Chicken marinated in oyster sauce, char grilled in pandan leaves, (ga nuong la dua)

Grab banana and pandan leaves from an Asian grocery store (or some selected grocery stores) and barbecue chicken the Vietnamese way with this recipe from Luke Nguyen.

• serves

  ?

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp sugar

½ tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 garlic cloves, finely diced

5 spring onions, white part only, finely sliced

500 g chicken thigh fillets, skinless

2 banana leaves

14 pandan leaves

Marinating time: 1 hour or overnight

You will need a barbecue wire grill for this recipe.

Instructions

In a mixing bowl, combine fish sauce, sugar, pepper, oyster sauce, garlic and spring onions. Mix until the sugar dissolves.

Add the chicken and marinate for 1 hour or overnight for a better result.

Open the wire grill and lay one banana leaf on one side of the wire grill. Now take 7 pandan leaves and bruise them by slapping them between your hands. This is to release their aroma.

Lay the bruised pandan leaf on top of the banana leaf then place the chicken on top of the pandan leaves.

Now bruise the rest of the pandan leaf and lay them on top of the chicken followed by the other banana leaf.

Close the wire mesh enclosing it all together, then place it on a medium heated grill or barbecue. Cook the chicken for 15 minutes on each side.

Serve with jasmine rice or bread.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.