vietnamese chicken salad, with crispy fried shallots

this is a go to favourite of mine. its easy, and its a salad full of flavour and texture.

the dressing recipe is incredibly adaptable – use it for a thai beef salad, or make it vegetarian and chuck in some firm fried tofu …. its a real crowd pleaser.

fresh and crisp, your body will love you for it… and your tastebuds too. thats what i call a win, win.

salad ingredients

1 red capsicum – thinly sliced

2 cups mung bean sprouts

1 telegraph cucumber – use a vege peeler to make thin strips

2 cups thinly sliced cos lettuce

2 cups mint leaves

2 cups coriander – leaves and stalks roughly chopped

6-8 chicken thighs (depending on your hunger and size of thighs!)

salt

garnish ingredients

4 shallots – finely sliced

1/2 cup peanut oil, canola oil or coconut oil

pinch salt

dressing ingredients

1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes) – do NOT replace the fresh limes with packet lime juice – its super crap

1/4 cup fish sauce

2 garlic cloves crushed

1 birds eye chilli – finely diced

2 tblsp coconut sugar

for the dressing

place all the ingredients in a bowl, or pyrex jug. stir to dissolve.

place in the fridge for flavours to develop. its important the balance of flavours is correct, but best to fix it prior to serving, as flavours will develop over time.

for the salad

place all the prepared vegetables in a bowl (except the coriander and the mint). play around with the salad vegetables – they are not prescriptive! they key is the coriander and mint – these are critical to the dish!

for the garnish

heat the oil in a saucepan, add the shallots and fry until light brown and crispy. you will need to move them around a bit while frying if the saucepan is small to ensure they cook evenly.

ensure they dont go too brown as even darker brown shallots will taste burnt.

drain shallots from the oil, using a slotted spoon and transfer to a paper kitchen towel. sprinkle with the salt.

for the chicken

heat frypan to high. fry util browned and cooked through,

remove from the frypan, and when cooled, slice into chunks.

to serve

remove the dressing from the fridge, taste the dressing, it should be equally salty, sweet, hot and sour. I usually find that a bit less fish sauce than lime juice works, and usually have to add a little more sugar. dont worry if its a bit spicy for your liking, when its added to the salad ingredients, the intensity changes.

keep tasting until you have the balance right.

add the chicken and dressing into the salad ingredients into the bowl, and toss to coat. leave some dressing to drizzle over the top.

add the coriander and mint, toss.

serve onto a platter, or onto individual serving plates. top with the crispy fried shallots.

eat. yum.

Share this:

Like this:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply