There’s a Thai dessert my family and I crave every time we go to one of our favorite Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, the cost of eating out as a family of four has increased in our area of Germany, and I’m sure all over the world. When my oldest visits home from college, she is always begging for mango sticky rice, so I decided to make my own and it’s just as good, if not better than the one we order from our favorite Thai restaurants. Here is my version of an easy Thai mango sticky rice recipe.
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Jump to RecipeWhat is Mango Sticky Rice
Mango sticky rice, also known as Khao Niao Mamuang in Thailand, is a traditional Thai dessert. It consist of glutinous (sweet) steamed rice mixed with a coconut mixture of coconut milk, sugar, and a pinch of salt. It is topped with mango and drizzled with a thicker coconut cream on top and sometimes sprinkled with toasted sesame seed.
How to Make Thai Mango Sticky Rice
Wash and Cook the Rice
The first thing you want to do, is make sure you have Thai Glutinous Rice, it will also be called Sweet Rice. I bought a small bag (ok, maybe an even bigger bag, because I know my family loves this stuff and I’ll be making it more than once) of Thai Glutinous Rice. I found Glutinous Rice at an Asian store and just bought whatever brand of Glutinous rice they had; however, I was only able to find Lao Glutinous Rice (which was basically the same). You want glutinous rice because this is the only kind of rice that will work with this recipe. Glutinous rice has a unique starchy composition that provides that sticky, chewy texture you will need to make this recipe work.
Before you cook the rice, you want to rinse the rice with water atleast 2-3 times and until the water runs clear. This removes excess starch and any dust in the rice. I have read you should typically have the rice soak in water for several hours or overnight to make sure it cooks evenly, but honestly I skipped this step. But feel free to soak yours if you’d like a better consistency.
I’ll be honest, I was born in the Philippines, but I don’t know how to make rice other than with a rice cooker. With my rice cooker, after rinsing my rice until clear, I put my about 1 cup of rice (I double the recipe since my family eats this like crazy) into the rice cooker and measured the water to the 1 cup line and cook my rice this way. However, if you don’t have a rice cooker, here’s a recipe you can follow if you are using your stove top to cook rice.
Making the Coconut Mixture
Note: Please note, this recipe is for 3 small servings, I typically double it so I have left overs, but for now, please note the amount I have written for the recipe and double (or triple) it to your liking.
While the rice is cooking, open a can (or two cans if you want to have leftovers) of full fat Coconut Milk in a can and heat it in a pan over medium-high heat. Then, I add about 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, you can adjust the sweetness to your liking by adding more or less sugar, (also, 1/4 cup sugar for 1 can of Coconut Milk) and a pinch of salt. Afterwards, let the mixture come to a boil and lower the heat to medium heat, continuing to stir until the sugar has dissolved. I then set aside half of this coconut mixture in a bowl for the rice and leave the other half in my pot to make the thicker coconut mixture slurry.
I then mix 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch with 1 tablespoon of room temperature water to my coconut mixture that I left in my pot and mix it in while it heats, continuing to stir until it thickens.
Cut Your Mango
Peel your mangoes and slice into 1/4 inch strips. You’ll want to buy very ripe mangos for this or find ripe mangos in a can at your local Asian store if mangoes are out of season.
Assembling the Dessert
Once the rice is done, now you want to mix the first half of the coconut mixture that you had set aside in a bowl and mix it with the rice until it is well mixed. Then, assemble your coconut rice mixture into a plate, top with a few slices of the mangoes, then pour some of the coconut thick slurry you had in your pot over the mangoes and rice. You can then sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top if you’d like. Bon Appetit!
Ingredients
Method
- Rinse your 1 cup of glutinous rice in water until clear and place in rice cooker with 1 cup of water and cook.
- While your rice is cooking, prepare your coconut milk mixture in a small pot by bringing 1 can of Full Fat Coconut milk, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1/4 tsp of salt to a boil, making sure to stir in between until mixture has dissolved.
- Save half of the coconut milk mixture in a bowl for the rice.
- To make the Thick Coconut Milk Slurry, leave the other half of the coconut milk mixture in your pot and combine 1 tsp of corn starch and 1 tbsp of room temperature water to the coconut milk mixture in the pot and boil for a few minutes until the sauce is thickened.
- Once your rice is done cooking, add the coconut milk mixture that you saved in a bowl (from step #3) and mix the rice and coconut milk mixture and mix well. Set aside.
- Peel and cut your mangoes into thin slices.
- Plate your rice mixture onto a serving plate, add a few slices of mangoes on top of the rice, drizzle with the Thick Coconut Milk slurry from the pot on top of the mangoes and rice, garnish with toasted sesame seeds (optional). Enjoy!
Notes
Bon Appetit!
