Here's a pretty classic recipe for Bún gà nướng sả; Vietnamese lemongrass chicken with Vermicelli. The whole thing is so fresh and delicious that you're gonna want to devour every last morsel. The chicken is super juicy and savory, the veggies are fresh, and the whole thing is covered in really delicious nước chấm; it's as good as it sounds.
Prep Time | Cook Time | Serves |
30 minutes (plus 30 for marinating) | 20 | 3 - 4 |
Lemongrass Chicken
1.5 lbs chicken thigh
2 lemongrass stalk, cut and bruised -
1 shallot thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves
40g fish sauce
40g lime juice
20g soy sauce
10g honey
Đồ Chua
Nước Chấm
Toppings
Step 1: Make The Đồ Chua
The process can work really well for a weeknight meal with one little caveat, the pickled carrot and daikon. The carrot and daikon need to be in little matchsticks, and it’s easiest to do that with a mandolin if you have one. If you don’t have one, it’s easy enough with a knife and a cutting board. Peel the carrot and break it down into sections that will make sense for eating (think about 3 inches in length). From there, slice them down into planks. It’s always a good idea to square one edge so the carrots don’t roll around. Once they’re into planks, slice them down into a fine matchstick. You can place these into a bowl for now. The same techniques can be used for the daikon. I like at least twice as much carrot as daikon, but use a ratio that you prefer.
Now that these are broken down, give them a good long wash in cold water. The water needs to run clear so the carrot juice doesn’t stain the pickling liquid. Season the veggies with a hefty pinch of salt to draw out any excess water. Let this sit for 15 minutes so the water can pool out of the veggies. Once that 15 minutes is up, there should be a bunch of liquid sitting at the bottom of the bowl, this is your sign that the salt did it’s magic. Wash off that salt and any liquid that came out of the vegetables. Dry these as much as you can and then place the dried veggies in your final vessel. The pickling liquid is a really classic mix of 150g distilled white vinegar, 200g of water, 100g white sugar and 20g of kosher salt. You can heat this on the stove to melt the sugar and salt. Once it’s simmering, pour this mix over your vegetables and be sure to mix them up so every piece is equally covered in the liquid. This needs to cool before sealing it and placing it in the fridge.
This can be used once it’s cooled, but the flavors get better with time in the old chill chest. They get more tangy and sweet as time goes on. Store these in the fridge for whenever you need a pickle-y punch.
Step 2: Marinade The Chicken
The lemongrass is sort of the star here, with lime, shallot and fish sauce all playing their parts perfectly. To get to the flavorful more manageable interior of the lemongrass, you need to remove the outer dry stalks and the top dry greens. Cut them into large pieces and then break them up with the side of your knife. This lets the flavor permeate out, but this makes them easier to remove before eating. Toss those bruised lemongrass stalks into a bowl. Shallot is another punch flavor here, so slice that and add it to the marinade bowl. Grate in 2 cloves of garlic. For the liquids, add 40g of fish sauce, 40g of lime juice, 20g of soy sauce, and 10g of honey. Add in 1.5 lbs of boneless skinless chicken thigh, the perfect vehicle for a marinade like this. Mix this around so the chicken is evenly coated then cover this and place it in the fridge. This should be ready to go within about 30 minutes, as too much time will overdo it on the flavor.
Step 3: Make The Nước Chấm
Making this is so simple, as it’s mostly fish sauce, lime juice, water and sugar. The ratios are easily adjusted to match your audience’s palate, so keep that in mind. Start by mixing 15g of sugar with 60g of warm water. Add in 20g of fish sauce along with the juice of a lime and a sliced serrano. 1 clove of grated garlic is really nice here if you want that garlicy flavor. Now you have to taste this to see where it’s at. Does it taste salty enough? Is there enough sugar or lime juice? Do you want it more diluted? Do you want more chili? These are all important questions to ask and work through! Once it’s good to go, you can set this aside while you get the final touches ready.
Step 4: Cook The Vermicelli And Prep Toppings
Chop a mini cucumber into smaller pieces and season them with a pinch of salt so the extra water can be drawn out. Set these in the fridge for now. Lettuce is a really important piece to the refreshing puzzle here, so roughly chop some washed romaine hearts. Pull and wash a bunch of cilantro leaves and mint leaves for extra pungency. These help you want to keep coming back for more and more. The base of the bowl is the vermicelli which are these rice noodles that have a really nice texture even when chilled. Prepping these are as easy as boiling them for 8 minutes and then washing in cold water until they’re chilled. After that, these can sit until you’re ready for serving. If they get clumpy and stuck together, just run them under water until they easily separate.
Step 5: Cook The Chicken
Take your marinated chicken out of the fridge and begin heating a large skillet over medium heat. This doesn’t need to be ripping hot right now. Add in a touch of oil and then place your chicken into the pan. Let the marinade drip off so you’re not adding a ton of liquid, but there’s gonna be some that naturally clings and that’s a good thing. You’ll notice this is going to bubble and there’s going to be pretty much zero browning right away. You're basically simmering this. Flip the chicken a few times during this phase just to make sure that the sides are cooking evenly.
At the 10 minute mark, the chicken is mostly cooked, and you can turn the heat up to medium high. The water from the marinade/ chicken will begin rapidly cooking off then the sugars will begin to brown and this is now where the flavor transforms. At this stage, like to keep flipping the chicken to make sure the browning isn’t happening too fast. Be sure to add more oil if needed. Once the chicken is browned to your liking, you can remove the meat from the pan and let it cool slightly before slicing it into bite size pieces. This cooking process gives you tender juicy meat, a well formed crust and it keeps the burnt of sugar to a minimum.
To plate this up, lay down a nice pile of the vermicelli noodles, the crisp romaine, the chicken, then go around the plate and add all the accompaniments. Be sure to add a few hefty spoons of the prepared fish sauce, as that brings a lot of salt and moisture. This is so fresh and delicious that it's going to be the only thing you crave when it's hot out. Cheers!
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