I’m still feeling Vietnamese and Vietnamese-inspired recipes like today’s recipe. This Vietnamese Roasted Chicken features several flavors I love like ginger, lime, and lemongrass. Lemongrass is one of my favorite herbs—taste and scent are distinct and just delicious! However, it can be hard to find, so I don’t cook with it as often as I would like. But now that I have found this roasted chicken recipe, I’m determined to find some lemongrass. Wish me luck!
A super yummy and easy roasted chicken recipe with a fish sauce glaze.
The Ingredients
My pre-shopping check found several ingredients for this Vietnamese Roasted Chicken recipe. I had olive oil, salt, pepper, dish sauce, and chili flakes on hand. The ingredients I had to shop for were mostly found at my regular grocery store. The whole chicken I found was 6.34 pounds for $13.88. It was a few pounds larger than what this recipe called for but it was all I could find.
The only item I couldn’t find was the lemongrass stalk, but I had a backup plan: lemongrass paste (I like the Gourmet Garden brand that’s sold in tubes in the refrigerated produce section). I bought some lemongrass paste for the Bún Thịt Nướng (Vietnamese Grilled Pork with Noodles) I made a few weeks ago and froze the leftovers for just such an occasion.
Tip: 3-4 tablespoons of lemongrass paste is the equivalent of one stalk of fresh lemongrass.
Hubby suggested I try a local Asian supermarket I had never visited before, and I took his advice. Jackpot! I didn’t have a chance to explore the whole place, but I did find a bundle of whole lemongrass stalks for $8.25. I used one for this recipe and trimmed and froze the leftovers.
The Process
This Vietnamese Roasted Chicken recipe has three ingredient groups: roasted check, stuffing, and glaze. The instructions break down as stuff and roast the chicken, make the glaze, and broil.
I had to trim the lemongrass stalk before I could stuff my chicken. Pre-packaged lemongrass is all I know—it’s trimmed and sold one to two stalks per package. I had to look up how to trim the whole stalks, but it was very simple.
First, I used a serrated knife to trim off the root end, about one inch. Next, I trimmed away the upper 2/3 of the remaining stalk. I removed the outermost layers of the remaining lemongrass stalk, and it was easy to use in this recipe since it didn’t need to be diced.
Stuffing and Roasting
The chicken was ready to be stuffed and tied once the lemongrass was trimmed. I put the butter into my microwave to melt while I worked on the stuffing. The stuffing part was very easy, but I added a few touches to maximize the flavor.
First, I used a meat mallet to bruise the lemongrass to release the flavor. I also used a paring knife to pierce the lemon a few times. Then I stuffed both into the chicken along with a few crushed garlic cloves.
Tip: I used my meat mallet to bruise the lemongrass stalk to release the flavor. It gave the meat a mild but noticeable lemongrass taste.
After stuffing the chicken, I tied the legs with some kitchen string. Then I brushed/poured on the melted butter and olive oil and sprinkled on the salt and pepper. I missed the part about rubbing garlic on the outside, but the skin was still flavorful thanks to the glaze. Whew!
By the way, I used a 9'x13' ceramic baking dish to roast my chicken. I also added meat thermometer probes in the inner thigh and thickest part of the breast. Then it was into the oven and on to prepping the glaze.
The recipe doesn’t mention using a rack in the pan to elevate the chicken and keep it out of the juices. I didn’t use one, and my chicken was fine although I never eat the back. If you do, you might need to use a rack in the pan. I like using the half-size wire cooling racks because they fit in all my rectangular baking pans. Just spray with oil first so the chicken doesn’t stick.
Glaze & Broil
The glaze was super easy. Just add everything to a small saucepan and stir while it heats. Then set it aside and wait for the chicken to finish roasting.
Mine was done after 1 hour 20 minutes, and I turned the broiler on to low before glazing the chicken. The chicken was golden brown already, but I got impatient. I turned the broiler up to high for the last three minutes. Thank goodness I kept a close eye on it because the skin began to char after two minutes. Always broil with caution, caution, and more caution!
Making the sauce for my Vietnamese Roasted Chicken was optional, but I had to give it a try! Juicing a hot lemon required silicone oven mitts (don’t use fabric mitts or they will get soaked in very hot lemon juice), but the rest was simple. It only took an extra 10 minutes to make.
Timing
This recipe listed 15 minutes to prep, 1 hour 25 minutes to cook, and a total time of 1 hour 40 minutes. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 13 minutes to prep and stuff the chicken
- 1 hour 20 minutes to roast the chicken
- 9 minutes to prep the glaze (done while chicken roasted)
- 11 minutes to glaze and broil the chicken
- 10 minutes to make the sauce
- 1 hour 54 minutes total
Ten minutes of the overage was from making the optional sauce. Without that, my chicken came in at 1 hour 44 minutes. That’s just a few minutes over the time listed despite roasting a larger chicken.
The recipe calls for a 3-4 pound chicken, but the one I bought was 6.34 pounds. A quick search told me to allow 15 minutes per pound when roasting a chicken at 425°F. That came out to 1 hour 35 minutes. However, I used a meat thermometer in two places on my chicken, and it reached 165°F after 1 hour 20 minutes. Also, the chicken had a plastic pop-up timer in the breast. It never popped, even after broiling the chicken. I’m very glad I used a meat thermometer!
