I went on holiday to Vietnam in 2003 and fell in love with everything about it. The people, the culture, the food.
Never had I eaten so much beautifully fresh food, prepared in such a simple way. The herbs, the sauces, the flavours. All left an indelible image on my mind and my tastebuds.
Fast forward a few years when I was in Canberra visiting my aunt. She had been given a copy of Little Vietnam for her birthday – a newly released book that I had been eyeing off and was trying to persuade myself I really didn’t need.
We cooked a few recipes from this book that weekend, which was enough to have me racing to my local book seller when I returned home, to quickly snaffle up a copy for myself.
One of my favourite recipes in this book is the chicken salad.
I buy a whole chicken and steam it in our steam oven, but you could just as easily poach a whole chicken (and then have that lovely stock for a soup), or buy breast fillets to poach, then shred. I have previously blogged about how easy poaching chicken is – it is also a really lovely way to delicately infuse different flavours into the meat.
If you are pushed for time, you could also buy a whole cooked chicken and use it – discard the skin and bones and just shred the meat. I do this quite often, especially now that our local supermarkets sell free range cooked chickens.
This is my version of the chicken salad in Little Vietnam.
A stunning yet simple chicken salad that pops with beautiful fresh flavours.
What you need
- 1 cooked chicken, skin and bones removed - I steam mine, but you can poach it or buy a cooked chicken from the shop
- 200g wombok cabbage, shredded
- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 red capsicum, thinly sliced
- 1 carrot, grated
- 2 cups of fresh herbs, finely chopped - I like coriander and mint, and Vietnamese mint, Thai basil, regular basil all work well too
- 150ml fish dipping sauce (recipe below)
- 2 tbs garlic oil (recipe below)
- 2tbs chopped raw cashews
- 1/4 cup of raw sugar
- 100ml boiling water
- 50ml fish sauce
- 100ml white vinegar
- 2tbs vegetable oil (not olive)
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
What you do
- In a large bowl, mix together the cabbage, onion, capsicum, carrot, herbs and shredded chicken. Pour over the fish dipping sauce and the garlic oil. Mix gently. Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle on the chopped cashews.
- Place the sugar and the boiling water in a small bowl, mix until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add the fish sauce and the vinegar and stir to combine. Leave to cool.
- Store the leftover sauce in a glass jar in the fridge.
- Heat the oil in a small saucepan. Add the garlic and turn the heat to low. Simmer until the garlic is browned - be careful not to burn it. This takes about 5-8 minutes.
What are your favourite flavours in a salad?
Mmmm, that looks delicious. Vietnam is one of my favourite places to visit and their food is so good. I love the freshness and balance of a Vietnamese meal. I’ll be trying this salad.
Love your post Mel, sounds delicious & I know my daughters going to love this.
Thanks Monika, it’s a favourite here.