Ga Nuong La Dua (Vietnamese)

Another Vietnamese meal!  Ga Nuong La Dua, I took from my Luke Nguyen's book again.  I've been watching videos of him on YouTube lately, he's really skilled, his travelling cooking show is amazing.  Just search "Luke Nguyen on YouTube! 

So basically it's chicken, marinated and grilled between pandan AND banana leaves.  You eat it in baguettes like a Banh Mi!  I really liked it, the flavours were so interesting and balanced!  I got a lot of compliments on Facebook for this, so I hope some people will be happy to get this recipe.

Simplified, and only slightly modified from "Marinated Chicken Chargrilled in Pandan Leaves" from the book "The Food of Vietnam" by Luke Nguyen!

(for 4 mini baguettes)

Marinade for 500g of chicken legs, skin removed and deboned, each leg cut into 8-9 pieces:

-2tbsp fish sauce

-1tbsp sugar

-1/2tsp white pepper

-1tbsp oyster sauce

-5 green onions, white parts only, chopped

-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

-1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used Red Palm Fruit Oil, for colour mainly but I love the taste and it's super healthy)

-A bunch of pandan leaves cut in half and bruised a little

-2 square pieces of banana leaves

To serve:

-4 mini baguettes or a big one cut in 4

-cilantro (which I don't like so I substituted flat parsley as usual)

-mint leaves

-one or two red chilies, thinly sliced

-toasted sesame seeds

-(I added cucumber sticks, it balances the heat of the chilies a little and is always included in Banh Mi)

Mix everything for the marinade and marinate the chicken for a couple hours or overnight is better.  To cook, the book uses a Vietnamese or korean grilling rack and sandwiches everything inside but since I don't have a grill, I used a ridged pan and added a big square plate over to simulate the rack.  So either on the rack's bottom or the ridged pan, put one banana leaf, align pandan leaves to cover it, place the chicken nicely on top (I put all the chicken with the nice side on top).  Then, cover with pandan leaves and finish with the last banana leaf. Then, close the grilling rack or add a plate on top of the banana leaf.  Cook for 15 minutes on each side.

To serve, put the whole sandwich of leaves and chicken on a plate with the nice side of the chicken up.  Partially open the leaves for better presentation, and top with sesame and chilies.  Have cut baguettes, herbs, chilies, sesame, and cucumber if using ready, so everyone can make their own baguettes!  The book suggests alternatively to just serve the chicken with rice.  My boyfriend added mayo cause he thought it was a little dry, but I thought the meat was juicy enough!

For those of you wondering, I served it with a roasted Japanese sweet potato that I cooled down and cut, then stir-fried with curry leaves, grated coconut, ginger and topped with coarse salt.  Soooo good and simple!