Vietnamese Chicken Rice

caramelizing onions

the ever-important sauce

saeyoung as taste-tester

One of my family's favorite dishes is Vietnamese chicken rice, which we fondly call Tina's rice since we got the recipe from Tina, one of my mom's former employees.  There are several components but the recipe is relatively simple and lasts for days. The most important part of the sauce and can be adjusted to fit everyone's personal tastes.  Also very important is cooking the rice in real chicken stock, not the store bought kind.  The difference is kind of amazing.  I think it has something to do with the natural fat in homemade chicken stock.

Ingredients:

1 cup finely chopped cilantro

1 onion (sliced and caramelized)

3 cups good quality jasmine rice cooked in homemade chicken stock

2 cup shredded chicken

for sauce:

3-4 red peppers chopped very finely

4 lemons juiced

1/4 cup fish sauce

5 tablespoons sugar

 (all these measurements can be adjusted)

1/4 cup hot water

1. boil chicken in water until the chicken is just cooked through and remove the chicken broth from heat.  Do Not Throw Away The Broth.

2. remove chicken from boiling water and when the chicken is cool enough to handle shred the chicken

3. return the chicken bones to the broth and bring the broth back into a boil with 2 teaspoons of salt

4. remove the chicken broth from the stove and let it reach room temperature

5. wash the jasmine rice and then cook the rice in chicken broth

for sauce:

1. chop the peppers finely and put in a bowl

2. add hot water and set aside for 5 minutes.  the water must be hot in order to bring out the red color from the peppers

3. add sugar and let it melt into the sauce

4. add fish sauces and lemon juice

5. add more of any of the ingredients according to your preference

assembly:

1. layer ingredients in this order: rice, chicken, caramelized onions, and cilantro

2. toss with sauce and serve