A Little Something Different: Bac Ha Style Ginger and Lemongrass Braised Chicken

Okay so yes it has been a LONG time since I posted. I have been all over the place with new responsibilities at work and then some travelling and then more responsibilities and then moving and whole new set of responsibilities. Maybe that's not an excuse! Maybe I have just been transitioning so much with cooking and other new hobbies that my blog just got lost somehow. Who knows?

I am writing this special post for a friend of mine who saw a picture of this recipe posted online and thought she would like to give it a try.

Although it is not the typical recipe I post on this site, it is heavily influenced by French cuisine and so I think in the end it works. In the past few months I have been delving into more than a few Asian cuisines and just cant seem to get enough of Vietnamese food. When the French colonized Vietnam, they brought with them many new cooking techniques and when classic French cooking mixed with the vibrant, bright flavors of South East Asia.....Delicious magic was born. I am currently working my way through some amazing books on the subject and this recipe is definitely a gem I will be adding to my repertoire.

For a braised chicken dish of any type I prefer to use chicken thighs from bigger birds (the chicken in this recipe was actually from my parent's own chickens), as it just seems to handle the braise so much better than the other cuts of chicken. I also made this dish with rice noodles which in the end made it into something similar to ramen, I don't think that was the way it is supposed to be presented but it was delicious.

Bac Ha Style Ginger and Lemongrass Braised Chicken

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp Fish Sauce
1 Tea Oyster Sauce
1 Tbsp Sugar
2" piece of Ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
500g Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs, chopped into 1"-2" pieces
2 Tbsp Oil
2 Tbsp minced Garlic
1 stalk of Lemongrass, white part only, minced fine
250ml Chicken Stock
4 Spring Onions, cut into 1" lengths
1 Onion or 2 Shallots, minced very fine
Pinch of Pepper
Cilantro sprigs, to garnish
Steamed rice or Boiled rice noodles
Hot sauce, I prefer sriracha (optional) or Thinly sliced Red Chili (optional)
Slice of lime for each dish

Method:

• In a mixing bowl, combine fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and ginger. Stir very well until the sugar dissolves. Add in the chicken, massage the sauce into the chicken very well and then put into the fridge for at least 20 mins but preferably longer.
• Bring a large heavy bottomed saucepan to medium heat, add the oil and then the garlic and lemongrass. Cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
• Turn the heat up to high and add the chicken, shaking off the marinade as you go (reserve for next step). Seal the chicken in the pan, doesn't need to be brown just sealed.
• Pour in the stock, the sliced onion and the reserved marinade. Bring the pot to the boil. Skim any impurities you see on the top and cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 mins.
• Add the spring onion and pepper, cook with the lid off for a further minute.
• Served in a bowl with noodles or in its own bowl with another of steamed rice. Garnish with chili/hot sauce, lime and coriander.