Happy Noms

Ga Nuong is Vietnamese grilled chicken, and something that is my version of comfort food. It’s normally found on the streets of Vietnam in skewers being grilled over charcoal. I tried to make a simple marinade and fry the chicken at home in an attempt to mimic the great sweet and salty chicken. It’s usually paired with either rice noodles and shredded lettuce + beansprouts, or over rice; either way, accompanied by nuoc mam aka fish sauce (recipe here) for dipping. The Ga Nuong turned out pretty well – I liked the marinade, although if you can grill it instead of frying it, that’s definitely the way to go.

In the picture, you can see I ripped off a piece of the skin – couldn’t help myself.

Ingredient list:

• Chicken (I used 8 chicken thighs, about 3 pounds)  – without skin is healthier, but with skin leads to such a crisp delicious result
• 14 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 2 scallions, finely chopped
• 6 Tbspn Fish Sauce (the concentrated kind, not dipping one)
• 5 Tbspn Sugar (I used white, but I suspect brown sugar would be fantastic)
• Oil
• Beer/Wine/Some kind of stock (Optional)

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the garlic, green onions, sugar, and fish sauce. Then add in the chicken, cover it, and let it sit overnight to marinate.
2. When the chicken is done marinading, take it out and start heating up some oil
3. Pan fry the chicken, skin side down, on medium high heat for about 12 minutes.
4. After twelve minutes, flip the chicken and continue to cook the other side for approximately another 12 minutes.
5. (optional )This part is very unvietnamese, but after the chicken was done, I deglazed the pan with some beer – just because I had beer in my fridge, but I’m sure the resulting pan sauce would be good no matter what you use. In any case, add the deglazing liquid and let it reduce by half. You can then dip the chicken in this!
6. Enjoy! Either dip in the pan sauce, or use the nuoc mam sauce. This is a super basic and easy recipe, let me know if you have any suggestions to better the chicken!