This Vietnamese Chicken Salad Is Easily One Of The Most Flavoursome Sales You'll Ever Had.
Learn how to make this fantastic Vietnamese chicken salad with the most incredible flavour, aroma, texture & colour. In this recipe, I’ll run you through the important preparation and cooking techniques needed for this recipe and thousands of others.
Along with making the salad, we will be poaching, pickling, making salad dressings & using the essential knife skills. Most of the time, salads get disregarded as the word “salad” can turn people off, but I can guarantee this Vietnamese chicken salad will change your mind about that & who knows, this could be the start of new beginnings. Please enjoy.
Ingredients
Chicken & Salad
- 500g (1.1lbs) - Chicken Breast
- 1 - Carrot, Julienned
- ½ Cup (125ml) - Rice Wine Vinegar
- 1 tsp (5g) - Sea Salt Flakes
- 1 ½ Tbsp (30g) - Caster (Fine) Sugar
- 1 - White or Red Onion, Thinly Sliced
- 100g (2.8oz) - Bean Sprouts (Mung Beans)
- 100g (2.8oz) - White Cabbage, Shredded (Chiffonade)
- 100g (2.8oz) - Red Cabbage, Shredded (Chiffonade)
- 15g (0.5oz) - Mint Leaves, Torn
- 15g (0.5oz) - Coriander (Cilantro)
- 40g (1.4oz) - Peanuts, Chopped & Roasted
- Fried Shallots To Serve
Vietnamese Dressing
- 2 ½ Tbsp (50ml) - Fish Sauce
- ¼ Cup (60ml) - Water
- 2 ½ Tbsp (47g) - Caster (Fine) Sugar
- ½ - Lime, Reserve Remaining Half To Serve
- 3 - Kaffir Lime Leaves
- 1 - Garlic Clove, Crushed
Garnish
- 1 - Long Red Chilli, Thinly Sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°c-350°f. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Place all of the Vietnamese dressing ingredients into a saucepan over high heat. Bring to a simmer to melt the sugar, remove from the heat & allow to cool down for 15 minutes before placing it in the fridge to cool completely. (Make sure the dressing is cold before pouring it over the salad)
- Roughly chop the peanuts, place them onto the prepared baking tray & roast for 6-7 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove & allow to cool down.
- Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil & add in the chicken breasts. Bring back to a boil then reduce the heat to medium & simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat & allow the chicken to rest in the water for 6 minutes or until cooked through (internal temperature of 73°c-163°f). Remove & allow to slightly cool down.
- In the meantime place the julienned carrot into a mixing bowl. Add in the rice wine vinegar, salt & sugar then mix well to coat the carrot. Add in the thinly sliced white or red onion along with the bean sprouts (mung beans) & let sit for 10 minutes to slightly pickle. Drain from the pickling brine & discard the liquid (or keep it & reuse).
- Thinly slice the poached chicken into strips & tear it into bite-sized pieces. Place the chicken & all of the other ingredients into a mixing bowl except the peanuts & fried shallots. Mix to combine well & serve into bowls or plates. Garnish with peanuts and fried shallots. Dig in.
Nutrition Guide
The above nutrition guide is based on daily averages and is calculated for a single portion.
Recipe Notes
Vietnamese Chicken Salad Storage Instructions
This salad will last 1 day in the fridge after it’s been assembled. Due to the dressing, it will deteriorate very quickly. However, storing the ingredients separately or having the salad without the sauce will last 3 days in the fridge.
Chicken Substitutes
This recipe can be made with seafood if you prefer an alternative. It works with chargrilled and boiled squid, chargrilled octopus and seared Salmon. Of course, it can also be made vegetarian without poultry, fish and seafood.
Watch How To Make The Recipe
Did You Like This Chicken Salad Recipe?
Please take a second to leave a comment and rating below and ill get back to you as soon as possible.
This one is a just one fine appetiser !
Most definitely!
This is a winner Jack. Have made it a couple of times and the flavours work so well together. Delicious.
Awesome, Dan. Great to hear you’ve been enjoying it.
Delicious! I absolutely LOVE Thai cuisine 🙂 I used thighs instead, not a breast fan lol. I prepped extra salad, pickle and dressing for future meals, but will using your Vietnamese crispy wing recipe for the protein. But, I will be using wildcaught cod! Cant wait for that 🙂
Thanks again for such delicious content!
Thank you so much, Suzette. Glad you enjoyed the recipe. The best thing about this is that there can be plenty of leftovers. The chicken wings would be incredible through this and you’ve given me an incredible idea! Thank you.
Extremely delicious dish! Love all the flavours, textures and variety.
Note: I more than halved the sugar total and used cashews instead of peanuts.
Thank you, Chris! Glad you enjoyed it and adjusted it to your liking.