Lately, I’ve been craving Vietnamese food, especially since finding good Vietnamese here in Brussels is very difficult. I’m guilty of having a huge addiction to lemongrass chicken.
If you don’t like chicken, this sauce/recipe could just as easily be used to make lemongrass beef, pork, shrimp, fish, roasted vegetables and more.
Basically, this recipe will make you want to do everything with lemongrass!
Fresh lemongrass, with its characteristic delicate, tangy, lemony, minty and slightly ginger flavor, is the star ingredient here and somehow transforms a simple garlic and coconut milk sauce into a fabulously fresh and light one.
Once paired with juicy chicken – I guarantee you, this slightly sweet and lemony combo is just irresistible.
Tips for lemongrass chicken
Sauce is the same concept for all sauces. Chinese white sauce, sweet and sour sauce, sweet and sour sauce, General Tao’s chicken sauce, honey-garlic chicken sauce… all have one ingredient in common: cornstarch, which is the secret of beautiful, gooey Asian sauces. Here, it’s in the marinade, but the principle is the same.
The only drawback to a gooey sauce like Lemongrass Chicken is that the consistency doesn’t last.
I’m sure you’ve ordered Chinese food and found pieces of meat without a very watery (in a bad way) sauce the next day. That’s because cornflour can only retain its beautiful texture for about an hour at the most.
What I usually do when something like this happens is throw the leftovers into a saucepan and stir in a little extra cornflour (once the ingredients are hot) to bring the texture back.
Most of the time it works, but there have been dishes I couldn’t save this way. 80% success, 20% failure I’d say.
A very similar recipe that I love is chicken in hoisin sauce, which is a little lighter and looks great in presentation! Especially as a starter, where you can arrange it in little lettuce leaves. Guests will really feel like they’re in a restaurant!
How to prepare lemongrass properly?
I go into more detail in my article dedicated to lemongrass, but grossomodo:
Cut 1 cm off the bottom of the lemongrass stem and remove the top with the thin leaves. Remove 1-2 outer layers, more if the stem is not fresh. Clean off any visible dirt with water. For use in stir-fries, slice the stalk into thin slices, almost like paper, to avoid a tough, fibrous texture.
Easy Vietnamese lemongrass chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 lemongrass sticks, thinly sliced
- 3 boneless chicken thighs
- 4 tablespoons of fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 1 shallot, sliced
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 6 tablespoons of coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
Instructions
- Marinate the chicken for 10 minutes in the fish sauce, lemongrass, cornflour and brown sugar.
- Heat oil in a saucepan or wok over medium-high heat.
- Once hot, add the garlic and shallot and sauté for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add the chicken and do not stir for 3 min. Then stir and wait 3 min. Repeat until browned.
- Add coconut milk. Reduce well. The dish is finished when the sauce takes on a thick orange hue.
Absolutely addictive lemongrass chicken, that sauce is pure magic! 😋
Made this lemongrass chicken tonight and the kids absolutely devoured it, even my picky one cleaned his plate. They both asked for seconds and kept saying the sauce was the best part 😊
Made this last night and swapped the brown sugar for palm sugar since that’s what I had on hand. Also let the sauce reduce a couple extra minutes to really thicken up, and it turned out even better, so fragrant and glossy 🙂
This lemongrass chicken took me right back to Sundays at my aunt’s house, when the kitchen smelled like fish sauce, garlic, and something citrusy simmering away. The coconut milk made it feel so comforting, and that sweet-salty glaze is exactly the kind of flavor that makes you sneak a bite straight from the pan 🙂