4 Thai Recipes For Your Leftover Roast

Pailin Chongchitnant • December 18, 2020

There may not be any traditional Thai Christmas recipes (we don't celebrate Christmas), but there are certainly many ways to use your leftovers in traditional Thai dishes. Here are 4 of my favourite ways that are quick and easy (we don't want more work after the big feast, right?!), and so delicious it might make you wonder why you didn't just do this for the dinner to begin with!

1. LAAB IT - Turn it into a Thai Salad

This is my favourite way because it is quick and it makes a light and refreshing dish to offset the rich, heavy meal you just had. In this post and in the video I show you how to make a "laab" (no, it is not laRb ... you do not pronounce any r!) but you can quite easily turn it into a "yum" which is another type of Thai salad.

Check out this recipe for a Thai roast pork salad as a guide for making a "yum" with your leftovers. But you can explore any Thai salad recipes and substitute your leftovers.

2. TOM IT - Turn it into a Thai Soup

"Tom" is our term for soups, and you may be familiar with the famous tom yum goong and tom kha gai. In this post I share with you a recipe for a basic tom yum that would work with any leftovers, but luckily many of our soups are quite similar, so here are a few modifications you can make to turn them into a different type of soup.

  • Tom Kha (coconut galangal soup): Substitute ⅓ of the stock with coconut milk, or more if you want a richer soup, and use only 1 stalk of lemongrass and 15 slices of galangal. Omit tomatoes. See this recipe for tom kha gai as a reference.
  • Tom Sap (Northeastern style soup): Use dried chilies instead of fresh, and add 2 Tbsp of toasted rice powder to the soup at the end. If you can find sawtooth coriander (culantro) use that instead of cilantro. If you have my cookbook , I have this recipe on p. 127.
  • Tom Kloang (smoked fish soup): Use half tamarind and half lime juice for the acidity, and add a loosely packed ⅓ cup of bonito flakes. This is a cheat; typically in Thailand we use smoked dried fish which is not available here, so the Japanese katsuobushi (bonito flakes) works perfectly as a substitute. See this recipe for tom kloang as a reference.

Watch The Full Video Tutorial for All 4 Recipes!

All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success! And if you enjoy the show, please consider  subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!

3. JEAW IT - Dip it in a Spicy Thai Sauce

This recipe is perfect for the perfectly cooked roast beef that you're super proud of and still want to enjoy the roast as is, but maybe with a bit of a different, lighter flavour. Or maybe you ran out of gravy ... isn't that always the case? There's never enough gravy?

"Jeaw" or "nam jim jeaw" is our universal dipping sauce for grilled or roasted meats. Chicken, beef, pork, or even fish; if it was grilled or roasted, we can dip it in jeaw.

I've given you a basic recipe here, but know that you can vary it a lot, especially with how sweet you want the sauce to be. Add more sugar or less sugar, it's completely up to you. You can also substitute some of the lime juice with tamarind paste for a thicker, richer dipping sauce.

If you're not familiar with tamarind, check out this video: Everything You Need to Know About Tamarind. Or watch this video on how to make tamarind paste at home.

4. PAD IT - Turn it into Fried Rice

Finally, we cannot talk about leftovers in the context of Asian food without talking about fried rice! "Pad" means to stir fry (yes, that's the same pad as pad thai ). It is THE ultimate easy way to use up just about anything in the fridge.

PRO TIP: If you have any delicious meat juice collected on the serving platter, save it and use it as part of the sauce in the rice. If your rice is well cooked (i.e. not too soft) and you don't crowd the pan, you can add about 2 Tbsp of extra meat juice per recipe without worrying about making your rice too soft. Just be sure to adjust the seasoning accordingly - if your meat juice is on the salty side, cut down on the fish sauce or soy sauce slightly.

Tom Kha Gai ต้มข่าไก่ (Thai coconut chicken soup)

By Pailin Chongchitnant • May 7, 2022
Tom yum goong maybe the most famous soup of Thailand, but its milder creamier sister, tom kha gai , is my personal favourite. This comforting Thai coconut chicken soup recipe is infused with the classic Thai herbs: lemongrass, galangal, and makrut (kaffir) lime leaves. It's so easy yet so loveable that when someone asks, "I'm new to Thai food, what should I try/make first?" Tom kha gai is my answer.

