2010 Cooking Club Week 22: Vietnamese Roast Chicken with Lemongrass

Minder

I’ve been cooking these dishes for years ever since I bought a Vietnamese cookbook by Nicole Routhier. The dishes have become a family favourite. I have given three recipes for a complete meal – these are the combinations that Nicole suggests in the book. The roast chook is the main dish, it could be served with some plain rice and a salad, but if you fancy having a crack at the full menu, bring all the dishes to the table at once and allow diners to help themselves.

Vietnamese roast chicken with lemongrass

Ingredients

3 stalks fresh lemon grass or 3 tablespoons dried
6 cloves garlic, crushed
4 banana shallots, or 7 small shallots, peeled and sliced
2 red chili peppers, seeded
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons fish sauce (Thai fish sauce is fine)
2 tablespoons water
1 roasting chicken
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preparation

If you are using fresh lemon grass, discard the outer leaves and upper half of the stalk. If you are using dried lemon grass, soak in warm water for 1 hour, then drain. Place the lemon grass, garlic, shallots, chilies, sugar, salt, fish sauce and 2 tablespoons water in a blender and blend to a paste.

Spatchcock the chicken and keep the backbone for stock. Carefully loosen the skin on the breast and legs, pushing your fingers between the skin and meat to form a pocket. Rub half of the lemon grass paste over the meat under the skin. Rub the remaining paste over the skin front and back. Let it stand for a minimum of 30 minutes; but this can be prepared 24 hours in advance.

Preheat the oven to 200c. Place the chicken in a roasting pan and cover loosely in tinfoil. Roast for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180c and continue roasting for 75 minutes, basting the chicken with the oil and the pan juices. After an hour, remove the tinfoil to allow the bird to crisp up a bit. Allow to stand for 15 minutes before carving into joints – drumstick, thigh, wing and three pieces from each side of the breast. Arrange on a serving plate. Scrape the roasting tin for the crusty bits if they’re not burnt.

Chicken and mustard cabbage soup.

Ingredients

8 ounces of chicken wings in sections
1 litre chicken stock
2 tbsps finely chopped ginger
¼ tsp salt & ¼ tsp sugar
4 tbsps fish sauce
8 ounces finely shredded mustard cabbage (Use Chinese cabbage or any other asian brassica – Pak Choi, Choi Sum etc)
Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

I use the backbone from the chicken in the first dish chopped into small pieces and the wing tips – and fry in a little oil to colour. Add a litre of water and a large piece of roughly chopped ginger. Cook for 40 minutes to an hour, strain and either skim off the fat; or keep in the fridge overnight – remove the hardened fat.

Fry the chicken wings in a little oil and add the finely chopped ginger when the wings are nicely coloured. Cook the ginger for several minutes before adding the other ingredients except the shredded cabbage.

Cook the wings for 20 minutes, add the cabbage and cook for a further five minutes. Taste and add ground black pepper and more fish sauce as needed.

Grilled Aubergine in tomato sauce

Ingredients

2 aubergines
4 banana shallots
4 cloves of garlic
400g chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
4 tbsps fish sauce
½ pint chicken stock
4 spring onions finely sliced
Chopped coriander

Preparation

Cut the aubergine into 1 inch thick slices and grill on a ridge pan. Finely slice the shallots and garlic and fry until soft. Chop the cooked aubergine into small pieces and add to the pan with the salt, sugar, tomatoes, chicken stock and fish sauce. Cook until the aubergine is very soft and the sauce is thick.

Slice the spring onions and stir in, garnish with chopped coriander.

To complete the meal I made a dipping sauce from equal quantities of lime juice and fish sauce, to which I added finely chopped clove of garlic, a red chilli and a tsp of sugar. Mix until the sugar dissolves. Place in a small bowl at the table and use to add a extra punch to a salad or the chicken.

Serve with jasmine rice and a salad of shredded raw carrot, chinese cabbage, asian pear cut in batons and a few spinach leaves.

Photos to follow.

Minder

Ingredients



Marinate the bird



Roast Chicken with Lemongrass



Aubergine in Tomato Sauce



Dinner

The Sweeper

I miss dinner at your house.

Am going to make this this week - spatchcocking the chicken sounds like a quicker way to do it than marinating individual portions. Will definitely try the aubergine on the side, I haven't made that before.

