Recipes: Tested Vietnamese grilled chicken in lettuce parcels

These meatballs can be made the night before, making them a great prepare-ahead party nibble

500g skinless chicken thighs fillets, pulsed to mince in a food processor or use chicken mince
3 shallots , finely chopped
3 garlic cloves , finely chopped
3 stalks lemongrass , finely chopped
1½ tsp cornflour
a small bunch of coriander , finely chopped
3 tbsp fish sauce
golden caster sugar
half a small cucumber , diced
Little Gem lettuce leaves, to serve
sweet chilli sauce , to serve
1 red chilli , finely slicedv
1. Mix the chicken, shallots, garlic, lemon grass, cornflour, coriander and fish sauce in a bowl with some black pepper.
2. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. With lightly oiled hands, shape the mixture into 4cm meatballs. Roll each meatball in sugar and put on a baking tray lined with foil. Bake for 15 minutes, shaking the pan a couple of times to evenly coat with the sugary caramel.
3. To serve, put a meatball on a lettuce leaf and sprinkle with cucumber, coriander and chilli. Serve with a bowl of sweet chilli dipping sauce.
Lemon grass

Use the bottom 1/3 of the lemon grass. Smash with the side of a knife then peel off outer layers and chop what's left.

Get Ahead

The meatballs can be made the night before then rolled in sugar and cooked before serving.
Per serving

34 kcalories, protein 3,8g, carbohydrate 3,8g, fat 0,5 g, saturated fat 0,2g, fibre 0,1g, salt 0,33 g