simbal

Southeast Asian Kitchen + Bar

Ginger caramel braised jidori chicken thigh, scallions

This is another dish my grandmother would eat 2-3 days a week, sometimes I’d see her eat it 3 meals in a row. It’s one of the most quintessential dishes in the Vietnamese cooking repertoire, the reason why is it’s versatility lends itself to many variations from the base caramel sauce.  Sugar is cooked to a dark caramel, in our case we use palm sugar for it’s earthiness. A slight bitterness is as far as we cook it, from there we season it with fish sauce to balance out the inherent sweetness until the sauce rides the line of sweet and savory.  From there practically any protein can be cooked in the sauce from fish, various seafood, tofu, pork, and in our case we use jidori chicken thighs.  We sear the chicken thighs then we braise them in the caramel sauce.  To our base caramel sauce we add shallots, garlic, and ginger.  Different variations for the base sauces range from black pepper, fresh green peppercorns, chilies, garlic, to scallions.  We like the bite and freshness of fresh ginger and the balance it adds to the dish.  This dish is intended to be eaten with jasmine rice as part of a meal.

 

photo courtesy of Salt of the Earth/Bruce Kramer