Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

This Whole30- and low carb Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken is packed with umami and my whole family loves it! It’s a regular weeknight meal for us!

An overhead shot of Whole30-friendly Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken on a plate with fresh herbs, sliced limes, and sliced peppers.

I don’t like to pick favorites, but if I had to choose one particular cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, it just might be Vietnamese. The balance of flavors, textures, and even contrasting temperatures in many of the dishes is straight-up amazing. In particular, I love the interplay of fresh herbs and seasonings that take simple proteins to the next level of flavor.

Lemongrass is magical!

Inspired by our trip to Vietnam, I went in search of fresh lemongrass immediately upon returning home. This citrus-scented culinary herb stars in just about every single one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes, and it’s what makes them shine. (Well, that and fish sauce.) If you’ve never cooked with fresh lemongrass before, you owe it to yourself to try it. (You’ve got no excuse now that I’ve prepared a step-by-step tutorial on how to prepare it!)

And with fresh stalks of lemongrass in hand, I decided to create a new dish: Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken.

A collage of the cooking steps for Whole30, paleo, and keto Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

Where can I find lemongrass?

You can buy fresh lemongrass at most Asian supermarkets in the produce section. I’ve also seen it at Whole Foods and Safeway locations in the SF Bay Area. If you can’t find fresh lemongrass, you can find frozen stalks at Asian supermarkets. Personally, I have never tried dried lemongrass in this recipe, but here’s a good post about how to use it by the folks at Cook’s Illustrated.

No fresh ginger!

My first attempts produced some tasty chicken, but there was something a little…off. Over a couple of weeks of recipe testing, I discovered that when I left the chicken in the marinade for more than a day, the texture would be too soft. After creating my Wonton Meatballs recipe, I figured out the fresh ginger was the culprit (it contains an enzyme that breaks down protein) and I’ve since changed the recipe to use ground ginger in place of fresh ginger!

Make-Ahead Tips:

Pro tip: If you double the recipe, you can save even more time by blitzing all of the roughly chopped marinade ingredients in a high powered blender! Also, you can marinate the chicken in the fridge for up to two days before you cook it. I don’t love freezing uncooked marinated chicken thighs and cooking them later because the skin can get kind of rubbery. I prefer to roast all the thighs and freeze the cooked chicken. You can store roasted Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze it for up to 6 months.

Time to make Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken!

Serves 6

Ingredients:

¼ cup minced shallots
1 large lemongrass stalk, trimmed and minced (about 3 tablespoons)
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon ground ginger (avoid fresh ginger—it contains an enzyme which can break down the chicken)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
zest from 1 lime
2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon honey (or 1 tablespoon of orange juice if you’re doing a Whole30)
8 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on (~3½ pounds)
Lime wedges, fresh herbs, lettuce, and pickled vegetables (optional)

Equipment:

Method:

First, you gotta make the marinade. Mince the shallots and and toss ’em in a large bowl.

Mincing shallots on a wooden cutting board to make Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

Trim the fresh lemongrass stalk…

Cutting and trimming fresh lemongrass for Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

…and grate finely with a microplane rasp grater (my preferred method)…

Using a microplane rasp grater to finely cut lemongrass.

…or smash 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. (Check out my lemongrass tutorial for more deets, peeps.)

Add the minced lemongrass to the bowl.

Smashing a piece of lemongrass with a meat pounder before mincing with a kitchen knife.

Toss in the minced garlic and ginger. You can use a microplane to mince the garlic, too, but I prefer to use my garlic press for my bulbs—mostly ’cause I like to keep my fingertips intact.

Adding minced garlic from a garlic press to the marinade for Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

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.

Zesting a lime for the Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken marinade

Lastly, add the salt, olive oil, fish sauce, and honey. (If you’re doing a Whole30, you can add a tablespoon of orange juice in place of honey. I promise: it’ll still taste fab.)

Adding the rest of the ingredients for the Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken marinade

Stir the marinade to combine all the ingredients.

Stirring the Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken marinade in a large bowl.

Plop in the chicken thighs and massage the marinade all over the bird parts.

Massaging the chicken thighs with the Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken marinade

Cover the bowl and let it marinate for at least one hour and up to 24 hours in the fridge. (I’m loving these eco-friendly silicone bowl covers, by the way.)

Covering the Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken bowl with a silicone lid

I know it’s hard to wait, but your patience will be rewarded.

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.

A cute kid making a funny face in front of a tray of Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

Place the chicken skin-side down on a wire rack placed on top of a foil lined baking sheet. Ignore the gagging noises your overly dramatic seven-year-old makes upon encountering a tray of raw chicken.

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.

Flipping the Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken skin side up in the oven.

Voilà!

An overhead shot of Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken fresh from the oven.

Don’t worry about the dirty wire rack! I show you how to clean it like a champ in this Periscope video.

A closeup overhead shot of Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken on a plate.

Serve the chicken with lettuce, pickled veggies, fresh herbs, and lime wedges. Your family will love it! (And if they don’t, tell them they can make their own %@#*! dinner next time.)

[Originally posted on November 11, 2015. Updated on January 11, 2020.]

Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013) and Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017)!

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