Gà Ngũ Vị Hương | Five Spice Chicken
Five Spice chicken is warm and full of spice. It’s roasted to absolute perfection with some simple tips.
Five spice chicken is warm, deep, robust and fragrant. Five spice in itself is a balance of salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy. This juicy, well marinated chicken boasts a crispy skin that's been roasted to absolute perfection.
The flavors are bold, warm and full of spice. This recipe will take you on a little getaway to the streets of Vietnam, replicated easily in the comfort of your own home.
The Inspiration
Years ago, after my daughter was born, I found a recipe from Mai Pham. She’s a pioneer in that she’s both a Vietnamese-American restaurateur and a chef that’s published cookbooks. Her grilled five-spice chicken was one that I made time and time again. This recipe has been adapted quite a bit, but the original inspiration for this is from the legendary, Mai Pham.
Five spice chicken can be frozen for bulk prepping. Just make sure to follow the notes below.
THE DO NOTS
Do Not marinade for less than 2 hours
Do Not cook before resting
Do Not cut before resting
Do Not cook without preheating the oven
MEET THE PLAYERS
Five spice powder is not all created equal. There are many variations from annatto seed or orange peel in some premade powders.
Five Spice Powder
If there’s one thing that you should know, not all five spice powders are the same, and it shows. Five spice powder is typically comprised of star anise, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, and sometimes fennel or aniseed.
Select a five spice powder that you enjoy. Sometimes you’ll find Vietnamese five spice powders will include annatto which is red like paprika and a bit nutty.
Five spice powder is a powerful balance of flavors. It’s deep, warm and intense. It’s balanced in this dish with ginger and pairs incredibly well with chicken.
Star Anise
This star studded flower is a very unique addition to this dish. Star Anise is toasted and ground in a mortar and pestle. It’s added right before roasting to maintain the integrity of the fragrance and flavor.
If you’re unfamiliar with star anise, start small and add a little bit. See how you like the flavor and add a little more the second time around. Much like cinnamon, it’s hard to tell how much you’ll enjoy it plain.
Once cooked, star anise blends and compliments this dish wonderfully. The smell will make your kitchen feel warm and toasty reminiscing of street food in Vietnam.
SPECIAL TIPS
Butterflying
Butterflying chicken allow the marinade to soak easily and creates a larger surface area for crispy skin!
Working with chicken quarters, it’s really easy to butterfly your chicken. Butterflying your chicken serves multiple purposes. It creates more surface area for your chicken skin to be crispy and crackly. This technique allows the legs to soak up the marinade.
The best part is it makes cooking times easier and more consistent. If you’ve never butterflied your chicken and need more help, read this post here.
You can roast this chicken without butterflying it, just make sure to give your chicken adequate time to soak up the marinade. Be sure to pierce the leg with the knife all the way around to help it absorb the marinade.
Resting
Make sure to rest your chicken to take the chill off prior to cooking. It’s important to make sure the chicken cooks evenly.
One of the most important things to remember is making sure your chicken has adequate time to come to room temperature from the refrigerator. Don’t cook cold chicken. Take the chill off by allowing it to sit for 30 minutes while you prep your oven and make your accompaniments.
HOW YOU SHOULD EAT THIS
This dish is so incredible by itself. You can pair it with steamed rice, rice vermicelli, or a gua bao. It's great with herbs, cucumbers, pickled carrots and daikon.
This chicken is really amazing. Make sure to switch out from fresh to powdered ginger if you plan on doing a bulk marinade for easy meal prep.
FINAL THOUGHTS AND NOTES:
This recipe freezes really well. If you’re a bulk prepper or just like to have things handy, you can marinade the chicken and freeze it.
The only change that I would offer is instead of using fresh ginger, use powdered ginger. The zingibain in fresh ginger can alter the texture of chicken if marinated for longer than 24 hours.
If you want to work with chicken breast instead, use cooking times posted in this recipe here.
LET’S GET STARTED!
Gà Ngũ Vị Hương | Five Spice Chicken
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes:
*If grilling, place the chicken skin side down on the grill. Cook 15 minutes, then turn over and continue grilling for an additional 5 minutes or until the juices run clear.
**You can choose to do bone-in or boneless. Boneless will require less time (roughly 8 minutes). You’ll want to drop the temperature to 400 degrees. The thickest part of the chicken should register 165 degrees F.
**This chicken can be frozen after marinating. When ready to cook thaw in the refrigerator overnight and proceed with the resting and the remainder of the recipe.
***If using chicken breast, check out this post for cooking times.
