Fish Sauce Roasted Chicken

Deliciously savory, a little bit sweet and spicy, this delectable fish sauce roasted chicken will have you licking your fingers and asking for more! 

Many years ago, back in my early days of blogging, I “met” a fellow expat who lived in Japan, then moved to Shanghai. I loved reading Nancy’s posts as she explored her new neighborhood and found seasonal produce to eat and dishes to recreate. 

She shared her version of this fish sauce roasted chicken which came from Australian chef and cookbook author Adam Liaw’s Asian After Work. After I made it once, I was determined to find myself a copy of that cookbook since Nancy said it was great! 

I saved the search on various used bookselling sites back in 2014 or 2015. Occasionally I got emails that a copy was available but always for some ridiculously high price and usually with shipping from Australia, which was also crazy high. But 2024 was finally THE YEAR. And I now have the wonderful Asian After Work! So I figured it was time to share my version. 

Fish Sauce Roasted Chicken 

Adam Liaw calls for a whole cilantro plant in his recipe, using even the roots which is common in many Asian recipes. Unfortunately, most of us can’t find whole plants with roots in our supermarkets so we have make do with just the stems and leaves. Still delicious! 

Ingredients

For roasting the chicken:

2.2 lbs or 1kg chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat 

1 onion, peeled and cut into slices

For the marinade:

1/3 cup or 80ml fish sauce (I like Squid brand, if you can find it.)

1 small bunch cilantro, stems and all, chopped, plus extra for garnish

1 clove garlic, sliced

2 tablespoons sugar

3 birdseye chili peppers, finely sliced

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C on the fan-forced setting or 375°F or 190°C if you don’t have a convection oven.

 

In a roasting pan, mix all of the marinade ingredients together, and stir well to dissolve the sugar. 

Add the chicken thighs to the roasting pan and spoon the marinade over turning them to coat. 

Tuck the sliced onion under the thighs and roast in the preheated oven, skin side up. 

Roast for 40 minutes, basting every 10-15 minutes. 

Remove the chicken when the skin is sticky and dark and the meat is cooked through. Garnish with a little chopped cilantro. 

Serve in a puddle of sauce with the onions. 

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 6th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2025, brought to you by the letter F. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the F recipes below:

• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: French Onion Soup 
• Blogghetti: Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Fluffy Focaccia with Garlic Oil and Herbes de Provence 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Firni/Phirni 
• Food Lust People Love: Fish Sauce Roasted Chicken 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Fattoush Salad 
• A Messy Kitchen: Fennel, Tangerine & Olive Slaw 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Roasted Vegetable Farro Bowl 
• Culinary Cam: Fig Leaf-Wrapped Cheese 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Sausage Meatballs with Vodka Fennel Sauce

Here are my posts for the 2025 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Roasted Asparagus Soup

B: Blistered Sugar Snap Peas

C. Jersey Royal Chicken Chorizo Traybake 

D. Small Batch Dried Apricot Jam 

E. Whipped Espresso Cream 

F. Fish Sauce Roasted Chicken – this post!

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Jersey Royal Chicken Chorizo Traybake

Jersey Royals nestled with spicy chorizo, juicy chicken, vine tomatoes and leeks, roasted with garlic and topped with thyme. This Jersey Royal Chicken Chorizo Traybake makes its own lovely sauce!

Sometimes, often in fact, I don’t have a recipe in mind when I go into the kitchen to make a meal. I start opening drawers in the refrigerator and browsing my pantry for inspiration. This meal was one of those. 

I had some spicy chorizo I had been wanting to use and a leek that was getting just a little dried out on top. And the rest just sort of fell together in my big roasting pan. 

I have since made it again because it was so good! The oils that render as the chicken thighs and chorizo roast, along with the tomato juice make the most wonderful basting liquid! 

