Grilled spicy chicken wrapped in betel leaves is a Vietnamese inspired recipe, the inspirational authentic version called Bo La Lot using ground or minced spiced beef and wrapped with wild betel (Piper Sarmentosum) before grilled. The minced beef seasoned with a plenty of spice and herbs like lemongrass, scallion, ginger, chili and drizzled with fish sauce like commonly vietnamese cuisine. Instead using wild betel leaves or daun cabe jawa or daun kadok, i’m using betel leaves (Piper Betle) or daun sirih in Bahasa Indonesia with a strong pungent tea and peppery hint when the leaves grilled over the charcoal or frying pan.
Vietnamese Grilled Chicken with lemongrass recipe using betel leaf. Betel plants originated from Southeast Asia and has been cultivated for thousands of years. Betel leaves extracted for its antioxidants and active enzimes and used for medicinal healing, stimulants, cosmetic industries, gargle solutions and even breath fresheners. In dentistry, beside the medicinal purpose of betel leaves extract, the execessive routine use like chewing betel with areca nuts clinically proven provoked a benign oral tumor and lead to malignant oral cancer. Fortunately, this practice was rarely seen but on the elder persons like our grandparents era. All parts of the betel plant are edible, but the young leaves is preferred for direct consumptions for it’s tender texture and milder flavour.
Betel leaves is edible and used to be a wrapper for grilling meats or seafood. To prepare the betel leaves for wrapped the seasoned chicken, you should defrost (if using the frozen) and clean it from any debris first, then lay it with glossy side facing down. Spoon out a tablespoon full of meat near the end of the leaves and shape accordingly. Roll the base over making sure that the length of the meat doesn’t exceed the width of the leaf and roll it out. Once the roll is come to the base of the betel leaf stem, carefully puncture in the middle of the the leaves with a toothpick to insert it’s stems and secure the end of the roll.
Grilled chicken in betel leaved wrapped is usually served by it’self or alongside with dipping sauce, typically nuoc nam or sweet and sour sauce, peanut sauce or kicking Tuong Ot Xa or Vietnamese chilli and lemongrass sauce. You can served it with noodle soup, or thinly sliced and topped over vermicelly or nasi goreng. Beside, i like to use the betel leaves wrapped chicken as a ‘sausage’ that suits for stir frying with vegggies like bean sprout, carrot and also with tofu.
I love almost echnic and traditional food like this, one of my fellow friends said that i had an international taste buds.From the most western to the most eastern ethnic ingredient, from homemade charcuterie to fermented durian (tempoyak). I love fancy plating of daily dish to the rarest and finest spice and herbs, somehow i bring so much fun of foraging (in the real nature world) to surfing on internet to bring the closely-authentic dish. Well, the truth is i’m happy to surprised my fellow readers with my upcoming recipes. Just like my Vietnamese Inspired Recipe: Grilled Lemongrass Chicken Wrapped in Betel Leaves
Grilled Chicken Wrapped in Betel Leaves Vietnamese Recipe:
Ingredients :
- 1 package of fresh or frozen betel leaves (about 20-30 leaves)
- 2 tbsp oil for pan frying or grilling
- 250 gr minced chicken meat (you can also use beef, pork or a mixture)
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 2 shallots, finely minced
- 2 lemon grass (use only the soft white inner part), finely minced
- 1 stalk scallion, finely minced
- 2 cayenne/ chili pepper, deseeded, finely minced
- 2 teaspoons of fish sauce
- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
- salt, sugar and white peppercorn powder to taste
Instruction :
- In a large bowl, combine chicken meat with garlic, shallots, lemongrass,scallion, chilli, fish sauce, sesame oil, sugar, pepper and salt and mix well and set aside in fridge and prepare leaves.
- Put the glossy side of the betel leaf down and tablespoon full of meat near the end of the leave and shape accordingly. Roll the base over making sure that the length of the meat doesn’t exceed the width of the leaf.
