Vietnamese Caramel Chicken with Ginger

Chicken thighs braised in a sweet and sticky Vietnamese-style caramel sauce. This Vietnamese Caramel Chicken with Ginger is delicious served with steamed rice. Recipe with step-by-step photos.

Vietnamese Caramel Chicken

If you grew up in a Vietnamese household, you would probably recognise this dish well. Caramel Chicken, or Ga Kho, is a popular and tasty Vietnamese home-cooking dish; I’m not sure you would find it in many restaurants.

My mother used to cook Caramel Chicken at least once a week; it was a quick and easy way to get dinner on the table, and it was also economical in that the recipe uses simple pantry ingredients (that you would find in every Vietnamese kitchen), and served simply with steamed rice.

Caramel Chicken might be old-school Vietnamese cooking, but this dish evokes comfort and nostalgia for me.

Caramel Chicken with Ginger

One of my favourite versions of Caramel Chicken includes ginger, called Ga Kho Gung in Vietnamese.

Thin matchstick slices of ginger are added to the sauce, which cook down and become soft, sweet and caramelised in the sauce.

Ginger is an anti-inflammatory ingredient, and my mother used to always cook with ginger to give the immune system a boost.

Caramel Chicken Recipe

Growing up, my mother always made Caramel Chicken with chicken wings which she would chop up into smaller pieces. The chicken wing pieces were small, so they cooked fairly quickly, and they also had the advantage of being small enough to eat with chopsticks.

Unfortunately, my French husband is not so keen on eating tiny pieces of chicken wings with chopsticks, and my kids don’t quite have the patience either to find the meat amongst the tiny chicken wing bones (although I seemed to have managed fine at their age!).

So I like to use chicken thighs with the bone and skin for this Caramel Chicken recipe. With chicken thighs, the bones help to flavour the sauce during the braising time, and there is plenty of succulent meat on each thigh for each person.

And for those of you who like to eat with a knife and fork (I’m talking to you, hubby), chicken thighs are an easier alternative to chicken wings.

But, you could, of course, also use chicken breasts or boneless chicken thighs which have been cut into large chunks. The sauce won’t be as rich, but you will still have a very flavourful dish!

How to Make Caramel Chicken

Step 1

Season the chicken all over generously with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Step 2

Heat some oil in a large saucepan which will comfortably fit all of the chicken pieces in a single layer.

Brown the chicken, skin-side down first, until the fat has rendered and the skin is golden all over.

Turn the chicken over and brown the other side as well.

Remove all of the chicken pieces to a large plate.

Step 3

Turn the heat down and sauté the garlic and ginger, together with a good pinch of sea salt, until they have softened.

Step 4

Add the brown sugar to the pan. Stir the sugar into the oil until it has dissolved.

Step 5

Add the rest of the ingredients for the caramel sauce into the pan, and return the chicken pieces with the skin side up. The sauce should come up about halfway up the sides of the chicken.

Cover the pan with a lid and simmer on low heat for about 40 minutes.

Step 6

Remove the lid, turn the chicken pieces over, and simmer on medium heat for about 20 to 30 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced and starts to become thick and sticky.

It might seem like there is too much liquid in the pan and that it will never reduce, but please be patient! If you are not patient, you can increase the heat 😉

But what is important is that the chicken (especially if you are using chicken thighs with the bones) is fully cooked through and is tender throughout.

I generally aim to cook the chicken until it falls away from the bone easily, before focusing on reducing the sauce to the right consistency.

More Vietnamese Recipes

If you are looking for more Vietnamese recipes, you might also like:

Vietnamese Chicken Pho

Vietnamese Pho Soup

Vietnamese Shaking Beef

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