No-Bake Icebox Mango Pie (Filipino Mango Royale)

By Pailin Chongchitnant • May 6, 2022
If you love mangoes, and you love mango desserts, Mango Royale, aka Mango Float, is an absolute must-try; right after mango and sticky rice , of course! It's a frozen Filipino dessert that takes advantage of peak-of-the-season mangoes, and uses only 5 ingredients. There's no baking involved, and it's so easy it's essentially fool-proof!

How to Save Your Basil - Thai Basil Stir Fry Sauce Recipe

By Pailin Chongchitnant • April 22, 2022
I LOVE all kinds of basil, but I don't love how quickly it goes bad and that it doesn't freeze well. So I came up with this recipe as a way to use up any amount of basil you have on hand . It's an easy and versatile sauce that only uses pantry staples, and can be stored in the fridge for at least a week. Reheat it and pour onto any cooked protein, or use it as a stir fry sauce - or heck, you can even use it as gravy for your mashed potatoes. It can also be made vegan. The possibilities are endless!

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By Pailin Chongchitnant • April 8, 2022
Imagine this: soft and creamy ice cream bars that you didn't need to whip or churn. All you have to do is cook the ice cream base, pour it into a mold, then cut it into pieces. And it's so soft your teeth will glide right through it as you take a bite, and it's wonderfully chewy. Yes, chewy.

3-Chili Thai Basil Fried Rice Recipe

By Pailin Chongchitnant • March 25, 2022
I wanted a fried rice recipe that really celebrates the flavours of chilies - not just their heat. This fried rice features not one, not two, but three different types of chilies, combined with the fragrance of Thai basil to tie it all together! And no, it doesn't make this dish overwhelmingly spicy, and you can indeed customize the heat level while still preserving all the delicious chili flavour. It's not something I created out of thin air, but a traditional Thai dish (with a couple of tweaks from me)!

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By Pailin Chongchitnant • March 8, 2022
If you love cooking Asian food, oyster sauce is probably already in your kitchen. But do you know if the one you have is a "good one”? And is the expensive oyster sauce you bought (or didn't buy) worth the splurge?

Tom Yum Soup (Tom Yum Goong) Recipe

By Pailin Chongchitnant • March 3, 2022
With over 3 million views on YouTube, this recipe is one of the most popular, and an OG, on Hot Thai Kitchen. This world-famous tom yum soup is universally loved; and with this authentic recipe I promise you can make it as good as, if not better than, the ones in restaurants. It's one of the first dishes I learned to make as a child because it's so easy, making this a great first Thai dish to try!

Authentic Thai Green Curry Chicken

By Pailin Chongchitnant • March 1, 2022
Thai green curry chicken is my most popular recipe on the YouTube channel with over 4 million views . If you want a completely authentic recipe, and one that maximizes deliciousness, this is it right here. It is one of the best known dishes of Thai cuisine, and despite its complex flavours, it is actually quite easy to make at home. It's also gluten free, and adaptable for vegans!

Pad See Ew with Rice Vermicelli

By Pailin Chongchitnant • February 21, 2022
Pad see ew is one of the most well-known and well-loved Thai dishes, but most people only know of the more common version of pad see ew that uses fresh wide rice noodles (ho fun). This version however uses thin rice vermicelli, and it's the one that I actually grew up eating in Thailand. It’s an incredibly fast dish to make; from the time I get up to cook to the time I sit down to eat, it takes only 20 minutes! You can even watch me prep and cook it all up in real time in the video tutorial below just to see how fast it really is!

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By Pailin Chongchitnant • February 7, 2022
Easy, delicious, and versatile; what else could you ask for in a chicken recipe? Lemongrass chicken is a staple menu item in Vietnamese restaurants in Canada, and one that my husband gets all the time - which is why I was inspired to recreate it. It is so quick to prepare, kid-friendly, can last you the whole week in the fridge (yay meal prep), and you can grill or broil it!
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