Vietnamese Marinated Chicken & Banana Coconut Pudding

These are the recipes promised from the Hot Sour Salty Sweet book review/family meal post.

For the chicken, I based the marinade on the recipe for Vietnamese Must-have Table Sauce, which has fish sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar, sugar and garlic in it, but varied the flavour a bit by using some lemongrass powder.

Vietnamese Marinated Chicken

1/2 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp lemongrass powder
8 - 10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Combine the marinade ingredients in a large ziplock bag. Add the chicken and marinate in the fridge for about an hour. Discard the marinade and cook the chicken. I baked mine in the oven at 400F for about 20 minutes, but this would work great on the BBQ, too.

Although I totally winged this recipe, it was the best dish of the HSSS meal! Though salty, it was offset by the tartness of the lime and the sweetness of the sugar. The chicken was juicy and succulent. The family thought it was a hit, too.

For dessert, I made a Banana Coconut Pudding inspired by a recipe from the sweets sections of HSSS, but instead used a shortcut provided by the lovely folks at Jello: coconut cream pie filling.

Banana Coconut Pudding

2 - 3 large bananas
1 box Jello coconut cream pie filling/pudding, cooked according to package directions and cooled slightly
1/2 cup toasted coconut

Slice bananas and layer in the bottom of a 2 quart dish. Pour the pudding over top and smooth. Sprinkle the toasted coconut on top of that and serve.

Ridiculously easy, but a perfect end to a great meal!

Enjoy!