Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken Fillets

Chicken again? Yes, I love to have chicken for every dinner if I can, LOL…Some friends of my daughter have noticed that our family eats chickens quite often. As I got some fresh lemon grass in my fridge, it’s a good reason to cook a dish with lemon grass. I’ve been craving Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken Fillets for a while.

Lemon grass is commonly used as a herb in Vietnamese cuisine. The fragrance of lemon grass is so sweet, with a citrus flavor, that would enrich the flavour of any kinds of meat, especially for pork and chicken. They can be easily found at any Asian grocery stores. To use the lemon grass, we only need the white stalk by removing the green leaves outside and the end. In order to bring up more flagrance of it, finely chop and/or pound it in with mortar and pestle. Sometimes I’m quite lazy or feel tired, thus I just throw the lemon grass stalks in a mini food processor and chop them for a few seconds. The sweet fragrance smells heavenly.

Ingredients:

• 380 gm boneless chicken thigh fillet
• 1/2 onion
• 1/4 green capsicum
• 1/4 red capsicum
• 3 Tbsp chicken broth
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 red chili, sliced

Marinade:

• 2 stems lemon grass (white part only)
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 strip lemon zest (yellow skin only), about 1x5cm
• 1/2 Tbsp freshly grated ginger sauce

Sauce:

• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp chopped lemon grass (white part)
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup water

Thickening (optional):

• 2 tsp cornflour
• 2 Tbsp water

Method:

1. Remove the green leaves of lemon grass. Finely chopped and pound the white parts of lemon grass with lemon zest, then mix with other ingredients of marinade. Or to make the marinade easier, chop all the ingredients, except the cornflour, into a paste using a small food processor for 10 seconds or so. Scoop the paste out and add cornflour, mix well.
2. Rinse chicken thigh fillets and drain well. Trim excess fat. Coat the chicken in the marinade in a container, cover and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour, or overnight if you want the chicken absorbs more flavours.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frypan over medium heat. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator, discard the marinade. Place the skin first (note: I used the skinless chicken fillets) on pan, and cook until both sides are lightly brown and cooked through, about 7 minutes on each side. Let the chicken rest in a warm plate for 5 minutes. Then slice them into smaller pieces.
4. Add some more oil to pan, stir fry onion until translucent. Add shallot and cook until fragrant. Toss in green and red capsicum to pan. Pour in chicken broth and cook until sauce dries up. Set aside.
   
5. Use a little sauce pan to heat a bit of oil over medium-low heat and saute garlic until aromatic. Be cautious and not to let garlic get burnt, the sauce would taste bitter otherwise. Pour in sauce and bring it to a boil. Add thickening and cook to preferred consistency. Remove from heat. Drain through a fine sieve into a little serving bowl.
6. To serve, place veggies on a platter, top with sliced chicken fillets. Put sauce side by side or drizzle onto the chicken fillets. Serve with lemon wedges, or with any salad if desired.

Notes:

1. If you like the sauce clear and thin, you don’t need to add any thickening to cook the sauce then.
2. If you don’t like to waste the lemon grass in marinade. Spoon them out and cook in sauce. For the sake of health safety, The sauce must simmer to boil for a while for the lemon grass has certain contact with raw chicken.