Referring to An Giang, people often think of attractive Mam or beef porridge. However, this land also has another extremely famous dish, attracting diners near and far, which is O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves
By Thomas Vietnam at vemekong.com | All Best Foods & Restaurants in Chau Doc
1. Better to Know as a Food Lover
Find them: Tri Ton District
Best time: Dusk-Dawn
Don’t miss: O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves
Local’s pick: O Thum Lake restaurant
Tourist’s pick: Restaurant in Tri Ton
Blog: https://vemekong.com/o-thum-chicken-grilled-with-lime-leaves/
Facts: It is called O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, the main ingredients are chicken and Lime leaves in O Thum that create a very specific flavor for this dish.
2. Better to Know O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves
O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves originated from Cambodia, was introduced to the Seven Mountains region of An Giang a long time ago, and has become a famous specialty everywhere. The unique delicious flavor of this chicken dish makes diners entangled, and nowhere else can create such a unique flavor.
O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves are most abundant in O Thum Lake, Tri Ton district, An Giang province. This place attracts a lot of tourists to visit, partly because of the beautiful scenery, partly because of the famous O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves. This dish is famous for its unique taste, and very special way of preparing the sea. Therefore, when coming to Ho O Thum, one must definitely find and enjoy this famous chicken dish.
To make O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, one has to choose ingredients very carefully. The chicken to make this dish must be hill chicken, like our chicken but each weighing from 1.3kg to 1.8kg. This chicken is small but the meat is very firm and sweet. In particular, people do not make chicken ready to sell to diners, but when customers order, the chicken will be meat, marinated and processed. That’s why chicken is always fresh and juicy.
3. O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves in An Giang
Visitors who want to enjoy O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, must wait at least 40 minutes for the chef to perform the processing steps. Eating O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, you need to wait patiently, but when the dish comes out, the rich and delicious flavor of the dish will make up for the wait.
What makes up the delicious taste of O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves is not only in the ingredients but also in the people’s own cooking secret. In addition to the common spices such as salt, lemongrass, chili, and garlic, a special spice for this dish is the wish leaf, people will marinate the chicken with this leaf to create a characteristic delicious taste.
After burning, the chicken will be lined with a layer of lemongrass leaves, the leaves will add oil, and then continue to burn for 15-20 minutes to make the skin crispy. The fire to burn the chicken must be very large, then gradually reduced so that the chicken is cooked evenly. When the chicken is burned on the tray, it will have a crispy skin, yellow color, rich sweetness and especially an unmistakable unique aroma.
When enjoying O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, visitors will be prepared with a pair of scissors to cut the meat themselves and a plate of vegetable salad to serve. This dish is also very delicious without food, but with the dipping sauce, it will be rich and attractive.
4. How to Make O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves
Ingredients for O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves
Chicken 1.5 kg
Minced lemongrass 1 tablespoon
Sliced galangal 1 tbsp
Ginger chopped 1 tbsp
Scallion chopped 1 branch
Coriander 2 branches
Garlic 3 bulbs
Sliced red chili pepper 1
Fresh lemon with 15 leaves
Soy sauce 2 tablespoons
Five flavors 1 teaspoon
Cashew color oil 1 tbsp
Lemon juice 4 tbsp
Fish sauce 1 tablespoon
Common seasoning 1 little (Salt/sugar/monosodium glutamate)
Material figure
Implementation tools
Oven, knife, cutting board, cup, spoon…
How to cook O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves
Step 1. Preliminary processing of chicken
Ready-made chicken, to eliminate odors, you wash with water, then rub salt around the chicken body.
Rinse with water 2-3 times, then dry.
How to prepare chicken meat less smelly:
You cut off the sebaceous glands, the fat and wash the remaining hematoma inside the chicken’s body.
Use crushed ginger to rub around the chicken body for about 10 minutes and then wash it with water several times.
Step 2. Blend spice mix
In a blender, add 1 tablespoon sugar, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon minced lemongrass, 1 tablespoon sliced galangal, 1 tablespoon chopped ginger, 1 sprig of chopped scallions, 2 coriander stalks, and 5 fresh lemon leaves.
Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon MSG, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon five spices, 1 tablespoon cashew oil, cover the blender jar and press the puree button for 2 minutes.
