Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

5 from 45 votes

This Grilled Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken recipe is incredibly quick and easy to prepare, loaded with flavor from the lemongrass chicken marinade and grilled to perfection to give you a delicious sweet and savory, juicy grilled chicken that can be served in many different ways.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Main

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Servings:

Calories: 537kcal

Author: Joyce Lee

Ingredients

8 boneless chicken thighs

Lemongrass Chicken Marinade

1 stalk lemongrass (approx. 3½ tablespoons)
4 cloves garlic (approx. 2 tablespoons)
1 shallot (or small onion, approx. 2 tablespoons)
1½ tablespoons fish sauce
1½ tablespoons dark soy sauce (or mushroom soy, or regular soy)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water

Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce (Full Recipe Post Here)

1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (approx. 1 lime, or substitute with white vinegar)
6 tablespoons hot water
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
grated carrots (optional for color)
1 birds eye chili pepper (optional, for some spiciness)

Instructions

Prepare the Marinade

Finely chop or grate both the 4 cloves garlic and 1 shallot. (You can also blitz this in a food processor with the lemongrass.)
To prepare the lemongrass, remove the first outer layer of the stalk, then cut off the dry tips at the top and the thick hard base at the end.
We only want to use the tender light yellow parts of the lemongrass at the thicker base. If the lemongrass is really fresh, you may be able to use some of the green parts as well like in the photo.
You can finely chop it by hand or blitz it in a food processor with the chopped shallots and garlic.
If you use a food processor, you still want to make sure the pieces are finely chopped before adding in since the lemongrass stalks are still fibrous.

Marinate the Chicken

Once all the aromatics are finely chopped (or blended), add it to a bowl with the chicken and the rest of the marinade ingredients (1½ tablespoons fish sauce, 1½ tablespoons dark soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons water) and marinade it for 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature or overnight for 24 hours for the best flavor.
If you want to make this spicy, you can add a tablespoon or two of sriracha or add 1 finely chopped Thai chili to the chicken marinade.

Remove the Aromatics From the Chicken Before Grilling

It's very important to remove as much as the aromatics from the chicken before you grill it so that it doesn't burn as easily. At this point, you won't need it because the marinade would have penetrated the chicken already.
Give the chicken a light coat of oil (I like to use vegetable oil or avocado oil) by drizzling oil over it and using your hands to rub it all over. This will prevent the chicken from sticking to the grill.

Grill the Lemongrass Chicken

Since there is a lot of sugar in the marinade, you only need to set the BBQ to medium heat, not high heat.
You will still get the char, but it will cook at a slightly slower pace so that the chicken doesn't burn before the center is down.
After you cleaned the BBQ and oiled it, start by placing the chicken skin side down first and let it sear for about 2-3 minutes (lid up).
Once the skin has charred nicely, flip the chicken and close the lid and cook it for about 5-8 minutes.
Open the lid again, and check if the chicken is done. If it's not, cook it for longer. If it's done, but you want a bit more char on the skin, flip the chicken again so its skin side down for a minute.
It takes about 12-15 minutes to fully cook a ¼ inch thick piece of boneless dark meat chicken. If you are using any other cut of chicken that is thicker, you may need to grill it for longer.
Once the chicken is down, take it off the BBQ and let it rest for about 5 minutes before you slice them into small pieces.
I like to use this time to make the nuoc cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) for this dish.

Make the Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce (Full Recipe Post Here)

Grate or finely chop the 1 clove garlic and place it in a small bowl.
Squeeze the fresh lime until you get 2 tablespoons of lime juice into the same bowl with the garlic.
Add the 6 tablespoons hot water and 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sugar to the bowl and mix it until the sugar has dissolved.
Add 2 tablespoons fish sauce and do a taste test. Adjust it to your liking.
(Optional) If you want it spicy, finely chop 1 birds eye chili pepper and add it to your sauce.
(Optional) If you want to add a bit of color to the sauce, finely chop or grate some carrots and mix it into the sauce.

Serve and Enjoy!

Serve it the lemongrass chicken with vermicelli noodles or white rice, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, and nuoc cham, and enjoy!

Notes

For this lemongrass chicken recipe, you can use any cut of chicken, but if you want a more flavorful dish, consider using dark meat like chicken thighs and drumsticks, as they have more fat and are juicier, which makes it a lot more delicious.
Use boneless chicken so that it cooks more quickly and evenly.
To prevent burning on the barbecue, it's best to remove the chunks of lemongrass and garlic from the chicken marinade before grilling. Scraping them off will do the trick. Don't worry about losing flavor as the marinade is still very flavorful and will penetrate the meat through the fish sauce.
When grilling, it may be tempting to use high heat for that perfect char, but this marinade contains sugar, lemongrass, and garlic, which burn easily, so it's best to stick to medium heat to avoid burning. Don't worry, you'll still get those crispy, charred bits - just at a slower rate.
If you don't have a grill, you can use a cast iron skillet (or frying pan) and do it over the stove as well.

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