A winning recipe is one you never get tire of making and eating. This spicy chicken stir-fry is a Vietnamese favorite that’s traditionally made with bone-in chicken and minced lemongrass. My mother regularly prepared it for our family and I’ve crafted my own recipe to use boneless skinless chicken and by tweaking the seasonings.
I’ve long prepped everything on the spot for it but the other day, when I didn’t have time to chop fresh lemongrass, I used kroeung, the multipurpose Cambodian seasoning paste. It was revelatory for building the stir-fry’s signature flavor. It made the dish taste better.
Why use a Cambodian seasoning for a Vietnamese dish? National borders are important but when it comes to language, culture and flavors, our peoples have long borrowed from one another with ease. For instance, the Cambodian repertoire includes their takes on Vietnamese sizzling rice crepes (bánh xèo), banh mi sandwiches, and tamarind seafood soup (canh chua cá).
Kroeung is new to my kitchen and I’ve developed a hard crush on the handy paste. It’s based on signature Southeast Asian ingredients — lemongrass, galangal and a touch of garlic and turmeric — so all you need to do to make a meal is to doctor it up for the dish at hand.
So far, I’ve shown you how to use kroeung for grilled whole fish, broiled fish filet, and beef skewers. Today, let’s deploy the chameleon-like seasoning for a delicious weeknight stir-fry.
In Vietnamese, this lemongrass chicken stir-fry is called gà xào sả ớt — chicken stir-fried with lemongrass and chilies. Both mild and spicy chiles are used so you have fruity heat.
For this iteration, I added some green beans to the mix for extra texture, color, and wholesomeness. I’ve made this dish countless times over the years but this version has more layered, deep flavors simply because of the kroeung.
I made the stir-fry on a Sunday and told Rory to enjoy leftovers during the week while I was away for the Cooking Thai cookbook photo shoot. When he picked me up from the shoot at the end of the week, one of the first things he said was, “You know that chicken stir-fry? I ate it three times while you were gone and I never tired of it. It’s so good!” Rory ate it with rice, in tortillas as tacos, and on a salad.
The key is having Cambodian kroeung handy and tailoring it for a Vietnamese dish. Other than that, it’s super easy to make this lemongrass chicken stir-fry. Here’s a video recap of how it goes down so you can totally add it to your repertoire!
Below you’ll find:
Full text recipe and downloadable PDF for the Spicy Lemongrass Chicken Stir-Fry.
Pointers on how to select and combine the chile peppers to dial in flavors for your palate.
Meal-prep tips so you can fit this into your cooking schedule.