Jersey Royal Chorizo Chicken Traybake

Traybake in the UK, sheet pan dinner in the US. Whatever we call them, everyone loves just one cooking vessel to wash up! If you don’t have Royals or baby new potatoes, you can use larger waxy potatoes like Yukon Golds (US) or Charlottes (UK). Peel them and cut them into chunks. 

Ingredients

8 oz or 225g Spanish chorizo

1 fat leek, tender green and white parts only, trimmed weight 136g

4 skin-on, bone in chicken thighs, cut in half (approx. weight 1 lb 10 oz or 750g)

3 cloves garlic

6 (ripened on the vine, if possible) cherry tomatoes

1.1 lb or 500g Jersey Royals or baby new potatoes

olive oil for drizzling and greasing the pan

fine sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

3-4 sprigs fresh thyme

Method

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and prepare your roasting pan by drizzling it with a little olive oil. 

Peel the casing off of the chorizo and discard. Cut the chorizo into chunks.

Trim the hard green part and the root end off of your leek and discard, Cut the rest into chunks. Slice the garlic cloves thinly.

Use a meat cleaver or poultry scissors to cut each chicken thigh in half, through the bone. Put the chicken pieces skin side up in the prepared pan. 

Distribute the leek and potatoes around the chicken. Halve the tomatoes and tuck them in too. Sprinkle the whole thing with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

Now add in the chorizo and scatter the sliced garlic on top. 

Give everything another drizzle of olive oil and bake in your preheated oven for about 40 minutes, basting occasionally.

Add in the sprigs of thyme and bast again. 

Bake for another 5-10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. 

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 3rd edition of Alphabet Challenge 2025, brought to you by the letter C. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the C recipes below:

• Sneha’s Recipe: Chettinad Mushroom Masala
• Food Lust People Love: Chicken Chorizo Traybake
• Blogghetti: Captain Crunch French Toast
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Chickpea Chaat Salad
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Hot Chocolate Cookies
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Cider Glazed Chicken Wings
• Magical Ingredients: Cheesy Corn Dip
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Chia Seed Protein Bites
• A Messy Kitchen: Cappuccino Mousse
• Culinary Cam: Lemon Lavender Blackberry Cake
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Cheesy Cheddar Taco-Seasoned Corn Chip Dip

Here are my posts for the 2025 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Roasted Asparagus Soup

B: Blistered Sugar Snap Peas

C. Jersey Royal Chicken Chorizo Traybake – this post!

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.

Lemony Spring Vegetable Chicken Soup

This Lemony Spring Vegetable Chicken Soup is a light, flavorful bowl of comfort food, with tender chicken, asparagus, new potatoes, carrots and peas.

This recipe is adapted from one in delicious. magazine from 2023. The original recipe was supposed to be accompanied by a gremolata made from the hard stems one trims from the asparagus because they aren’t typically edible. 

This is a fabulous idea except that right when I get home from the store with asparagus, I cut off those ends and discard them. Then I put my asparagus in a jar or glass with water in the fridge door, much like cut flowers. A trim assures that the asparagus can suck up some water, which keeps them lovely and fresh for much longer than normal. If only I had seen this recipe first! 

Cut the ends at angle for better uptake of water. 

So, two days later, when I did trim more to make the gremolata, I had to use tender ends instead. (I also substituted green onions for parsley).  No idea how the woody ends would have tasted but my gremolata was lovely. I’m leaving the original instruction in case you have woody ends you’d like to use. Let me know how it turns out! 

Lemony Spring Vegetable Chicken Soup

Use the vegetable amounts as a suggestion. If you have a few more potatoes and asparagus or a few less carrots and green peas, it doesn’t matter. Go with what you’ve got. This is a protein rich soup with one chicken breast per serving. 

