Dad's Good Old Marinade

Ever since I can remember, my dad has this kick-ass marinade that he uses on EVERYTHING - beef, porkchops, chicken, shrimp, squid...you name it, he used it. This marinade is SUPER easy and SUPER basic comprising of 6 ingredients.

*Note: As good as this tastes, beware if you are diabetic!!! A boatload of sugar is used and for those w/ hypertension, the fish sauce is deniably salty. However, once in a while, why not???? Its soooooo good!


Ingredients:

- 1 cup of nuoc mam (fish sauce)

- Black pepper

- 4 cloves garlic, worked into a paste

- 1 teaspoon Five-spice powder

- 1 to 1 1/4 cup sugar



1. To work garlic into a paste, you need to first mince the garlic. Add kosher salt, and constantly press the garlic on the cutting board back and forth.




2. Once you have the garlic paste, add in your fish sauce.



3. Stir in the sugar until dissolved. Continue to add more sugar until a syrup-like consistency is achieved. The given amount is an estimate, you may need to use more.




4. Stir in 5-spice. The mixture will end up looking "dirty." But damn it will smell good.

5. Stir in your marinade on top of your meat choice. In my case, I had chicken thighs. I did a double baggy method: using a ziploc bag and then a regular plasstic bag to ensure no leakage.





6. Let it marinate for at least an hour.


7. Throw the chicken in the oven at temperature of 400 F. Bake for at least 20 minutes.

This should be the result. The skin should be crispy and sweet and the meat should be juicy and have a faint aroma of the marinade. This is served w/ jasmine rice on the side w/ fried green scallion oil and topped w/ fish sauce.

Bon Appetit!