Nyob Zoo All!
Today, I’ll be showing you how to make one of my mom’s current favorite baked chicken. This version is made with a lemongrass marinade. Savory, slightly sweet, and aromatic. A great way to use lemongrass. In the Hmong Leeg dialect, we like to call baked or bbq chicken nqaj qab ci: Nqaj Qab translate to chicken and ci means to bake or bbq it. To make this a perfect Hmong meal, we like to eat it with fresh steamed rice, pepper dip, and some blanched vegetables on the side. There’s so many versions of making Nqaj Qab Ci, but today I’ll just be showing you my mom’s lemongrass version.
Main Ingredients
Chicken Leg Quarters (bone in and skin on)
Chicken leg quarter bone in and skin on
And now it’s deboned! My mom likes to debone to allow easier cutting when it’s done cooking. If you want to keep the bone on, it’s up to you.
Deboned
Lemongrass Marinade 
Bake skin side up 
Crispy Crispy! 
Cut the chicken skin side down to allow a nice clean cut
Serve with fresh steamed rice, pepper dip, and blanched vegetables 
ENJOY! 
-C.HerCreations (Cindy Her)
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken (Your favorite part) ( I used thigh and drumsticks with skin on)
- 4 lemongrass stalk (Super finely minced) (~ 3/4 cup)
- 2 tsp garlic powder (4 grams)
- 1 tsp ground white pepper (3 grams)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper (2 grams)
- 1 Tbsp sugar (14 grams)
- 2 Tbsp oyster sauce (40 grams)
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce (16 grams)
- 2 Tbsp Golden Mountain Seasoning sauce (32 grams)
- 1/2 tsp salt (4 grams)
- ---PEPPER DIP---
- 1 oz Thai chili peppers (~12)
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp lime juice
- 2 Tbsp fish sauce (3 crab brand)
- Chop cilantro and green onion (add as much as you like)
Instructions
- Minced the lemongrass stalks super fine. I like to rough chop it first and then place it into my food processor to get it super fine. Then pour into a bowl and add all the other marinade ingredients. Mix well and set aside. *You can make this marinade a day before and keep in the fridge for whenever you want to marinade any meat. It will last up to 2 weeks in the fridge.
- Wash and dry the chicken well. Butterfly the drumstick and thigh to allow the marinade to get through. Then add in all the marinade and coat it well. Cover and let the chicken marinade for at least 6 hrs to 12 hrs before cooking.
- You can air fry the chicken for 20 minutes or until your desire doneness (temp should be at 165'F)
- To bake: Preheat the oven to 400'F. Place the marinaded chicken (skin side up) on a sheet pan lined with foil with a baking rack. Place the chicken on top of the rack. Cook in the oven for 40-45 minutes (cooking time depends on your oven watts and part of the chicken you used). After 40 minutes or so, if you want more color, set the oven to broil @500'F and let it brown for another 4-5 minutes on both sides. Watch closely if your oven is hotter. My mom likes to cook the chicken pretty long to allow the chicken to retain the marinade and to render out any access fat. This is her style of cooking. If you find this too long and will dry out the chicken, you can cook the chicken for less time or just until it has reach an internal temperature of 165'F. Cooking time also depends on what part of the chicken you use.
- Cut into pieces and serve with steamed rice and pepper dip
Notes
This marinade works well on pork as well
4 comments
This looks delicious, but I can’t find Golden Mountain Seasoning sauce even at my local Asian grocery store. Is there something I can substitute it for?
Maggi seasoning sauce
Nice! Easy, can’t go wrong. As above, Maggi seasoning works too.
Look great. Will try. Thank you.