Stir-Fried Chicken with Lemongrass and Chilies

I've been going through a dry spell lately.

It's not that I haven't been cooking -- I have been! -- but I feel like a batter in a slump. I swing but I can't get a hit. Nothing I've made lately has been worth making again, and therefore it hasn't been worth blogging about.

Quick sidebar:

I'm on kind of shaky ground with the sports metaphor thing. I just had to ask Mike what you call the person who hits the ball in baseball.

"You mean the batter?" he asked in a slightly incredulous way.

I knew "the hitter" didn't sound right.

Don't think that means I don't like baseball -- I do.  Or at least the idea of baseball. I'm just not too up on the specifics. I don't go to games that frequently and I always have trouble following the action on the field, probably in large part because I'm always watching something going on in the stands.

Here's the most exciting thing I ever saw in a baseball game:

A fan, leaning over to catch a foul ball, fell onto the field, managed to climb back up into the stands, but was then escorted away by security. The crowd booed.

A few minutes later he reappeared and the crowd cheered.

Then a short while later a member of the visiting team caught a foul ball and handed it to the fan. The crowd went wild.

Of course, it's a slight exaggeration to say I saw this. The part where the guy fell onto the field? I missed that because as usual I was looking at something going on behind me or something. I was all, "What! What's going on? What just happened?"

OK, back on topic.

My plan, when I began blogging, was to begin building a larger repertoire of recipes  It would inspire me to try more recipes. I would find new things that I'd like to eat on a regular basis and record them here. My own personal cookbook. Plus, I'd write regularly and it would be kind of like keeping a journal.

But this depends on me having something to write about and nothing I've cooked lately has been something to write about. I've had a string of things that were OK. Not terrible at all, but just not good enough that I wanted to make them again.

I was pretty relieved when I tasted the stir-fried chicken with lemongrass and chiles that I'd just cooked. Finally! Something blog worthy.

This recipe comes from Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table by Mai Phan.

Stir-Fried Chicken with Lemongrass and Chilies

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

2/3 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of visible fat and cut into bite-sized pieces

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons chopped fresh chilies or dried chili flakes

2 lemongrass stalks, bottom white part only, hard outer layer peeled away and finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)

1 yellow onion thinly sliced lengthwise (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup chicken stock (use low-sodium broth if you are not using homemade stock)

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons caramel sauce or 1 teaspoon light brown sugar

1. Combine the cornstarch, water, and chicken in a bowl. Toss to coat the meat evenly. Set aside to marinate for 15 minutes.

2. Heat 1 1/2 tabldspoons of oil in a skillet or wok over high heat. Add the chicken and stir until the edges turn white, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate and keep warm.

3. Wipe the pan clean. Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil and heat over moderate heat. Add the garlic, chilies, and half of the lemongrass and stir until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add the onion and chicken stock and cook until the onion is soft, about 10 minutes.

4. Stir in the chicken, remaining lemongrass, fish sauce, sugar and caramel sauce and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate, garnish with cilantro if you wish, and serve immediately.

Serves 4

The recipe did not specify what type of chilies to use, although I noticed that in other recipes in the book specific types of chilies like serrano or Thai bird chilies are specified. From other things I've read I believe that there is a medium sized red chili which is mildly hot that is used in Vietnamese cooking for which a Fresno or California chili would be a good substitute. At my grocery store only jalapenos were available so I went with a red jalapeno from which I removed the seeds.

I used light brown sugar because I didn't have any caramel sauce made but caramel sauce, which is used a lot in Vietnamese cooking and is bittersweet and contributes great depth of flavor, would have made this even better.

This dish will become part of my regular lineup. It has great flavor, it's fairly fast to prepare, and Mike and I both liked it. 

Thank goodness my batting slump appears to be over. (It's clear I'm still doing the sports metaphor thing here, right? OK, good.)

Comments

[angela]

If I knew anything about sports, I would give you a witty pep talk, but I don't so I will just say congrats on cooking something blog worthy.

