Preheat Grill to Med-High.

Make the lemongrass paste. Thinly slice the tender white parts of the lemongrass stalks and place in the food processor. ( You do need to slice it first, otherwise, it will be stringy.) You should have roughly 1/2 cup. Add the garlic cloves and rough-chopped shallot. Pulse repeatedly until lemongrass gets broken down. Add oil, soy sauce, salt, sugar and Five-spice and optional chili garlic sauce and process into a paste, scraping down sides as needed. Process for a couple of minutes, until lemongrass is really chopped up finely and it looks like a paste. See photo.

Coat all sides of the chicken with the paste. You can do this ahead and refrigerate up to 48 hours. Or grill right away.

Oil the grill well. Grill chicken over medium-high, or medium heat, until deep grill marks appear, 3-4 minutes.  The grill marks help naturally release the chicken from the grill, so wait for them. Do not move chicken around too much or you will lose the lemongrass. I like to use a thin metal spatula to flip.  Then cook 3 more minutes, check for grill marks, then lower heat way down, cover with lid, and cook all the way through.  You can also finish in a 350 F oven, uncovered.

Serve over rice noodles with cucumber, mint, Thai basil and nuoc cham dressing. Or simply over rice.