Eat Your Radish: Vietnamese Sticky Chicken

So after making the simple pickled radish, I needed a meal to eat it with. I found this recipe for "Vietnamese sticky chicken" in a lettuce wrap style that uses a similarly pickled daikon. However, I don't own a benriner (a Japanese-style mandolin), which is suggested in order to thinly slice the chicken. I would like to buy one, but since I just bought an ice cream maker and subsequently also an immersion blender (this really cheap one, has worked out great so far!) for the ice cream bases, I should probably lay low on purchasing kitchen appliances for awhile.

So I sliced the chicken in thin pieces by hand instead, and didn't use a real grill which I'm sure would have made it taste better. Also made some modifications to the recipe in terms of accompaniments to the chicken. But overall, not bad. Not as "sticky" as I would have expected but I did enjoy the marinade. I would also recommend marinading for longer than 30 minutes.

Vietnamese Sticky Chicken

For chicken
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp Asian fish sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce
1 1/2 pound skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices


Accompaniments
Pickled daikon radish
Fresh herbs: Cilantro, basil, mint
Seaweed squares and/or romaine lettuce leaves
Rice

1. Combine garlic, sugar, fish sauce, oil, lime juice, and Sriracha sauce in a large bowl. Mix until sugar is dissolved, then add chicken slices and toss to coat. Marinate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Afterwards, put chicken on grill batch by batch (I used a George Foreman grill) with tongs, and cook thoroughly on both sides for about a minute. Then remove from the grill and onto a plate, then cover to keep warm.
3. Then arrange and eat with accompaniments however you please, usually with some rice, chicken, herb sprig, and radish on top of a lettuce leaf or seaweed square.

Here's the spread of the chicken with various accompaniments:


I tried every combination and this was my favorite:


Seaweed square + rice + chicken + radish + cilantro. I did think this was a dish that highlighted the crispness of the fresh pickled radish.

Next up: Interesting ice creams!

Make Your Own Pickled Radish

A coworker gave me a bunch of daikon radishes the other day and encouraged me to try pickling them, saying it was super easy to do. Unfortunately, by the time I got around to try, they had wilted badly and refused to even peel properly, so I bought a nice new one from the fruit market. I used this recipe, except I replaced the canning salt with kosher salt (which is OK, but regular table salt is a big no-no for pickling). Also the recipe is for radish and carrots, but I wouldn't recommend the carrots. They seemed a bit out of place to me, and I ended up just eating the radish.

Pickled Daikon Radish

1/2 pound daikon radish
1 carrot
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 c water
1/4 c distilled white vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp red pepper flakes

1. Peel the radish and carrot, and cut them into thin (1/4-inch) half circles.
   
2. Sprinkle the salt on the cut veggies, then mix them around with your hands. Let them sit for 30 minutes to let some water out. Afterwards, squeeze them handful by handful and get as much water out as possible.
   
3. Pour over the mixture of vinegar, sugar, and red pepper flakes.
   
   
   
4. Pack the veggies in a jar, refrigerate overnight, and they will be ready to eat the next day (but taste better after a week). Can be stored for up to 4 weeks.
   

Overall, they turned out quite tasty and not too spicy, but it is really worth making them a week or so in advance to allow them to develop a sharper flavor. Coming up, a meal to eat them with!