Chicken thighs are one of my go-to favorites, and Asian or Vietnamese-flavored chicken thighs are just totally delicious. It’s a really easy weeknight treat that I make all the time. So once you’ve marinated your chicken, stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes to 4 hours.
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Don’t leave it any longer than that. And then you’re just going to cook it in the oven for 35 minutes, and it’s as simple as that, and it’s so flavorful.
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What you need
So first of all, the Vietnamese marinade. What I like to use in it is a few things, ingredients that, if you can get hold of them, make it all the better.
- You want about 60 ml of soy sauce, and if you can get one, a fantastic Asian fish sauce such as Red Boat, 60 ml.
- 50 g of palm sugar, if you can get the hard brick type, or dark brown sugar if you can’t.
- Add 30 ml of natural oil.
- Two packed tablespoonfuls of coriander; we can use the leaves and the finely chopped stems.
- Fresh lime juice, about 20 ml.
- One teaspoon or 2 teaspoons of fresh ginger.
- Two teaspoons of hot chili paste if you like it hot.
- Three medium cloves of garlic, grated or minced.
Add extra coriander leaves for garnish. I also like to garnish it with some chopped-up pineapple, fresh pineapple if you’ve got it, because the freshness of that cuts through the greasy chicken or the oily chicken and gives a nice sweetness in the background to the heat. And I also put roasted salted peanuts on it for that crunch.
And I cut extra lime wedges to squeeze the juice all over it for that zing.
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How to make it
So you can place your chicken thighs in a large Ziploc bag, and then I’ll meet you before you to put all your marinade ingredients in: soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, oil, lime juice for this, ginger, garlic, chili, garlic. Seal it, and give it a good sauce on all the flavors. Then you can stick that in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to absorb all those flavors.
Well, just before you’re ready to start cooking, you’re going to preheat your oven to 220° C or 425 F. Have your oven rack, and you’re going to put your chicken onto a baking sheet lined with tin foil, as it doesn’t get really sticky, and heat it up. Take your chicken from the bag, and you’re going to then cook it for about 35 minutes.
So you want to make sure that the temperature is thickest part of the thigh you’re going to want it between 60 and 71. It should be cooked all the way through. There should be no pink; it should be all white.
The chicken skin should be nice and brown and not burnt. So be careful with your marinade and make sure your oven is not burning. If it’s getting a bit too dark, put a bit of tin foil over the top to stop it burning.
Once it’s ready to set out on a nice platter, garnish it with chopped up pineapple, roasted salted peanuts, your extra coriander cilantro, slice up those limes and scatter them around. And you can, if you want an extra bit of heat, add a little bit of heat by chopping up some fresh chili and scattering that on top.
And it looks delicious, tastes delicious, and you’ll be making it every night.
