Chicken Rice, Thanon Convent; Scrumptious

I find that a good chicken rice recipe almost uses the entire chicken, for example, the bones for the soup, the fat to enhance the richness of the rice, and the meat obviously for consumption. An important tip for when you make chicken rice at home is to blanch the chicken in ice water after it's finished cooking. This will stop it from overcooking and tighten the skin for a better final dish. Did you know that Khao Man Gai was brought to Thailand by the Hainanese people, who migrated from the Hainan province?

Single Portion

Chicken rice (Khao man gai) is another comfort food for me. Once again, this is a very simple dish, at its core, boiled chicken and flavoured rice. I think it also needs a good soup and sauce to bring it together. Plain chicken rice is edible, but chicken rice with a good chilli sauce is out of this world. I've been going to this chicken rice store for years. Note that during the day, they are set up on Soi Pitpat, but at night they move to the main Convent road. What sets them apart is moist chicken, with a great soup and a spicy sauce to lift and bring the chicken and the rice together.

200 Baht Plate

They have a few different portion sizes, and they have fried chicken too. The meat is boiled simply but isn't overcooked, which means it's still juicy The rice is flavorful; the chicken taste comes through as well as other seasonings. Their soup has pickled mustard in it, which gives it a unique flavour and adds dimension to what would otherwise just be a chicken bone stock. The chilli sauce, which is made of brown sauce, garlic, ginger, and chilli, is appetizing; it lifts the dish and gives it a unique "Thai" style flavour to the chicken rice. It's worth a try, even if you're feeble to chilli. The staff are nice and will sometimes give you extra soup if you're lucky. There's not much to comment on the presentation of the chicken rice, and the meal is cheap, about 50-70 baht for a single portion or 220 for the image below.

The best way to enjoy Thai chicken rice, in my opinion:

• Ask for a separate plate of chicken (usually a 200-baht plate for two people, which is more than enough), and you can always scale this depending on how much you want to pay.

• Ask for a larger bowl of soup with bones. I love finishing the meal with the soup; it's comforting to drink at the end.

• Ask for extra chilli sauce and plates of rice depending on how many people are eating.

• Enjoy! I like to mix the sauce with the rice and chicken and pour a couple of spoons of hot soup over the rice to warm it up.

TLDR: Good chicken rice, comforting; make sure to ask for a large bowl of soup(with bones)