Ingredients to serve 4

For the soup:

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 small skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1 lb 9 oz or 600g total)

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to finish dish

11 1/2 oz or 325g new potatoes, preferably Jersey Royals, scrubbed and sliced into thick coins

10 1/2 oz or 300g spring carrots, scrubbed and sliced into thick coins

1/2 cup of 120ml dry white wine

4 cups or 946ml chicken stock

10 1/2 oz or 300g asparagus, before trimming

7 oz or 200g petit pois or small sweet peas, defrosted if frozen

Juice 1/2 lemon

For the asparagus gremolata:

Trimmed ends asparagus in soup ingredient list

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 spring onions, green part only, sliced finely, plus extra for garnish, if desired

2 small cloves garlic

Zest 1 1/2 lemons

Juice 1 lemon

To serve:

Asparagus gremolata

4 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt or sour cream (one for each bowl)

Lemon zest

Finely sliced green onions, if desired

Method

First thing, we’ll start the gremolata. Snap or trim the woody ends from the asparagus. Cut the spears in halves and set aside, then finely slice the woody ends into discs. Put the discs in a small sieve over a bowl and sprinkle with salt to soften them a little. 

Put the green onions in another small bowl, then use a microplane or fine grater to grate the garlic and the zest of 1 1/2 lemons into it. The zest of the other half of the lemon can be used as garnish on the finished dish so definitely zest them both and set one quarter aside for serving. 

Season the chicken with the sea salt and black pepper.

Heat half the oil in a shallow sauté pan or casserole with a lid then add the seasoned chicken breast to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until all the breasts are a lovely golden brown.  

They will still be raw inside but don’t let that worry you. We will finish cooking them in the soup later. Transfer the breasts to a plate and set aside. 

Add the remaining oil to the pan, followed by the sliced potatoes and carrots. 

Fry for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, then add the wine. 

Cover for a few minutes to allow the carrots and potatoes to just about cook through, then take of the lid and leave the wine to bubble until it is reduced by half (about 4 minutes.)

Pour in the chicken stock and bring up to a simmer. Nestle the chicken in the pan (it should be fully submerged in stock), then cover and simmer gently for 6 minutes.

While the chicken simmers, finish the gremolata by mixing the salty sliced asparagus with the green onion/lemon zest mix. Set aside.

When your six minutes of simmering are up, stir the peas and asparagus into the soup. 

Cover and gently simmer for 2-4 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. 

Add the lemon juice and a good few grinds of black pepper.

Divide the soup into four bowls, one breast each, and top with lemon zest and some green onions, if desired. 

Serve the gremolata and yogurt or sour cream on the side so everyone can add a dollop of each to their bowls. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are serving up comfort foods! Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. Check out all the links below. 

• Sneha's Recipe: Baked Vegetables Pasta Less Lasagna
• Karen's Kitchen Stories:BBQ Glazed Meatloaf with Sweet Potatoes and Pearl Onions
• Amy's Cooking Adventures: Broccoli Cheese Pierogi Soup
• Culinary Cam:Comforting Beef Stroganoff
• Food Lust People Love:Lemony Spring Vegetable Chicken Soup
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Roast Pork Loin with Cherry Sauce

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Spicy Vinegar Braised Chicken

Tangy and tasty, this spicy vinegar braised chicken is made with balsamic and red wine vinegars and lots of garlic. It’s delicious! 

Back in the day, it was quite common, at least in the southern United States to save rendered bacon grease for frying other ingredients. In fact, I have my grandmother’s can on my stove today but I must confess that it now contains just the regulators for my pressure cooker.  

Not because I don’t save my bacon grease – bite your tongue! - but because I keep my bacon grease in a Mason jar in the refrigerator. It lasts for ages like that and I just keep adding to it whenever I fry bacon.

I guess in the old days, refrigeration wasn’t common. My mom remembered when an ice box was actually an ice box and a man would deliver a big block of ice each week to put in the bottom drawer to keep everything up top cool. 

All of that to say, this recipe calls for bacon grease! It adds a lot of flavor but if you don’t save yours – why not? - please substitute olive oil or canola. 

