Lemongrass Chicken Vermicelli

A fresh salad with herbs, vegetables, and rice noodles topped with juicy chicken flavored with lemongrass and other southeast Asian flavors.

I make vermicelli often for dinner.  It's a simple, fresh, and filling salad with bean sprouts, lettuce, rice noodles, carrots, mint, basil, cilantro, green onions (as many vegetables and herbs as you like), and some type of protein.  My usual favorite is Char Siu (BBQ pork) Vermicelli because I almost always have store bought Char Siu in the freezer which makes this salad super simple.  I've also used all types of meats/protein like leftover steak, chicken, tofu, shrimp, and I even used fish sticks once.  I love this salad because it makes a delicious, healthy, versatile, and simple meal.  With just a little prep work, this salad is ready to throw together in minutes.

This salad makes a deliciously healthy, versatile and simple meal [Tweet this]

When I made this version of vermicelli I wanted to try something new and thought of lemongrass chicken.  Lemon grass is easy to find in Chinatown and many grocery stores it's also easy to grow.  It's a grass that smells wonderfully of lemon.  What you usually find are just the stems.  When using it for cooking I just use the bottom thickest white part of the stalk and mince it.  There are instructions on how to prepare lemongrass in my How to Make Lemongrass Green Tea as well as instruction on many sites (just google it).

Lemongrass is a grass that smells wonderfully of lemon [Tweet this]

I used skin-on chicken breasts, marinated in a salty, sweet, and sour sauce flavored predominately with lemongrass.  The lemongrass added a lovely subtle lemony flavor to the chicken that you can't get from an actual lemon.  It's difficult to describe, but it was delicious.  The only criticism I have is that the marinade did not permeate the entire chicken breast.  It mostly stayed on the skin and outside flesh.  Maybe with a longer marinating time or I wonder if I could try poking holes in the chicken for some sauce to seep into.  No matter, it smelled great while cooking and it tasted great too.  This chicken made a great vermicelli and it was delicious to eat on its own too.

The chicken's great alone too [Tweet this]

Lemongrass Chicken Vermicelli

Lemongrass Chicken

Ingredients:

Marinade

2 Tbsp lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp minced lemongrass
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup sliced green onions
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 chicken breasts (technically it's only one whole chicken breast but split down the breast bone)

Pound the garlic and lemongrass in a mortar and pestle (or with the flat of a knife) until oils are released and they are fragrant.

Mix the lemongrass, garlic, and other marinade ingredients together and pour over chicken in a sealable bag.  Refrigerate and let marinate for at least 1 hour or overnight might be better.

Preheat oven to 350F

Place the chicken on a rimmed baking dish and pour the rest of the marinade over.

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until internal temp reaches 165.

Allow the chicken to rest for about 15 minutes before slicing and serving.  Serve immediately or it even tastes great cold out of the fridge.

Ingredients continued:

Bean Sprouts
Lettuce
Mint
Thai basil
Cilantro
Vermicelli rice noodles, cooked
Carrots, julienned or shredded
Green onion
Jalapenos, sliced
Lemongrass Chicken
Nuoc cham

Place all the vegetables, herbs, noodles, and chicken in a big salad bowl (use as much of each as you like).  Then pour the nuoc cham over everything (I usually use a few tablespoons but use as much as you like).

Makes about 4-6 servings.

Enjoy.

For the recipes mentioned in this post and more vermicelli and lemongrass recipes check out:

Char Siu Vermicelli

Vermicelli Salad   --

Lemongrass Green Tea

Lemongrass Chicken Stir Fry

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How to Make: Lemongrass Green Tea

A tutorial about how to cold brew green tea with the subtle citric flavor of lemongrass.

Iced tea is a great way to wake up in the mornings.  Hot tea is good too, but I only like it when it's cold out.  I drank lots of hot tea when I lived in Minnesota during the winters.  Now that I live in Hawaii it doesn't really get cold so I prefer iced tea.  I don't like to drink too much caffeine so I try to save it for weekend mornings but I still like to try new ways to make it.  After posting a lemongrass stir fry recipe I received a comment about how lemongrass tea was also good.  That got me thinking, if you can brew lemongrass tea with hot water maybe you can do the same with a cold brew method.  So I tried it and it turned out quite good.  It had a very subtle lemony/citric flavor and was very refreshing.  There are also many claims of health benefits of lemongrass, so if they are true that's just an added bonus.

Take a stalk of lemon grass.  How many you use is up to you.  I used 3 stalks for 1 quart of tea, but if you want more flavor use more.

Prepare each stalk of lemon grass by cutting it into about 2 inch segments (so that it will fit more easily in a french press).  Dispose of the root end.

Peel off a few layers of the tough outer leaves until you get to the more tender center leaves.

Now, bruise the stalks by hitting all over with the back or a knife until they split and separate (this helps to release the flavors).  At this point you can mince the stalks for addition to stir fries or curries but for our purpose just leave them whole.

Place all of the prepared lemongrass in a french press along with the tea leaves.  I only made 1 quart so I used 4 heaping teaspoons of tea leaves.

Fill the french press with cold water and let it set and steep for about 24 hours.

After 24 hours the tea will be brewed.  Push down on the plunger and strain out the delicious lemongrass green tea.  You can sweeten as you prefer.

Pour over ice, add a stick of lemongrass and enjoy.

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Lemongrass Chicken Stir Fry

Chicken pieces flavored with lemongrass and chilies then stir fried with vegetables and served with rice.

Wow, I know finally another chicken recipe.  If you haven't noticed I don't often cook chicken.  I have nothing against chicken, but I just don't love it as much as other proteins.  However, I found some chicken thighs on sale last time I went to the store and couldn't pass them by.  I have also been on a lemongrass kick lately so I thought I'd try lemongrass chicken (which I've seen on menus but never tried).

This lemongrass chicken turned out great.  Lemongrass is a very subtle flavor but it shined in this stir fry and chicken has a light enough flavor to let the lemongrass stand out.  The sauce adds just enough salty sweetness to balance the spiciness with out masking the lemongrass.  This made a wonderful dinner and had enough leftover for my husband to take to work for lunch.

Ingredients:

Marinade
1 Tbsp lemongrass, minced
2 Thai chilies, minced
1 Tbsp rice wine
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp lime juice
1 pound chicken, cut into strips

2-3 Tbsp lemongrass, minced
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 Tbsp ginger, minced
2 Thai chilies, minced (optional)
1 small onion
3-4 cups veggies (I used cauliflower, sugar snap peas, and julienned carrots)
2 Tbsp chicken broth

Sauce
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 tsp lime juice
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 heaping tsp cornstarch

Mix together the marinade ingredients and pour over chicken in a seal-able bag. Massage the marinade into the chicken and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or over night.

Mix up the sauce ingredients and set aside.

Heat about 1 Tbsp oil in a large saute pan (or wok) over medium high heat.  Add the chicken and marinade and stir fry until chicken is just browned.  Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Add more oil to the pan if needed then stir fry the garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and chilies until fragrant (it should take less than a minute).  Add the onions and cook until just soft then add the veggies and stir fry until tender (lightly season the veggies, most of the saltiness will come from the fish sauce in the sauce).  Since I added cauliflower and peas I poured in 2 Tbsp of chicken broth, covered and let it steam for a few minutes to help tenderize the veggies.

Add the chicken back to the pan, pour in the sauce and lower the heat.  Stir to mix and allow the sauce to thicken (you can add more chicken broth if needed) and finish cooking the chicken.  Remove from heat and serve with rice.

Makes 3-4 servings.  Enjoy.

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