Soup question - so the soup comes out like a broth with green cabbage and chicken wingtips in? May sound like a silly question but I'm trying to visualise it - is it supposed to be a chicken and ginger flavoured broth with the cabbage in, or is there supposed to be chicken in the individual servings too?

unkel

There's a new word for me every day

Found this vid how to spatchcock a chicken:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGKLtbiUflk

Minder

The Sweeper wrote: »

Soup question - so the soup comes out like a broth with green cabbage and chicken wingtips in? May sound like a silly question but I'm trying to visualise it - is it supposed to be a chicken and ginger flavoured broth with the cabbage in, or is there supposed to be chicken in the individual servings too?

Yes chicken and ginger flavoured broth, so the stock needs to be full of flavour, I fry the bones to add flavour, you should be able to taste the fish sauce. The cooked chicken wings can be lifted out and the meat pulled from the bones, or serve three or four winglets per soup serving. The meat should fall off the bones. Small side bowls of soup.

Little Alex

That chicken looks absolutely delicious, Minder. I won't actually get around to making this for a couple of weeks but I'll update you after I've made it.

Swampy

The guy in the video sounds like a serial killer. Like Silence of the Lambs.

foodaholic

Okay cooked my bird on BBQ, loved the chicken, OH devoured it. Maybe I'll put some chillies in the aubergine to spice it up a bit next time.

xxdilemmaxx

Hi Minder,
This is dilemmas boyfriend thanks for the recipe its the nicest dish i've had in a long time, nicer then any thai, chinese, indian that i've had. The chicken was amazing... I hope to have it again Cheers :pac:

Little Alex

So Minder, I got to make this way sooner than I thought I would have. It was delish!

I made a serious mess of the spatchcocking :pac: and ended up making thighs and breasts with wings attached. I went went sweet potato strings instead of rice.

Thank you!

The Sweeper

Hmmm. Chicken spatchcocked. Removal of backbone: perfect. Removal of keel bone: mess. Still chicken in one piece, marinading in the marinade ingredients, going in the fridge overnight. This is planned for a long and boozy afternoon meal tomorrow!

The Sweeper

Meal a hit. Chicken excellent. Aubergine cooked long and slow was perfect foil. Also made Thai green veg curry, home made paste. Very good indeed! Will definitely put this up again for guests. Bed now. Fed n beered. ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

xxdilemmaxx

xxdilemmaxx wrote: »

Hi Minder,
This is dilemmas boyfriend thanks for the recipe its the nicest dish i've had in a long time, nicer then any thai, chinese, indian that i've had. The chicken was amazing... I hope to have it again Cheers :pac:

Oh dear, I leave the room for 2 mins and my boards account is hijacked!!! The chicken was very tasty indeed, even if it did take the 2 of us and various youtube videos to spatchcock the chicken, thanks Minder!

Minder

Okay I watched the Hannibal Lecter How to Spatchcock a Chicken video on the Youtube link. What I am looking to achieve is described in the first third of the video. Cut down both sides of the backbone and remove. Place the chicken cut side down and press - with a bit of a crunch the bird will stay flat. Job done - no more trimming, no more boning.

After that it a simple marinade and a roast:D

Malari

I actually bought chicken pieces on the bone for this. I knew I'd be cooking it late for bringing to work the next day cold, and I thought "am I going to spatchcock a chicken for the first time on a Monday night at 9.30pm? No Malari, you are not!"

So it was lovely for lunch the next day. Took 2 mins to make up the marinade and ended up with a nice crispy skin on the pieces. Delish, will try it hot with rice another night (and maybe even perform a spatchcocking...)

nice1franko

Had this at the weekend. T'was lovely but I made too much of the marinade and then put it all on anyway so was a bit overpowering. Lesson learned.



Used the juices from the chicken in the tomato and aubergine dish but because of the of the marinade it was very salty so kind of messed up a bit there too. Another lesson learned.

Will try it again though...

Spatchcocking the chicken was good craic (what's with the "kitchen shears" in the vid - use a knife like a real man, damn it!) so will be doing that again too and trying other marinades.

Thanks

pandaboy

Oh I love the look of this. Been trying to find a good recipe for a whole chicken and this ticks so may boxes. Will post results. Thanks for such a great recipe.

