I've been watching "Luke's Vietnam" on the cooking channel, and besides desperately making me wanna go back for another visit, it also makes me crave Vietnamese food. one of the most traditional comfort foods in vietnam is bo kho - or beef stew. from what i understand, each household has a slightly different take on the recipe, but generally the stew includes tomatoes, onions, carrots, potatoes, star anise, lemongrass, fish sauce, Chinese five spice, brown sugar, ginger and cilantro. the protein is typically a tough hunk of beef that needs to be stewed a few hours to make it tender and delicious.
unfortunately i didn't have any beef or potatoes (or vietnamese baguettes that bo kho usually comes with), but instead found myself with a whole chicken. so i figured i'd change up the recipe a bit and give chicken a whirl. i adjusted the recipe by reducing cooking time (since chicken doesnt need as long to cook), reducing the water i added to the stew (since it wouldnt have as much time to reduce), and increasing the spices a bit (to make up for the lack of beefy flavor). the end result was full of flavor and certainly something i'd make again. it even reminded me just a little bit of eating in vietnam. if you want to give this dish a go, just look online for bo kho - there are tons of recipes out there!
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