How to make flavorful steamed chicken with fish sauce that pairs well with rice for the whole family

How to cook Steamed Chicken with Fish Sauce

• 1

  Prepare the chicken

  After plucking the feathers, gutting, and cleaning the internal organs that are edible like heart and gizzard, discard the remaining parts and wash the chicken thoroughly.

  For this dish, you should keep the chicken whole, there’s no need to cut it into smaller pieces. You can also separate the chicken fat to use later for frying garlic and onion.

  To make the chicken more appealing and tastier, crush 1 fresh turmeric root and rub it evenly on the chicken skin, let it sit for 10 minutes for the yellow color of the turmeric to soak into the chicken skin, then rinse it with water.

  How to clean chicken properly and remove unpleasant odors:

  • To clean and eliminate the odor of chicken meat, you first need to remove the feathers and carefully handle the internal organs of the chicken.
  • You can also rub the chicken with lemon or soak it for about 3 – 5 minutes then rinse it with clean water.
  • Alternatively, you can crush 1 piece of ginger mixed with a little white wine and rub it all over the chicken, letting it sit for about 30 minutes before cooking.

  See details: How to clean chicken without odor

  

  

  

  
• 2

  Prepare the other ingredients

  Peel 8 cloves of garlic, onion, and shallots. Then, place 4 cloves of garlic along with 1 piece of ginger and 1 chili into the mortar and pound until finely crushed.

  The remaining 4 cloves of garlic and 1 piece of ginger should be sliced thinly, and the shallots and onion should be sliced about 1/2 the thickness of a finger to be used later as a base.

  The lemongrass should be cut into pieces about the length of a finger. The green onions should be cut into sections.

  

  

  

  
• 3

  Chicken sauce with fish sauce

  Prepare a pan and add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, heat until the chicken fat melts and bubbles, then add the ginger-garlic-chili mixture that was prepared earlier and sauté until fragrant.

  Next, add 6 tablespoons of fish sauce, 1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of seasoning powder, 1/2 teaspoon of monosodium glutamate, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper to the pan, stir well, and add the chicken.

  Stir evenly over medium heat to allow the chicken to absorb the sauce, using a spoon to ladle sauce from the pan into the chicken’s cavity for added flavor. The chicken should be sauced with fish sauce for about 10 minutes.

  Tip:

  • You can replace cooking oil with 50g of chicken fat.
  • Brown sugar can also be substituted with 1 tablespoon of white sugar.

  

  

  

  
• 4

  Steamed Chicken

  You take the onion, shallots, lemongrass, garlic, and ginger that you have prepared and spread them evenly under the chicken, then cover it and set the heat to medium and steam for about 40 minutes.

  After about 20 minutes of cooking, you open the lid and turn the chicken to cook evenly on both sides and add 10g of rock sugar, cover it again and continue to steam for another 20 minutes.

  After 40 minutes, the chicken is cooked, you remove all the lemongrass, ginger, onion, and shallots, then turn the heat up and simmer to let the chicken absorb the seasoning better.

  Cook for about 10 minutes until the chicken thickens the sauce, then add the scallions, keep the heat low until the scallions are cooked, then turn off the stove. During this time, you can also adjust the seasoning to suit your family’s taste.

  

  

  

  
• 5

  Final product

  Now we have a delicious and appealing dish of steamed chicken with fish sauce. The chicken skin is shiny and evenly coated with a rich, salty, sweet, and spicy sauce. The chicken meat is tender, still retaining the sweet flavor from the meat, perfectly served with noodles, fresh vegetables, or rice.