- Once the roll is come to the base of the betel leaf stem, carefully puncture in the middle of the the leaves with a toothpick and insert it’s stems and secure the end of the roll
- When you finish rolling several, fixed the roll by inserting two metal or bambo skewer in ech end of the rolled spice chicken just like making a kebab
- You can pan frying, broil or even baked it until done
- Discard the skewer and served the Vietnamese Grilled Chicken Wrapped in Betel Leaves with Tuong Ot Xa or Vietnamese chilli and lemongrass sauce
Looks great. I’ve never had Betel leaves before. I’ll check if I can get them here in the US. Thanks for the education! 🙂
I’m a big fan of Vietnamese food and this is so interesting and, I’m sure, just delicious. I’m looking forward to all the that your international taste buds bring us. Happy New Year!
The chicken in betel leaves looks amazing. I bet it would taste delicious with a dipping sauce too! It doesn’t look that difficult. If I can find this in the US, I’ll definitely give this recipe a shot. I think it would be a real hit! Thanks for sharing.
u suka masak ya
Dedy, love the herbs and spices in this, so fragrant! My grandmother used to be an avid betel leaf chewer! She had her little box with all the fixings. Every now and then, I like to buy some, it’s a nice flavour every now and then!
kalau lihat step-stepnya sih sepertinya gampang ya, dok.. tapi saya males masuk dapur. 😆
This so interesting … Great job
Betel leaves? Sireh? Now, that’s now. Hope to give it a try. Everyone’s more familiar with pandan, Thai-style…
*…that’s interesting*
yup, i guess betel wrapped grilled chicken this is stonger and more fragrance than deep fried pandan chicken….
Betel leaves are another ingredient I will have to look out for!
These remind me of the dolmades we make here in Greece! Look very yummy!
Dolmas is one of my favourite too, lovin it’s tea-like scent with a nice tangy flavour….
Hi Dedy! Thank for dropping by my blog! It’s so nice to meet you. I’ve never had something like this before. I bet this is delicious!
These look awesome Dedy! I like the sound of the grilled chicken in here instead! Hope you had a great holiday season and Happy New Year!
Oh, I’m guessing this tasted wonderful.
These look amazing Dedy! Where do you get these leaves? I would definitely do something similar, but we don’t have commercially available leaves (at least, not easy to find) around here…
Wah.. ini rasa daun sirih(daun lada ya?) nya terasa nggak ya? Saya kebetulan ngga makan beef. tapi tentunya bisa diganti dengan ayam ya?
Resep aslinya pake daun wild betel atau cabe jawa tp aku aku pake daun sirih yg muda, rasa n aromanya lbh mild klo udah mateng ternyata mbak…
Dadingnya bs diganti ayam atau babi juga sih….
What a beautiful dish. My mouth watered when I read your description of this dish along with the gorgeous picture. I’m a big fan for lemon grass. This sounds right up my alley!
I adore Vietnamese cuisine and I think I drooled a little bit while I read this.
I’m very intrigued with this dish. I never cooked using betel leaves before and that needs to change. I adore Vietnamese cooking and this looks superb!
This looks so good and really quite simple. I hope I can find betel leaves! I can’t imagine what I could use in their place! … You definitely have an international palate! I love all the things you make from around the world! And always so beautifully presented!
This looks very tasty! It seems very interesting. What a great recipe!
These look so delicious and healthy- I will need to find some betel leaves somewhere. Great recipe!
selalu salah tiap mampir ke blog ini mas. bikin nguileeeeerrrzzzz :9
Interesting post Dedy. Not sure I can find betel leaves here in Melbourne, but that filling sounds awesome and very child-friendly too which is always a bonus!
A recipe worth to try..daun sirih agak susah ditemui di Belanda, tapi ini menu beneran bikin penasaran 🙂 Nanti aku coba kalu pulang kampung…