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Cooking for One

Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken From Charles Phan

by:
March 17, 2020
18 Reviews
Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken From Charles Phan
Photo by Julia Gartland
Author Notes

At his legendary Slanted Door restaurant in San Francisco, Charles Phan serves Caramelized Claypot Chicken made with the traditional Vietnamese kho (or dry-braise) technique, using a small amount of fish sauce caramel to simmer the chicken and aromatics. In this recipe, he streamlines the ingredients and process, so that more cooks can easily make it at home—using widely available ingredients and equipment, and no stressing over making caramel. (You'll just warm everything for the sauce at once.) The technique is flexible—don't worry if you're missing some of the ingredients, or want to use catfish or tofu instead of chicken. Charles recommends making extra sauce to keep in the fridge so that a good dinner is even closer.

As Charles Phan writes, "This is one of the handful of dishes that we’ve served from the very first day at the Slanted Door. It’s traditionally made using bone-in pieces of chicken but we weren’t sure how well that would be received by customers. To play it safe, we used a mix of boneless, skinless white and dark meat when we first opened. These days we often run specials that feature bone-in chicken, which is more flavorful. The recipe couldn’t be simpler. If you have a batch of caramel sauce in the fridge, dinner will be ready in about twenty-five minutes."

Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine and The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food (Ten Speed Press, October 2014). —Genius Recipes

Watch This Recipe
Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken From Charles Phan
  • Prep time 10 minutes
  • Cook time 15 minutes
  • Serves 4
Ingredients
  • 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil, divided
  • Kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup fish sauce (nam pla)
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 shallot, thinly sliced
  • 1 teaspoon one-inch piece of fresh ginger, julienned (or more)
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 2 fresh Thai chiles, halved, or dried red chiles
  • 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
  • 4 cilantro sprigs (optional)
  • Steamed jasmine rice for serving
In This Recipe
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Directions
  1. In a bowl, combine the chicken, 1 teaspoon of the oil and a good pinch of kosher salt. Stir to combine.
  2. In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar, fish sauce, water, and rice vinegar. Heat on medium until the sugar dissolves, and then turn the heat down to low.
  3. Heat the remaining oil in a large deep skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook in the skillet for about one minute. Add the ginger and garlic and cook until softened, about 3 more minutes. Add the chicken and chiles and cook for about one minute.
  4. Add about half of the fish sauce mixture to the chicken along with the black pepper. Simmer over medium-high heat, until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Taste and decide if you'd like more sauce—if so, add it, then briefly simmer again.
  5. Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with the cilantro and serve with rice.
  6. Leftover sauce can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for more quick dinners.
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Genius Recipes

Recipe by: Genius Recipes

Genius recipes surprise us and make us rethink cooking tropes. They're handed down by luminaries of the food world and become their legacy. They get us talking and change the way we cook. And, once we've folded them into our repertoires, they make us feel pretty genius too. Watch for new Genius Recipes every Wednesday morning on our blog, dug up by Food52's Creative Director Kristen Miglore.

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