

They can stay at room temperature for one week, covered, though they shouldn’t last that long.