The whole egg: Vietnamese Chicken Salad

This is by far one of my all time favourite recipes! It's pretty close to Luke Nguyens Char grilled pork neck with vermicelli noodles, classic street food fare. Instead of pork neck, I used chicken thighs. In the past I have made with pork neck and also using rump steak, both worked really well. I prefer chicken thighs over breasts because; (1) because they taste better; (2) they are fatty and juicy and hence (3) more forgiving when BBQ'ing

As I've said previously, what constitutes "free-range" according to standards in Australia is not always what I consider to be "free-range". Since moving to Western Australia, I've started buying Mt Barker free range chicken. My favourite thing about Mt Barker Chicken is their website clearly outlines their free-range standards, which includes how they define access to free range -

"At least 50% of the building sides must open to allow chickens access to the free range area for new farms, and RSPCA Approved Free Range Standards for existing farms. Birds must have access to the range as soon as they are reasonably feathered and at the latest between day 21 - 28."

Which is far more generous than the free-range standards suggested by other regulatory organisations. At the end of the day, short of driving out to the farms and having a look for myself, you have to take a leap of faith and chose a chicken supplier if you want to eat chicken. So I vote with my dollar and buy Mt Barker free-range chicken!

Before I begin with the recipe - a quick note on the salad dressing: because it's easier, I usually eat my salad with a little fish sauce and a squeeze of lime. If you want more dressing, I recommend making a nuoc chum dressing, I found a recipe for a really good one here. Try to make it a few hours or a day before to help the flavours mix and the garlic to pickle a little.

Vegetarian Note: If you want to make this salad with tofu, I recommend using fresh tofu with a nuoc chum dressing made with vegetarian fish sauce.

Alright, now for the cooking!

First thing to do is marinate the meat. Luke recommends marinating 2 hours to over night, but last night i only managed an 1 hour, which still worked really well.

Meat Marinade (straight from Luke)

6 white part spring onion, finely sliced,pounded into a paste
2 tablespoons sugar (I used brown)
1 tablespoon honey
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a mortar and pestle pound the whites of the spring onions, chopped garlic and sugar

then add the fish sauce, honey, pepper and oil

I made it using 4 chicken thigh fillets roughly diced. I don't worry too much about how I cut the meat because I use metal skewers, meaning I can thread a single piece of meat two to three times regardless of its dimensions.

Second toast your peanuts in the oven or under the griller/broiler. I only say this because I keep forgetting until right at the end and it drives me crazy! Keep an eye on them because they burn easily - roughly chop when done.

Third cut up all your salad ingredients

lettuce

spring onions

mint

coriander

red onion

carrots

tomatoes

cucumber

Fourth, put the meat on the skewers

Fifth soak the vermicelli in hot water for about 5-10 minutes (I buy them already bunched in individual serves to save tiny pieces of noodle flying across the room) test them to see when they are done, then drain and rinse with cold water.

Sixth put your chicken on the BBQ to cook. I cook mine on a Weber baby Q. I cook them pretty slowly on a low heat to prevent the marinade from burning and to give the fatty chicken thighs time to render down.