The Sweeper

Made this last night for the first time in over a year. Thoroughly enjoyed it - it's now on my list of 'go to' foods for the Christmas season. I had forgotten how bloody marvellous that aubergine dish is! Even himself was commenting that it's the only dish with eggplant in it that he likes (and by 'likes' I mean 'scarfs and goes back for seconds'). Cooking Club is so very useful - I looked up this recipe for the chicken, having completely forgotten the aubergine. Then cooked and ate both and am v. happy about the whole thing!

Mrs Fox

This was ace ace ace. Thanks Minder. Will be a regular in our house. Photo in the dinner thread.

BaZmO*

Mrs Fox wrote: »

This was ace ace ace. Thanks Minder. Will be a regular in our house. Photo in the dinner thread.

You should really put the photo in this thread too as it'd be impossible to find in the dinner thread in a few month's time.

Mrs Fox

BaZmO* wrote: »

You should really put the photo in this thread too as it'd be impossible to find in the dinner thread in a few month's time.

Good point.

Dizzyblonde

Had this tonight with stir fried veg and noodles and we loved it!
Here's a copy of the pic I put in the Dinner thread.

Gloomtastic!

Spatchcocked chicken in the fridge waiting for roasting tonight.

Quick question: 90 minutes roasting for a spatchcocked chicken. Is that not too long?

BaZmO*

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Spatchcocked chicken in the fridge waiting for roasting tonight.

Quick question: 90 minutes roasting for a spatchcocked chicken. Is that not too long?

Sounds very long.

Essentially the thickest parts of the chicken when it's spatchcocked are the breasts. So you'd only need about 45 mins for roasting a chicken breast with the bone in, which would be the same here. Obviously it depends on the size of the chicken you're using. Just check it after 45 mins and do the usual checks to insure it's cooked thoroughly.

Minder

90 minutes my might seem overly long, but I was always going to err on the cautious side to avoid posting a recipe that results in undercooked chicken. Second to that, I've found that the skin needs longer to roast due to the wet marinade. At 45 minutes, the meat may be cooked, but the skin will be flaccid and fatty. Give it longer to render the fat from the skin and get the caramelisation going. If you go for a shorter cooking time, don't cover it in foil. Lastly, I'd recommend using an instant read meat thermometer. 75c when inserted into the thickest part of the bird will ensure its safe to eat.

lonestargirl

I made this for dinner last night. Was devoured by all including my 89-year old grandad and 3-year old son! My butcher took spatchcocking to the extreme and presented me with a complete chicken minus any bones. Even still, as Minder says, it took about 70 mins to cook through (I used a thermometer). I don't usually like aubergine (primarily a texture issue) but this was lovely.

Gloomtastic!

I erred on the side of caution and cooked it for just over an hour. Was delicious, especially the soup. Thanks Minder.

homemadecider

I've got the chicken marinading and can't wait for dinner tonight. I skipped the spatchcocking out of sheer laziness so will just roast a whole bird the way I usually do. I'm going to serve it with egg fried rice.

homemadecider

This turned out great. Easy and delicious, will definitely make again. Post with photos in the 'what did you have for dinner' thread here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=93809535&postcount=4542

Thanks for the recipe!

BaZmO*

You should post the pics here too. It'll be easier to have them here for future reference rather than them getting lost in the other thread.

homemadecider

No worries! Here we go - full chicken out of the oven (I cooked it upside down for 30 mins and then right side up for 50 mins @ 180 C. It was a 1.4kg chicken)



Himself had a leg and a wing:



And I had a breast:



It was delicious!!

Faith

I made this last night and I made a total balls of it . I have a blender that needs persuasion to work with tougher ingredients, so I think I added too much water in the first place. This meant the marinade was very wet, and the chicken skin ended up soggy and manky (although the chicken itself was deliciously moist!).

Secondly, I guesstimated with the lemon grass and shallots. I was only cooking a crown, so I meant to halve the recipe, but I think I just messed up proportions. I used chilli powder because I couldn't get fresh chillis, and somehow I ended up with a really Indian-flavoured dish, rather than Vietnamese!

My fiance really enjoyed it, but just because it didn't turn out as I'd expected, I was quite disappointed. It was entirely my own fault though, and I'll definitely try again.

Mrs Fox

Chicken in the oven. Can.Not.Wait. I've missed this dish.