[Cazza]

Julie, just OK is good. Trust me!! And what your family doesn't like mine might. Probably will, actually, as your not too good would be my excellence!! So, please, share!!

[lindy]

I think it is also interesting to read about what went wrong, and why. I do understand that these underexciting dishes are not recipes which you want for a personal working cookbook, but we like to read about them, too.

Maybe you could have a category for "keepers", and then when you clicked on that category, you would have only those posts for your personal reference cookbook?

I've been thinking about this idea myself, and how to do it best. For awhile, I thought about keeping a 2nd, nonpublic blog, just to copy and transfer those posts with keeper recipes, so I could subindex them by categories. Needless to say, I am nowhere near getting this done.

[discount family oracle online]

If the batter gets a hit everytime the game becomes kind of boring. We like reading about the misses. More terms: Catcher catches the ball, pitcher pitches the ball.

[littlebouffe]

I'm not always too sure what to do with my misses, either, especially as they seem to come in heaps. I tend to post them, but often a bit later, when I get around to it. I think it's good to focus on what I learned from the miss (eg., I just don't like ginger).

Maybe you can post about them, but you don't necessarily have to include the recipe, since it's not a recommendation?

[Will]

More posts about baseball wouldn't be a terrible thing.

[sher]

I love food like this. And it's a Mai Phan recipe!! She has a restaurant called Lemongrass in Sacramento, which is the big city near us. Wel, I'd say you hit a home run with this one. I can already taste it! I've made others recipes of hers that have the caramel sauce and it works with Asian flavors.

[THE BEE]

hey Julie,
Do not feel bad about the slump.Last week I a meal so bad that the niece and nephew asked if pizza hut was still open.
They warm me .

[Rebecca]

Don't forget about the "sacrifice" and the "suicide squeeze"! Maybe in cooking a "sacrifice" would be when you cook something just to feed your family but you know you won't get a blog entry out of it.

I'm a little confused about chillies because I don't cook with them that often. Donna Hay calls for "chopped red chillies" in a lot of her recipes and I don't really know what to get. I tried miniature red peppers but they weren't that spicy (although I did burn my eyes when I absently rubbed them later). But I have no idea what variety they were.

[Miz S]

You can always turn to Leah in Chicago if you need help with the sports metaphors. She can help you with baseball AND hockey.

[Lindy]

PS I love lemongrass. This looks wonderful.

[Julie]

Thanks, Angela, but I know darned little about sports so even if you did know and gave me a witty pep talk, it would probably be lost on me.

Cazza, some of these will probably make an appearance when I figure out how to rework them in a way that makes me like them.

Lindy, that's an interesting idea about the "keepers" category and maybe that's the way to go. Of course some failures are more interesting than others.

DFO, thanks for the thought, and the baseball terms.

littlebouffe, I think some misses teach you something but some misses are a little harder to define -- the I-don't-know-why-I-didn't like-that-it-just-wasn't-that-interesting/good-to-me kind. Of course, if I worked on figuring it out maybe I'd have fewer misses.

Will, I'll see if I can work it in.

Sher, have you ever been to her restaurant? I bet it's wonderful.

Bets, thanks. Pizza is sometimes my backup plan.

Rebecca, chilies can be very confusing. They go by different names in different places, they go by one name when they are fresh and another name when they are dried, and when an instruction is only "red chilies" I'm stumped.

Miz S, good plan. I'll have to work my way up to hockey metaphors though.

Lindy, I love lemongrass too.

[Peter Lewis]

Hey, Julie,

Do you remember my grandmother, Hope Wells? When I was a kid, she used to feed me as many weeds from the garden as vegetables, including purselane and lamb's quarters. I've since eaten steamed stinging nettles, which are quite good and would be better if they were served with some crumbled bacon - - Southern style.

Ann just sent me your blog info and I will read it further this weekend. Looks real good.

Peter

[Julie]

Hey, Peter Lewis!!

I do remember your grandmother, and that she fed you purslane and lamb's quarters doesn't surprise me.

Did the story of my marijuana plants in the purslane post sound familiar? If so, do you remember the source of the seeds?