Vietnamese Caramel Chicken

Is it a chicken sundae? Do you drizzle caramel sauce over it before serving? That’s silly. The name comes from the sauce that you make with palm sugar, fish sauce, and vinegar. It is wonderfully sweet, funky, and salty. Combined with chicken thighs and aromatics, that equals to a lot of really great flavors in one bite.

Odd Food Names

But…I’m not really here to talk about this tasty dish. What I really want to talk about is food names. Food names like Drunken Chicken and Caramel Chicken are odd, for sure. But are they as odd as some of the names my family gave food?

Two in particular come to mind: Dinosaur Steak and Frog Egg Soup.

Dinosaur Steak was a simple casserole of hamburger patties with a savory gravy. My brother Tom (3-4 years old) was discovering his love for dinosaurs and was also going through a really picky-eating phase. My mom’s solution? Tell him it was dinosaur meat. It worked. 

Frog Egg Soup came about after I, in my very snotty teenager phase, commented on my mom’s new foray into an herby chicken broth soup with pearl couscous. To me, it looked like frog eggs in green pond water. She wasn’t thrilled with that comparison, but the name Frog Egg Soup stuck.

And then there are my Aunt Kathy’s Bed Pan Brownies. Yes, that really is the name…but that’s a story for another day!

Here’s the recipe for Vietnamese Caramel Chicken. Enjoy!