Chicken Breasts With Garlic-Chili-Ginger Sauce

ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, 1 cup each
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 5 inch-long piece fresh ginger root, peeled
• 8 fat garlic cloves
• 4 jalapeño peppers
• 1 quart chicken broth
  1 quart water & 4 teaspoons bouillon
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice, more to taste
• Cooked rice, for serving
• Sesame oil, for drizzling
• 1 bunch roughly chopped basil, for serving
• 1 bunch roughly chopped cilantro, for serving
• 1 bunch thinly sliced scallions, for serving
• 1 European cucumber, thinly sliced, for serving

directions

Cut each chicken breast in half crosswise and season with salt and pepper.

Slice about an inch of ginger root into thin rounds and place in a large pot. Coarsely chop remaining ginger and place in a blender. Thinly slice 2 garlic cloves and add to pot. Coarsely slice remaining garlic and add to blender. Thinly slice 2 jalapeño peppers and add them to pot. Halve remaining peppers, discard seeds and coarsely chop flesh; place in blender.

Add chicken broth to pot and bring to a simmer. Let cook for 10 minutes. Add chicken pieces to broth and let liquid come back to a simmer. Immediately turn off heat, cover pot and let sit for 10 minutes. Cut into a piece of chicken to test for doneness. If it is not done, bring broth back to a bare simmer, then turn off heat, cover and let sit for an additional minute or two.

In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce and brown sugar until sugar mostly dissolves. Set aside. To the mixture in blender add fish sauce and lime juice along with 1/4 cup broth from pot. Puree, if necessary adding a little more broth to help mixture move in blender. Taste and add a pinch of salt and more lime if needed.

When chicken is done, transfer to a cutting board and slice. Remove garlic and pepper from broth and discard, if you like. To serve, heap rice in 4 shallow bowls and top with chicken slices. Spoon several tablespoons broth over chicken and rice, then drizzle with sweet soy sauce and sesame oil. Sprinkle on the herbs, scallions and cucumber. Serve garlic-chili-ginger sauce on the side; have additional sesame oil and sweet soy sauce on table for more drizzling.