Vietnamese cuisine has lots of chicken rice recipes such as Hai Nam fried chicken rice, Young Chow fried chicken rice, Hoi An chicken rice, Fried chicken rice with salted-preserved fish, etc. Coming to Phan Thiet, you should not miss the famous Phan Thiet chicken rice (Cơm gà Phan Thiết, Com ga Phan Thiet) – one of specialty food of this coastal city. Among delicious dishes from seawater fishes and seafood, Com ga Phan Thiet is a brilliant gem in the rich cuisine of Phan Thiet city.
The key ingredient for this dish is garden chicken which has firmer and sweet-tastier meat in comparison to farmed chicken. Hens which have just laid eggs are better. Those hens have firm, chewy, gr easy, sweet-tasty meat and crunchy skin. One of the highlights of this recipe is that the cook does not marinate the chicken. Just boil the chicken, cut into pieces and serve up with steamed rice, vegetables and herbs, dipping sauce. The chicken broth is used to cook steamed rice so that the cook should not use too much water. Boiling the chicken is an art. Cook water with salt and ginger until boiling, add the chicken and cook until boiling, change the side of the chicken, keep the heat medium and cook until well-done. The chicken should not be overcooked. Otherwise, it will not be sweet-tasty and chewy as the cook desires. Put the boiled chicken into cold water, cut into pieces. Fry chicken fat to get rendered chicken fat which is used to cover the boiled chicken pieces to enhance their taste and make them more attractive.
To cook steamed rice, choose sticky and smelling rice. Wash and drain off the rice. Stir-fry the rice with garlic, rendered chicken fat to make sure the steamed rice smelling, soft and dry. Steam the rice with ginger juice, salt, and the chicken broth.
The dipping sauce is an important part of the dish. Not similar to most of the dipping fish sauces served with other Vietnamese dishes, they do not add water to the sauce. Mix fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, minced garlic, minced chili pepper, mashed ginger. The sauce tastes sweet, salty, hot, and sour.
Each Phan Thiet chicken rice restaurant serves a combination of vegetables with the dish. Some popular vegetables are cucumber, pickled large-petiole mustard, other pickles. Vietnamese mint is a must-herb to eat with Phan Thiet chicken rice. In addition, some restaurants serve a small bowl of chicken broth topped with chopped coriander with the chicken rice.
Phan Thiet chicken rice’s great taste leaves a great impression on Vietnamese and foreign travelers.
