This Vietnamese chicken salad noodle bowl is pretty much my favorite kind of dinner to make. It is light and healthy, but it is anything but boring with lots of fresh herbs, veggies and nước chấm lime sauce for the dressing. If you have not had nước chấm, it is a sweet and sour sauce with a ton of umami from the fish sauce, as well as garlic and if you want, hot pepper.
I used rice noodles as the base here, but you could also serve this as just a salad by subbing in some romaine or bok choy instead of noodles. I used red onion, carrot, cucumber and red pepper for vegetables. You could also add bok choy, green onions, yellow or orange pepper too. If you can, use both mint and cilantro for the herbs, because they really bring up the flavor of the dish. Check my Favorite Items for my fish sauce pick to use for the sauce.
Vietnamese Chicken Salad Noodle Bowl
Ingredients
For the nước chấm:
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 thinly sliced birds eye chili or some red chili flakes if you don't have birds eye
For the bowl:
- 4 servings rice noodles cooked according to package and rinsed in cold water then mixed with sesame oil to prevent sticking
- 12 oz cooked chicken, seasoned well with salt and pepper I cook a whole chicken in some water, salt and pepper in a stock pot until falling apart and shred the meat. You can also use rotisserie.
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 1 red bell pepper thinly sliced
- 4 mini Persian cucumbers sliced
- 1 large carrot peeled and julienned
- 1 cup mint leaves chopped
- 1 cup cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Mix all the dressing ingredients and taste and add more lime or sugar if needed.
- If using a whole chicken, heat a little oil in a large stock pot and allow the chicken skin to brown for 5 minutes before filling pot with water to cover the chicken. Allow to simmer on very low heat for 1.5 hours until the chicken is very tender and bones come apart. Remove and cool the chicken, then shred the meat and mix with a little broth to keep it moist. Season with salt and pepper. Strain the broth and you have homemade chicken broth to freeze.
- Cook noodles according to package and rinse with cold water until cool, then toss with a little sesame oil. Place noodles in the bowl and top with shredded chicken, veggies, and herbs. Drizzle with lots of nước chấm. You can also add chopped peanuts to the top, which is yummy.