Thai Omelette (Kai Jeow)

This simple Thai-style omelette is one of the easiest and most satisfying Thai dishes you can ever make! It requires only a few basic ingredients and can be whipped up in 5 minutes! Perfect with rice for any meal of the day!

ONE OF THE EASIEST THAI DISHES TO MAKE

The Thai-style omelette or kai jeow (ไข่เจียว) is one of the most popular street foods in Thailand. It’s quick to make, satisfying and filling with rice. And it can be as cheap as 20 baht if you buy it from a street cart in Bangkok (that’s less than a dollar and with rice). There is NOTHING like the smell of the Thai omelette! It’s so recognizable and inviting that it can make you hungry even when you’re full. 😂

And because it’s so good, many of you who have had it might want to recreate it at home. Some of you may have already been checking out recipes but aren’t quite sure about trying. Well, let me tell you this, the Thai omelette is one of the easiest Thai dishes you could ever make. In fact, along with instant noodles (hey, they count!), fried rice and Thai pork toast, it’s one of the first things Thai kids learn to cook with their families.

WHAT’S IN THE THAI OMELETTE / KAI JEOW

The Thai omelette calls for very few basic ingredients that we normally already have in our kitchen. You can make it REALLY good with just eggs and fish sauce. For those of you who aren’t a fan of fish sauce, you can use soy sauce. The taste won’t be noticeably different but personally I always go for fish sauce.

I also love adding chopped green onions to my Thai omelette. They make what’s already really good even better. When you add enough of them, their flavor really does come out in your omelette. Actually, there’s another ingredient that I like to add as well, and that’s sliced shallots. If I happen to have both green onions and shallots on hand, I just use both. Though, I didn’t use shallots in this particular recipe. That’s not to say that these are the only things you can add to your Thai omelette.

Here are some of the other common variations you can try:

• Minced pork
• Minced shrimp
• Crabmeat
• Diced onion and tomato
• Chopped Thai chilis and minced garlic
• Chopped Thai chilis and basil leaves

HOW TO MAKE THAI OMELETTE / KAI JEOW WITH GREEN ONIONS

1. Take one green onion and remove the root. Then, finely chop the rest and set aside.

2. Heat 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.

3. Crack an egg into a bowl. Add the chopped green onion, 1/2 teaspoon of fish sauce and beat together with a fork.

4. Check if the oil is hot enough. It should be lightly smoking hot. You could test by dipping a chopstick into the egg mixture and then into the oil. If it sizzles, that means it’s ready. You can then pour the egg mixture into the center of the pan and fry for about 1 minute or until golden. If you’re not sure, use a spatula to lift one edge up to see.

5. Once one side is golden and the egg mixture holds together, flip the egg with a spatula and fry the other side for another minute or until golden. Then, turn off the heat and serve.

PRO TIPS

1. Use enough oil. You can fry more than one egg at a time. I’ve done 1, 2, 3 and 4 eggs and they have turned out well. There is no set rule about how much oil you should use for this or that many eggs, we just kind of use our sense. But generally you want to use more than enough to just coat the pan. Yes, it’s going to be quite a bit, but if you want to achieve a great kai jeow texture, then you need that much. Of course, using less oil will cook the eggs too, but I promise you, any Thai person who isn’t on a diet will call a Thai omelette fried in too little oil a disgrace! If you’re really worried about the oil, you can line your serving plate with a paper towel. 😉

2. Only fry the egg mixture when the oil is lightly smoking hot. I know I’ve talked about it in the section above but this is really important as it’s going to help you achieve a nice, delicious kao jeow texture. Again, nice is subjective but if you fry the egg when it oil isn’t hot enough, you will definitely end up with a pretty dull texture. Plus, it’s going to soak in so much oil, making it very oily.

WHAT TO SERVE THAI OMELETTE WITH?

We like to serve the Thai omelette on a bed of warm steamed rice. Sometimes it’s also eaten as a side to rice and pad krapao (Thai holy basil stir-fry) or moo gratiem (Thai garlic pork). Many of us also enjoy it with Sriracha sauce and ketchup.

Apart from steamed rice, we also eat kai jeow with plain rice porridge, which is basically cooked rice and a lot of water brought to a boil with no seasoning added. When we have rice porridge, we usually have it with a lot of other condiments. Though, you can definitely just do porridge and omelette.

OTHER RECIPES YOU MIGHT ENJOY THAI OMELETTE WITH:

Thai Green Papaya Sour Curry with Shrimp | Kaeng Som

Tom Yum Goong (Thai Hot & Sour Soup)

Eggplant Stir-Fried with Thai Basil Leaves & Salted Soy Beans

Thai Stir Fried Stink Beans with Pork and Shrimp

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