Vietnamese Grilled Five Spice Chicken With Sticky Rice

We tried a similar dish at our favourite Vietnamese joint on Victoria Street a while back. The pairing of grilled chicken and sticky rice reminded me of a popular Issarn dish. When I found a recipe for the five spice chicken in my favourite  Vietnamese cookbook I decided to recreate the dish at home. I am pretty happy with the end result; it is not as sweet as the restaurant version and the soy and lime dipping sauce is a rather good break away from the universal Vietnamese sauce nouc cham for once!

recipe for the chicken and sauce adapted from Pleasures Of The Vietnamese Kitchen
serve 3 as a very filling one dish meal
oven preheated at 180 C
you'll need;
3 free range chicken maryland
2 tbs of minced garlic
3 tbs of minced ginger
2 tsp of turmeric powder
1 tsp of five spice powder
2 tbs of sugar
2 tbs of soy sauce
3 tbs of vegetable oil
salt to taste
3 star anise, toasted and ground

*for the marinade - pound garlic, ginger and sugar to a fine paste before adding the rest of the ingredients (except the star anise powder).

you'll also need;
500 g of sticky rice, soaked overnight and steamed til tender
cucumber slices to serve
tomato slices to serve
crispy shallots to serve

for the lime and soy dipping sauce;
1/3 cup of light soy
2.5 tbs of sugar
1 clove of garlic
3 bird chili
1/4 cup of water
2.5 tbs of lime juice with pulp

Remove excess fat from the chicken and make a few slits and marinate overnight. Add star anise powder just before cooking.

Place marinated chicken on a rack over an oven tray with 2 cm of water in it. Alternatively, grill them on your bbq.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden and cook through, baste with the remaining marinade from time to time. Rest chicken for 5 to 8 minutes before serving.

Place soaked sticky rice in a bamboo steamer and steam til tender.

Prepare the dipping sauce - pound chili, garlic and sugar to a fine paste. Add water, soy and juice of one lime and mix well. Check for seasonings.

Serve chicken with some sticky rice, dipping sauce, cucumber and tomato slices.

The chicken will be delicious over a bed of egg noodles with spring onion oil.

This has been submitted to Delicious Vietnam,  an event co-hosted by Anh of A Food Lover's Journey and Hong and Kim of Ravenous Couple.  Javaholic is hosting the current event.