Chicken with Lemongrass (Ga Xao Xa Ot)

While spending 4 months in South Dakota, Seamus and I were predominantly the beneficiaries of my Mom's fantastic cooking. My mom specializes in gourmet sandwiches, roasting meats, Italian food, etc., but she doesn't cook a lot of Asian foods typically. Every once and a while Seamus and I would cook something that we learned from our Thai cooking class for my parents. I was always worried that they wouldn't like it because it is so different from what they normal eat, but every single time we made something, both my Mom and my Dad loved it. In fact, my Mom loved our Asian cooking so much that she  gave me The Complete Asian Cookbook for Christmas this year.

The Complete Asian Cookbook  is a 700 page encyclopedia of recipes from all over Asia. It includes gorgeous full-colored pictures and detailed descriptions of ingredients and cooking methods. If you are looking to add just one cookbook to your shelf about Asian food, I would recommend this book.

This is the first time I cooked out of this new book. I was worried that our lemongrass wasn't fragrant enough when I was cutting it up, but the flavor came through perfectly in the finished dish. The addition of sugar and fish sauce near the end of the cooking paired with the lemongrass flavor gave this dish the taste that you would expect in any Vietnamese restaurant. I also added some snap peas to our dish, just for a little extra color and a serving of veggies. Enjoy!

Chicken with Lemongrass

Courtesy of "The Complete Asian Cookbook" by Charmaine Solomon

Ingredients

1 lb chicken (cut into stir-fryable pieces)
3-4 stems lemongrass, white part only, thinly sliced
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra to taste
2 tablespoons oil
1-2 fresh red chilies, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup roasted peanuts, finely chopped
2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce

Directions

Gently bruise the lemongrass using a mortar and pestle. Please the lemongrass in a bowl with the spring onion, salt, pepper and chicken and toss well to combine. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a wok or large heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Add the chicken mixture and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add the chili and stir-fry for a further 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Add the peanuts, season with the sugar and extra pepper and stir well. Add the fish sauce and toss to distribute evenly, then serve with rice or noodles.