Spicy Vinegar Braised Chicken 

We like food spicy so I use a whole teaspoon crushed red pepper here. Use less if spicy isn’t your thing. This recipe is adapted from one on New York Times Cooking. 

Ingredients

2.2 lbs or 1 kg bone-in chicken thighs

Fine sea salt and black pepper

2 tablespoons bacon grease (or substitute olive or canola oil) 

6 garlic cloves, peeled, smashed and lightly chopped

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

½ cup or 120ml good quality balsamic vinegar

½ cup or 120ml good quality red wine vinegar

5 1/2 oz or 155g baby roma tomatoes, halved

For garnish and added flavor:

Small bunch cilantro, hard stems discarded, chopped

Method

Season chicken well on both sides with salt and pepper. In a large sauté pan, heat the bacon grease over medium heat. Panfry the chicken, skin side down first, making sure not to crowd the pan. We want to get some good color on the skin and if the chicken is packed too tightly, it will steam instead of fry. 

Turn the chicken once the skin is browned and panfry till golden on the other side as well. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside on a plate deep enough to contain any juices that form. 

Remove all but a couple of tablespoons of the oil from the pan. Add the garlic to the pan and cook until it starts to become fragrant and lightly golden, about 2 minutes. 

Add in the crushed red pepper and fry for another 30 seconds or so. Pour in the vinegars and bring to a boil. 

Reduce the heat to medium low and put the chicken and any accumulated juices back in the pan. 

Cover and cook for 15 minutes, basting the chicken occasionally with the sauce. The chicken will let out juice so for a while you’ll have more sauce but just keep cooking. 

Remove the lid and continue cooking and basting until the sauce is almost completely gone and the chicken is fully cooked inside. (You can check by cutting into one of the thighs. There shouldn’t be any pink left near the bone.)

Add in the tomato halves and pop the lid back on for a minute or two, so they warm through. Baste again so that the tomatoes are covered with sauces.

Sprinkle with the chopped cilantro. 

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 22th edition of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge, brought to you by the letter V. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the V recipes below:

• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Vanilla Mug Cake 
• Culinary Cam: Teriyaki Sauce-Swabbed Venison Burgers on Seeded Sourdough Buns 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Veggies Mixed Dal Khichdi 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: No Churn Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream 
• Blogghetti: Homemade Vanilla Latte 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Vegetable Cutlets 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Vietnamese Chicken Stirfry 
• A Messy Kitchen: Tropical Vols Au Vents 
• Food Lust People Love: Spicy Vinegar Braised Chicken 
• Magical Ingredients: Val Dal Veggie Paratha 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Sweet & Spicy Balsamic Vinegar Deviled Eggs

Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far:
A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs
B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly
C: Cecilie's Favorite Coleslaw
D: Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing
E: Everything Pizza Tartin
F: Baked Chicken and Feta Meatballs
G: Grape Juice Jigglers
H: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Chicken Hearts
I: Raspberry Rhubarb Ice Cream
J: Java Dry Spice Mix Chops 

K. Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs 

L. Easy Lamb and Fresh Tomato Curry 

M. Fresh Mint Sauce 

N. Miso Butter Noodles 

O. Spicy Orange Braised Short Ribs 

P. Homemade Piri Piri Sauce 

Q, Cointreau Glazed Orange Quick Bread 

R. Leek and Lobster Mushroom Risotto 

S. Cheesy Sausage and Egg Casserole 

T. Stuffed Turkey Cutlets 

U. Spicy Urad Dal -

V. Spicy Vinegar Braised Chicken - this post!

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Pollo en Jocón - Tomatillo Chicken Stew

Pollo en Jocón is a traditional chicken dish from Guatemala, with a flavorful bright green sauce made from tomatillos, cilantro, green pepper and jalapeños. It is properly served over white rice topped with fresh avocado slices.

I know what you are thinking, or at least I know what I was thinking when I first saw the name of this delicious stew from the Mayan culture. Pollo means chicken so jocón must be their word for tomatillo. Nope. 

