April 16, 2014

Vietnamese Braised Chicken with Steamed Greens

In the third installment of our kitchen skills this week we share how to use your microplane grater for making a very simple 5 ingredient recipe of Vietnamese origin.

Preparing raw garlic, ginger and lemongrass for south east asian cookery releases fresh fragrant scents but I’ve also been known to pop open a jar of pre-chopped garlic at times in order to start a dish. The pre-chopped/minced varieties are a good standby.

Advantages of using a grater rather than chopping:

no one gets a bit mouthful of ginger or lemongrass
grating releases the juices more easily to flavor the dish
no need to peel the ginger if it’s organic as the most of it remains on the top side of the grater
lemongrass it tough to chop and slice, this preparation makes it into a very fine grassy texture that you don’t notice in the end dish

Steam the greens on top at the end of cooking. bok choi, white cabbage or chinese cabbage.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cooking Time 3 hours HIGH or 6 hours LOW
Servings 4

Ingredients
4 scallions
1 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken pieces
2 inch piece / 2 tbsp ginger, minced
3 cloves / 1 tbsp garlic, minced
2 stalks / 1 tbsp lemongrass, grated
1 tbsp caster sugar
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp rice wine or rice wine vinegar

Lay the scallions on the bottom of your slow cooker insert and place the chicken pieces on top.

Grate the ginger, garlic and lemongrass over a small bowl.

Add the sugar, soy sauce and rice wine to the ginger, garlic and lemongrass.

Pour the mixture over the chicken. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or HIGH for 3.

20 minutes before serving, put in half a head of chopped cabbage or 4 baby bok choi and replace the lid. These greens will steam and be crunchy when you serve the chicken.