Vietnamese Roast Chicken

With Lemon Grass

Roast Chicken is a favourite in my household, and I find it one of the easiest things to cook. This roast chicken is heavily infused with traditional Vietnamese recipe ingredients of lemon grass, garlic and fish sauce. Serve this with rice and Vietnamese Spaghetti Squash Salad, spring rolls and Dipping Sauce for a really special meal!

Very often, I roast chicken with a more or less traditional stuffing (recipes coming!), but there are many ways to stuff a chicken that enhance the flavours and juiciness. This Roast Chicken with Lemon Grass is one of my favourites, stuffed with loads of garlic, lemon grass, ginger and lemon, and coated with a special marinade.

About Lemon Grass

Lemon Grass is an important herb in many Vietnamese recipes, and I use it often for pork and chicken dishes. It is a stem of tough grass, about a foot long, with a white bulbous root end that grows light-to-dark green towards the tip, with a mild lemon flavour and fragrance. You peel off the tough outer layers, slice off the tough root, and generally use just the white part above the root, chopped very finely for stir-frying. In many of my recipes, I use large chunks in marinades or to add flavour to roasts, discarding the stocks before serving (it really is like tough grass and you don't want to eat it this way!).

Ingredients

Tip:

Stuff a few cloves of garlic under the skin when roasting or baking any chicken for extra flavour.

Roasting Chicken, 4 - 5lb whole
Sweet Potatoes, 2 quartered

For the 'stuffing':

Garlic, 1 whole bud, (about 10 whole cloves) smashed and peeled
Lemon Grass, 2 stocks of the white to light green parts, peeled and chopped in 1 - 2 inch pieces, then sliced lengthwise
Ginger, 2 inch piece sliced or in chunks
Cilantro (coriander), 1 handful fresh with stems, coarsely chopped
Lemon, 1/2, cut in chunks after squeezing juice for marinade rub
Shallot, 1 large or 1/2 small onion, cut in large chunks

For the marinade rub:

Olive Oil, 3 tbsp
Fish Sauce, 3 tbsp
Light Soya Sauce, 3 tbsp
Light Brown Sugar, 4 tsp
Lemon Juice, from 1/2 lemon above
Chili Paste, 1 tbsp (I didn't have any fresh on hand, use 3 small red chopped fresh for 1 tbsp chili paste)
Black Pepper, 1 tbsp fresh ground

Cooking Method

Prepare the marinade rub and let it settle and meld while you stuff the roast chicken.
Find a place at the tip of the breast where you can slide your fingers under the skin and stuff in a few pieces of garlic, lemon grass and ginger.
Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the rest of the ingredients.
Rub the chicken all over with the marinade.
Put in a greased roast pan, cover and roast at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.
Add sweet potatoes to the roast pan, reduce temperature to 350 degrees and roast for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, basting with juices once or twice.
Remove the lid during the last half hour if you find that the chicken is not browning well.
When you remove the roast chicken from the oven, tent with tinfoil and allow the juices to find their way home, about 10 minutes.
As you're carving, remove the large chunks of lemon grass and ginger.