According to New York Times Cooking, the name jocón comes from jok’, meaning to grind or mash in Mayan K’iche’.  Although the dish’s origins are indeed Mayan, some of its ingredients today, like sesame seeds and chicken, were likely introduced by Spanish colonizers.

Pollo en Jocón - Tomatillo Chicken Stew

Depending on how spicy you like your food, the jalapeños can be eliminated altogether or you can remove the seeds and membranes before mincing. If you can't find fresh tomatillos, canned are fine. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs or 672g boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 lb or 450g fresh tomatillos, husked

5 cups or 1.2L chicken stock

1⁄4 cup or 35g pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

2 tablespoons or 14g white sesame seeds

2 corn tortillas

1/2 bunch cilantro, washed and roughly chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 large garlic cloves

1 large green pepper

1 medium white onion

1-2 fresh jalapeños

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

Place the chicken and tomatillos in a large pot with the chicken stock. 

Bring to a gentle boil then cover the pot and simmer over a low heat for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked through. 

In a dry non-stick pan over medium toast the pumpkin seeds, moving them constantly for three to five minutes. Add the sesame seeds and continue tossing for 2 more minutes until they are very lightly browned. 

Remove from heat immediately so they don’t continue browning.

Put the toasted pumpkin seeds and toasted sesame seeds into a blender (or clean coffee grinder) and pulse for 5 or 10 seconds, until they are ground. (You may need to stir a bit between pulses) Scrape into a small bowl or cup, and set aside. 

Peel and chop your garlic and onion. Remove the seeds and ribs from the green pepper and chop it roughly. Chop the jalapeños, if using. (See note above the ingredient list.)

Add the olive oil to a large pan. Sauté the garlic, green pepper, onion and jalapeños, stirring frequently, until the onion and peppers are soft. Remove from heat.

With a slotted spoon remove the chicken from the pot and set aside. Once cool enough to handle, use forks to shred the chicken. 

Remove tomatillos from the broth and put them in the blender. 

Rip the tortillas into pieces and put them in a small heatproof bowl. Pour about 1 cup or 240ml of the chicken broth from the pot over the tortillas and set them aside to soak till softened. 

Pinch any hard stems off of the cilantro and discard them along with any brown leaves. 

Add the cilantro, 1 1/2 cups or 360ml of the chicken broth, all of the bell pepper and onion mixture and the soaked tortillas (with their broth) to the tomatillos in the blender. 

Purée until smooth. Pour that gorgeous green sauce back into a pan. Use a little more of the stock to rinse the blender to make sure you get all of the sauce into the pan. (You can use the remaining broth to make the rice or save it for another recipe.) 

Add the ground toasted seeds to the pan. 

Bring the contents of the pan to a boil. Lower to a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered for 10 minutes to thicken the sauce. 

Add the shredded chicken to the thickened sauce.

Simmer gently for an additional 10 minutes or until the chicken is warmed through again. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. 

Serve the tomatillo chicken stew over white rice with some cilantro for garnish and a few slices of avocado. This dish is so flavorful and the avocado is the perfect topping to complement its spicy freshness. No wonder it's traditional. 

Enjoy!  

If you are a fan of tomatillos, you might also enjoy my Chicken Chili Verde made in an Instant Pot with white beans and the special little tomatillos from Melissa’s Produce called tomatillos milperos

 

It's Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes with avocados. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha's Recipe. 

• Avocado Chicken by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Green Salad With Avocado Dressing by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Keto Bacon Wrapped Avocado Fries by Sneha's Recipe
• Papas con Salsa de Aguacate by Culinary Cam
• Smooth Guacamole by Amy's Cooking Adventures 
• Spicy Avocado Coriander Chutney by Cook with Renu
• Pollo en Jocón - Tomatillo Chicken Stew by Food Lust People Love

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin this Pollo en Jocón –
Tomatillo Chicken Stew!

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