Lemongrass grilled chicken with crispy garlic and spicy bamboo shoot salad

Serves 4 Starters and mains

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Method

Spatchcock the chicken (or ask your butcher to do it for you) and put it into a large bowl.

Trim off the tough outer leaves and the root end from each lemongrass stalk. Beginning from the root end, use a very sharp knife to cut each bulb into thin slices, stopping when the purple rings disappear.

Measure out 10g, discarding the rest, and put it into a blender along with the garlic, coriander roots, peppercorns, ginger, lime zest, soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar. Process to a smooth paste. Rub the marinade on the chicken, making sure to spread it over every bit of the skin and meat. Cover and chill for at least 8 hours or up to overnight, occasionally turning the bird over and spooning the marinade that settles at the bottom of the bowl over it.

Around 1 hour before you begin to cook the chicken, prep the salad. In a dry small frying pan, toast the rice over a medium-low heat for around 15 minutes, stirring almost constantly, until the grains are golden brown and have a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the rice to a small heatproof bowl and allow to cool completely (do not leave it in the pan, as it will continue to toast). In a small food processor or mortar, grind the rice to a coarse powder. Set aside.

Empty the bamboo shoot jar – liquid and all – into a large saucepan (if the bamboo shoots aren’t completely shredded into separate strands, shred them with a fork). Set aside.

To make the crispy garlic, pound the garlic in a mortar (preferably) or grind in a small food processor into small chards, making sure all of the pieces are roughly equal in size and not small enough to turn into a fine paste.

Set a fine-mesh sieve over a small heatproof bowl and set the bowl near the stove. In a small frying pan, combine the garlic and oil over a medium-low heat and heat gently, stirring often. When the garlic turns light brown around the edge of the pan, start stirring more frequently to ensure even cooking (don’t raise the heat). When the garlic is golden brown and crispy, immediately pour the contents of the pan into the sieve, then set aside to cool. Keep the crispy garlic for a garnish and reserve the garlic oil for brushing on the chicken as it grills.

Prepare a medium fire (175- 190C) in a charcoal grill using the two-zone method (see note, below). When the coals are covered with white ash and the grate is hot, place the chicken, bone-side down, near the centre of the hold side. Cover and cook with the vents half-open for around 45 minutes, flipping the chicken and moving it back and forth between the hold side and the hot side every 10 minutes
and adjusting the vents as needed to keep the chicken from burning before it has cooked through. The bird is ready when it is golden brown on both sides and the internal temperature in the thickest part of the thigh away from bone registers 68-72C. Transfer it to a cutting board to rest, uncovered, for 30 minutes (the temperature will continue to rise to around 74C).

To finish the bamboo shoot salad, set the pan with the bamboo strands over a medium heat, bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in half of the rice powder, the shallots, fish sauce and lime juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more fish sauce and lime juice as needed, aiming for equally salty and sour. Add pepper flakes to taste, stir well, and transfer to a rimmed plate. Top with the coriander and mint. Sprinkle the remaining toasted rice powder and the sesame seeds over the top.

Cut the chicken into pieces and arrange on a platter. Sprinkle the crispy garlic on top and serve with the warm bamboo salad, sticky rice (prepared according to the packet instructions, around half an hour before you need to use it), and sweet chilli sauce.

The two-zone method

This involves setting up your grill so the coals are piled to one side, leaving the other side empty. That way, you can sear and char your food over direct radiant heat (the hot side) and slowly bring it to the desired internal temperature over indirect convection heat (the cooler side, aka the hold side). You can control the heat by moving food back and forth between the two zones. Adjusting the vents is another way to control the heat. To set up a two-zone grill, light a full chimney of charcoal. When the coals are glowing and partially dusted with ash, deposit them on one side of the grill.

This recipe was taken from the June/July 2020 issue of Food and Travel.

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