Vietnamese Chicken in Caramel-Ginger Sauce

This is another recipe I tried from Cooking Pleasures. It is fast, easy and delicious. Plus it's a good reason to buy some kimchi.

Vietnamese Chicken in Caramel-Ginger Sauce

1. 2 tbsp vegetable oil
2. 3 lb. chicken thighs, quartered breast, cut into 1" pieces
3. 3 tbsp minced ginger
4. 2 tbsp chopped onion
5. 1 tbsp minced garlic
6. 1 tbsp fish sauce
7. 2 tbsp packed light brown sugar
8. 1 tbsp sugar
9. 1/2 tsp salt
10. 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
11. 1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper
12. 1/4 c water
13. 1 c diagonally sliced green onions (2 inches)

Heat large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add oil; heat until hot. Add chicken; cook 3 to 5 minutes or until browned.

Add ginger, shallots and garlic; cook and stir 1 minute.

Add all remaining ingredients except water and green onions. Bring to a boil; boil 1 minute or until sauce begins to thicken.

Add water. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 8 to 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center. Stir in green onions.

4 (1-cup) servings

This is good every time I make it. The original recipe calls for half the amount of chicken, but if I do that, it's only enough for Rodney! Maybe the recipe assumes you'll load up on rice and have salad and egg or spring rolls and some other stuff on the side? We find this is so good that we simply eat it over some steamed white rice and maybe have kimchi on the side, which adds some nice crunch and a little bit more heat.  Note that breast meat tends to be a bit more dry than thigh meat.  If you are finicky, go with the thigh meat.

Another great thing about this recipe is that we usually have the ingredients on hand. When I know I'm going to make this, I check to be sure we have enough ginger (you can buy it minced in a 3 oz jar in the produce section), chicken and green onions. Everything else we have anyway.

The cost:

• chicken breast: usually about $0.59-0.99 per pound if you buy whole chickens
• minced fresh ginger: I'm guessing about $3/3 oz. jar
• fish sauce: you may be able to find this at Ralph's or Stater Bros, if not you'll have to make a run to the nearest Asian market, be it Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese etc. It'll be $2-5 depending on the size you buy.
• green onions (2 inches): usually $0.60 per bunch, which is plenty.

Grand total assuming the highest price for each item mentioned above: $11.57 or $2.89 per serving.

Considering ease to make, the simple ingredients, time requirement, low-cost and fantastic deliciousness, it's a wonder we don't have this on a daily basis.

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