Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Summer is in full swing in the Pacific Northwest, and right on cue, I’m wilting. The only thing I want to eat right now is salad. Lots and lots of interesting, big taste salads.

This refreshing, super crunchy, super tasty Vietnamese Chicken Salad fits the bill. It’s modeled after one I eat almost weekly at Luc Lac Vietnamese Kitchen in Portland, Oregon.

At Luc Lac, they add a pile of rice noodles to the mix and top the salad with three skewers of five-spice grilled shrimp. Incredibly delicious.

That’s a good way to go it you have the time and inclination. The noodles give the salad a bit of bulk and another great texture.

But otherwise a store-bought roast chicken works great, and the noodles aren’t absolutely necessary. I have Almost Luc Lac Vietnamese Dipping Sauce in the fridge most of the time, so this salad can be on the table in under 20 minutes.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

For ease and speed, this riff on Luc Lac’s Vermicelli Bowl adds shredded chicken and skips the rice noodles. It’s almost an Asian coleslaw with two types of cabbage and a sweet and tart dressing.

Technique Note   At Luc Lac, they don’t bother trimming the bean sprouts. But I watch far too many Korean dramas, and someone is always shown pinching off both ends of a mountain of sprouts. So I tried it here. It looks good, but it’s time consuming. Consider it optional.

Serving Note   This salad loses some of its vibrant color and crunch if made too far ahead. If you do need to make it ahead, add the dipping sauce just before serving.

Dressing
Almost Luc Lac Vietnamese Dipping Sauce

Chicken
skinned, shredded chicken from one whole roast chicken breast

Salad
½ small Napa cabbage, shredded
½ small red cabbage, shredded
4 medium carrots, peeled, trimmed and julienned
1 cup soy or mung bean sprouts (ends trimmed if desired)
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
¼ red onion, shredded
2 green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Garnish
½ cup skinned, chopped roasted peanuts (not dry roast)

1. In a large salad bowl, add the shredded chicken, Napa cabbage, red cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, cilantro, red onion, and green onions.
2. Toss to combine.
3. Drizzle several tablespoons of dressing over the salad and toss. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add more dressing if necessary.
4. Serve right way.

Serves 2.

Cookin’ with Gas (inspiration from around the web)

• How Sweet It Is: Thai Crunch Chicken Salad
• momofukufor2: Vietnamese Chicken Salad
• Not Quite Nigella: Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad
• Saveur: Vietnamese Shredded Chicken
• Wandering Chopsticks: Goi Ga Bap Cai (Vietnamese Chicken Cabbage Salad