Step 3. Chicken marinade
You pour the marinade mixture over the chicken, use your hands to spread the seasoning mixture evenly both inside and outside the chicken and let the chicken marinate for 20 minutes.
Tip: Marinate the inside and outside to help the chicken absorb the spices more evenly.
Step 4. Make dipping sauce
Put in the blender 6 cloves of garlic, 6 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of MSG, 3 fresh lemon leaves, 1 sliced red chili pepper, 4 tablespoons of lime juice, 3 tablespoons of filtered water
Add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, then cover the blender, press the grind button for 1 minute for the mixture to blend and you have finished the dipping sauce.
Step 5. Grill chicken
You put the crushed lemongrass on the baking tray, then add 7 fresh lemon leaves, 2 garlic bulbs, then you put the marinated chicken on the tray.
To keep the temperature in the oven stable, turn on the switch to preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Then you put the chicken in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes.
Then, you open the oven, return the chicken and bake the chicken at 160 degrees C for 30 minutes.
When the chicken is cooked, take it out on a plate and invite the whole family to enjoy it.
Step 6. Finished product
The fried chicken dish has a characteristic aroma of lemon leaves, and the chicken is chewy and sweet.
You tear the chicken into a dip with the signature dipping sauce and enjoy. The grilled chicken dish is delicious and attractive, isn’t it? Good luck making this dish!
How to choose to buy fresh chicken
Choose to buy red-pink chicken with no blood clots or bruises on the skin. Avoid buying chickens with dark skin because those are chickens that have died before slaughter.
When buying chickens, you should choose those with slim body, light yellow skin, thin, smooth, high elasticity, only dark yellow in some places such as breast, wings, back.
Use your hand to press on the position (thigh, breast) to check if the chicken is pumped with water or not. If the chicken is mushy, slippery or deformed, do not buy it.
When buying frozen chicken, you need to choose to buy it at reputable supermarkets and stores to ensure product quality.
5. Pro tips:
Here are our tips for easing your mind (and stomach) around food-handling environments that you may not be used to.
Make sure the food is freshly cooked. If you’re eating hot street food, it’s always safest (not to mention more delicious) to eat food you can see being cooked to order.
Look for lines and busy stalls. Busy street food stalls are an indicator of popularity, and their high turnover rate means the food is never sitting out for hours and developing dreaded bacteria. Yes, long lines can be discouraging when you’re hungry after a full day of exploring, but it’s not worth the risk of grabbing precooked food from the empty spot next door.
Eat when the locals are eating. The last and most important element here is when to eat. You’re likely already on a weird eating schedule while you’re traveling, but it’s important to try and adjust to the eating times of where you are. A bowl of pho might be lunch for Americans, but it’s breakfast for the Vietnamese. This ensures that you’re eating freshly cooked food and that you can find the best and most popular places to eat.
If you can’t drink the water, then you can’t eat the salad. Most people get so hung up on not drinking the water or skipping ice in drinks that they don’t think about all of the other ways in which water is used in food service. Fruits and vegetables tend to be washed with tap water in most places, rather than the filtered water that locals drink—or sometimes it’s not washed at all. If you’re really craving some produce, try fruits you can peel or cooked veggies.
Trust your gut. If you’re unsure about the food or the way that it’s being prepared, then keep moving. Eating street food all over the world doesn’t make you an expert. Every stall and every country are different, and sometimes the rules can be harder to follow. When something doesn’t look, smell, or feel right, don’t eat it! Trust your judgment. Chances are that there’s another spot close by that’s making something more delicious.
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Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Chau Doc: Chau Doc Fish Noodle Soup, Sugar Palm Fruit, Basa Fish Hot Pot, Mam (Fermented fish), Phu Huong Beef Noodle Soup, Broken Rice with Pork Chop, Long Xuyen Broken Rice, Nui Cam Pancake, O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, Stir-fried Shrimp with Sesbania Flower, Sweet & Sour Soup with Siamese Mud Carp Soup & Sesbania Flower, Caramelized & Braised Catfish, Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili…
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Hopefully, the above tips will help you to come up with a great plan for your adventure in Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. Have a safe trip!
“Sleep less, travel more, respect more” – Thomas Vietnam – Local travel expert.
Thank you
