Fresh lemongrass just hits different. Pair it with a few simple ingredients to make meal prep chicken thighs that will feed you all week.

Time: 3/5
One and done in an hour, total.

Effort: 3/5
It’s worth sharpening your knife for this, it makes mincing the lemongrass so much easier.

Go Fresh or Go Home

Ever since a Thai grocer opened up nearby, I’ve been visiting quite often to pick up ingredients for curries and Tom Yum. Every time I go, I pass by a big bucket of fresh lemongrass stalks that keep tempting me to do something with them.

I have a bottle of dried lemongrass flakes at home, but I never used them since my first disappointing experience with them. They tasted flat and woody and nothing like the bright and lemony aroma that I expect. Some herbs just don’t dry well.

But fresh lemongrass is in a league of its own! The volatile aroma molecules are still in the stalks, waiting to be released. I peeled off the tough outer parts and kept them in the freezer to flavour a soup or a curry another day. The tender inner parts I minced very fine – a mortar and pestle would be even better at releasing flavour, but it’s a lot more work.

From that point on, just a few additions are needed to transform the lemongrass into a simple yet flavourful marinade for a chicken thigh meal prep. Fish sauce for savouriness, alliums for aroma, chilis for heat, and some sugar to round things out and help with browning.

After the marinade, the oven does all of the hard work. For the amount of work it took to make a week’s worth of lunches, I’d say this meal prep was a resounding success!

Posts since the last recipe that was actually served with rice: 0

Dramatis Personae

Served 5.

• 1kg boneless skin on chicken thighs
• 5 tsp fish sauce
• 1 stalk lemongrass, minced
• 1 Thai chili, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Scallion greens, minced
• 5 tsp sugar

Also served with half a large carrot, and two small Napa cabbages. Always eat your veggies!

Executive summary

Mix marinade ingredients with chicken thighs and refrigerate overnight.

1. The next day, begin by starting the rice cooker.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil and parchment paper.
3. Roast chicken for 30 minutes, skin side up.
4. In the meantime, prepare and cook some vegetables.
5. Assemble and serve.

Play by Play

Here I am the night before, preparing the marinade. It’s a lot of sugar, but I like it sweet and it helps develop a nice char on the chicken.

I usually start my rice cooker then stick the chicken in the oven, where I can leave it alone while I cook the vegetables.

Always wash your veggies! I’m always surprised by how much vegetables cook down. Always cook more than you think you need.

Perfect timing, the vegetables were done just as the oven timer and the rice cooker chimed. Look at the great colour on the skin – you won’t get that without the sugar.

Time to eat!

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