Vietnamese Banh Mi and Rice Noodle Bowl
Yes, two birds, one stone!By preparing this banh mi and rice noodle bowl recipe once, you end up with 4-5 meals to consume for the week. This multifaceted recipe is perfect for those hectic weeks where you just don’t have time every day to make a meal.Set aside a couple hours at the start of the week to prepare once and you’ve got yourself banh mi and rice noodle bowls that can easily be transformed into other meals such as fresh salad rolls, lettuce wraps or even completely off the map with a pasta sauce – it’s so delish and absolutely worth it, people… you gotta trust me on this one!Living in Vancouver allows me to experience multicultural foods daily and expand my culinary boundaries everywhere I go. I invite you to step into your own nutriFoodie kitchen; try this recipe and see where the flavours take you.This recipe is best done over two stages.First stage of prep (~Total 25 min):This stage requires marinating the chicken and preparing the pickled vegetables. This stage is best done at least 3 hours to one day prior to serving the final product.Second stage of prep (Total ~25-30 min):This stage requires cooking the chicken after being marinated and assembling your sandwich or noodle bowl
Ingredients
For the lemongrass chicken:
- 9 chicken thighs or a combination of half chicken thighs and breasts
- 1 stalk lemongrass roughly sliced
- 8 gloves garlic
- 1 red chili pepper dried or fresh
- 1 stalk green onion roughly chopped
- 1 inch fresh ginger roughly sliced
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ⅓ cup fish sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- ½ tbsp kosher salt
For the pickled vegetables:
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- pinch crushed red pepper
- 3 large carrots
- ¾ cup daikon radish
Banh Mi
- baguette
- light mayonnaise
- lettuce leaves washed and blotted dried
- cucumber thinly sliced with a mandolin
- cilantro sprigs washed, blotted dry and roughly chopped
- jalapeno optional; sliced
- prepared pickled vegetables see recipe above
- prepared lemongrass chicken see recipe above
Rice Noodle Salad Bowl
- rice noodles soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes; strained
- lettuce leaves thinly chopped/shredded
- cucumber thinly sliced with a mandolin
- cilantro roughly chopped
- green onions chopped
- peanuts lightly toasted and chopped
- prepared picked vegetables keep pickling juice; see recipe above
- prepared lemongrass chicken see recipe above
Instructions
For the lemongrass chicken:
- Place all marinade ingredients (everything except for the chicken) into a food processor and pulse until it is well combined and paste-like.
- Marinate chicken in the mixture for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days – the longer the better! I marinated it for about 24 hours, and it was addicting as is – so do what suits you. You can marinate in a sealed bag or covered dish to evenly coat the meat.
- Once the chicken is done marinating, heat up a grill pan.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and gently remove any remaining fibrous parts of the lemongrass and ginger from the chicken.
- Spray the grill with some vegetable oil to prevent the chicken from sticking and burning.
- Grill the chicken for 7 minutes on each side (about 14 minutes total – chicken breasts may take longer depending on the size; check the middle prior to removing from heat).
- Once cooked, place the chicken on a plate and allow it to rest for about 5 minutes.
- Slice the chicken into strips. It can now be used to make a banh mi sandwich or a salad bowl.
For the pickled vegetables:
- In a small saucepan, bring the water, vinegar, sugar, salt and crushed red pepper to a boil for about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, I used a mandolin to thinly slice the carrots and daikon radish and place them in a large jar.
- Transfer the brine to a large bowl and let cool to room temperature.
- Add the brine to the carrots and daikon and cover to keep them submerged.
- Refrigerate the vegetables once cooled for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.
Banh Mi
- Spread 1-2 tsp of mayonnaise on one side of the cut up baguette.
- Layer the lettuce and chicken on top.
- Drain the pickled vegetables.
- Place the sliced cucumber and pickled vegetables on the other side of baguette.
- Sprinkle cilantro and jalapeño on top then assemble both sides together.
- Done! Enjoy!
Rice Noodle Salad Bowl
- Cook rice noodles according to instructions.
- Place 1 cup of shredded lettuce on the bottom of the bowl.
- Place 1/2 cup of rice noodles in the middle, on top of the lettuce.
- Layer the rest of the vegetables as you please and then add the lemongrass chicken on top.
- Dress the bowl to your taste. Use the pickling juice from the vegetables as a dressing.
- Finish off by garnishing with peanuts and cilantro.
Notes
And Voila! Now you have flavourful chicken and pickled vegetables that can be used various ways and even saved for your own creations later! Let me know how it turns out! I would love to hear from you.
For more recipes about how to use up these leftovers, please send me an email or comment below.
Recipe adapted from Food & Wine
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