Vietnamese lemongrass chicken

Ingredients

• Shallots

  raw

  1 shallot (medium) or 43g

• Garlic

  raw

  3 cloves, minced or 9g

• Ginger root

  raw

  1 tbsp or 6g

• Black pepper

  ground

  1 dash or 0.1g

• Salt

  table

  2 tsp or 12g

• Olive oil

  2 tbsp or 27g

• Fish sauce

  1 tbsp or 18g

• Honey

  1 tsp or 7g

• Chicken breast

  raw, skinless

  8 full breast (both fillets) or 1.89kg

• Lime juice

  Fresh

  1 lime yield or 100g

• Lime zest

  Fresh, unwaxed

  1 lime yield or 100g

• Lemongrass

  Fresh, raw

  9 tsp or 43g

Directions

1. First make the marinade. Mince the shallots and and toss them in a large bowl.
2. Trim the lemongrass stalk and grate finely with a microplane rasp grater (my preferred method) or mash the stalk with a meat pounder and cut finely against the grain of the fibers. The finer the dice, the less lemongrass fiber you’ll be picking out of your teeth when you eat the chicken later. Add the minced lemongrass to the bowl.
3. Toss in the minced garlic and ginger. You can use a microplane to mince both of these ingredients, too, but I prefer to use my garlic press for my bulbs.
4. Crack some black pepper into the bowl, and then grab a lime and zest off just the outermost green layer of the fruit. If you’re grating the white pith, you’ve gone too far. Really: the white pith is bitter and will ruin your marinade.
5. Lastly, add the salt, olive oil, fish sauce, and honey. (If you’re doing a Whole30, you can add a tablespoon of apple juice in place of honey. I promise: it’ll still taste fab.)
6. Stir the marinade to combine all the ingredients.
7. Plop in the chicken and massage the marinade all over the bird parts.
8. Cover the bowl and let it marinate for at least one hour and up to 24 hours in the fridge.
9. When you’re ready to cook the chicken thighs, preheat the oven to 400°F. I like to use the convection roast function because the circulating hot air cooks the chicken more evenly. No convection? No problem! Just add 5 more minutes to the cooking time and rotate the tray a few times to ensure even browning.
10. Place the chicken skin-side down on a wire rack placed on top of a foil lined baking sheet. Pop the chicken in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Flip the chicken skin-side up and rotate the tray 180 degrees. Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes or until the skin is evenly browned and the thickest part of the meat registers 165°F on an instant-read thermometer.
11. Serve the chicken with lettuce, pickled veggies, fresh herbs, and lime wedges (rice optional).