Vietnamese Spicy Lemongrass Chicken 越式香茅鸡

I can't take really spicy food, but love the food with lot of herbs, if the food with the herbs I love then I'll brave myself to try it even it is spicy, haha, really complicated, ya! First saw this dish at Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover site and then Ann, Anncoo Journal, I love lemongrass because of the good memories of the dishes made by my mother. Yes, this recipe is a sure keeper! I made a version with some gravy, it is delicious to go with white rice!

For your information, after taken the food, my husband and I felt our tongue went a bit numb, could it due to the lemongrass and turmeric used? 

Recipe adpated from Sonia and Ann

Ingredients:

Spicy Lemongrass Paste

5 Fresh Lemongrass (use only the white part)
25 Dried red chilli (I used 3 red chilli for less spicy, yet to me it is still spicy!)
1 1/2 inch Ginger
8 Cloves of garlic
1/2 cup cooking oil (i used less oil)


Method:
1. Remove the outer part of lemongrass, clean and slice lemongrass, ground it coarsely together with all other ingredients into paste (I didn't ground it but chopped until very fine, why? too lazy...hahaha). Set aside for later use.


Ingredients:
Spicy Lemongrass Chicken


2 tbsp Spicy Lemongrass Paste
1/2 Chicken, marinate with some pepper and salt
1 tsp Meat curry powder (used turmeric powder because my kitchen run out curry powder)
1 large Onion, chopped
1 tbsp Light soy sauce/Fish sauce
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Sugar/Palm sugar


Method:
1. Heat up a cooking pan, and turn the heat to medium and cook the chicken pieces without oil, cover it if needed, until the grease started to release. (If using skinless chicken/breast, you will need to add 1 tsp of oil or so to grease the pan).
2. When the grease released is visible, stir in the chopped onion and cook for another minute, now add 1 tsp of curry powder  turmeric powder, stir well and add 2 tbsp of Spicy Lemongrass Paste, stir for another minute, add about 1/2 cup water, salt, light soy sauce/fish paste and sugar. I added more water because I want to have some gravy in the dish.
3. Bring sauce to boil and when the liquid reduced to the thickness of your liking, its done.