Vietnamese Chicken Salad | Gỏi Gà Bắp Cải

This Vietnamese Chicken Salad is guaranteed to excite your taste buds! Packed with vibrant flavours and simple to make, this salad will impress you with its incredible taste and healthy ingredients. In this recipe, we will guide you through the step-by-step process of creating this delightful dish, featuring poached chicken, crisp vegetables, and a zesty dressing. Let’s embark on this culinary journey together and create a salad that’s not only delicious but also visually stunning.

Infusing the Poaching Liquor Start by preparing the poaching liquor for the chicken. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine one litre (roughly one quart) of water with a good pinch of salt, mint stalks, coriander (cilantro) stalks, shallot trim, and crushed garlic cloves. Allow this mixture to simmer over medium-low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, infusing it with delightful flavours.

Creating Crispy Shallots For the crispy shallots, thinly slice shallots using a mandolin for best results. Alternatively, slice them evenly with a knife, ensuring slices are around one to two millimetres thick. Heat a small frying pan with neutral-tasting oil and add the shallots. Stir them gently and constantly over medium-low heat until they turn evenly golden brown. Strain the shallots, season with salt, and set them aside to cool and become irresistibly crispy.

Preparing the Dressing In a high-sided container, combine one large garlic clove, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sugar. Blend the ingredients together using a stick blender. For a fish sauce substitute, you can use half the amount of light soy sauce. Add zest and juice from one lime to the dressing, achieving a perfectly balanced blend of sour, savoury, and sweet flavours.

Step 4: Poaching the Chicken

Place a skin-on chicken breast into the simmering poaching liquor and cook for approximately 15 minutes or until the internal temperature reads above 75 degrees Celsius (167 degrees Fahrenheit). Once poached, let the chicken rest and cool down in a bowl at room temperature before pulling it apart with your fingers to achieve a tender texture. Mix the shredded chicken with a portion of the dressing to infuse it with delightful flavours.

Preparing the Vegetables Slice a white onion in half through the root and remove the root at an angle. Slice the onion in the same direction as the lines, ensuring even slices. Soak the onion slices in ice water for about 10 minutes to mellow their raw flavour. Cut a small green cabbage into thin slices, and with a regular vegetable peeler, create thin ribbons from a carrot.

Step 6: Assembling the Salad In a large mixing bowl, combine the sliced cabbage, carrot ribbons, and soaked onion slices. Season the vegetables with a pinch of salt and mix them well. Add two-thirds of the dressing to the vegetables, ensuring they are evenly coated. Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes, softening the vegetables slightly for a more enjoyable texture.

Adding the Finishing Touches After 10 minutes, add freshly picked coriander leaves and bruised mint leaves to the vegetable mixture. Finally, incorporate the marinated chicken breast, ensuring all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Mixing with your hands is recommended to create a perfectly balanced salad.

Plating the Salad To serve, pile the vibrant Vietnamese Chicken Salad high in the centre of a large dinner plate. The enticing aromas and colourful presentation will instantly captivate your guests. Top the salad with crispy fried shallots for an irresistible texture and flavour.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad | Gỏi Gà Bắp Cải

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Vietnamese Chicken Salad that's bursting with flavour, simplicity, and healthy goodness! This delightful salad features tender poached chicken, crisp vegetables, and a zesty dressing that blends together perfectly. The interplay of sweet, sour, and salty notes, combined with different textures, creates a winning combination that will surely leave your guests wanting more. We hope you enjoy this culinary masterpiece, and it becomes a regular favourite on your dining table. Happy cooking!

Ingredients

• 1 x Chicken breast
• White onion (120g / 4.25oz)
• Green cabbage (350g /12.3oz)
• 1 carrot
• Handful of coriander / cilantro
• Smaller handful of mint
• 6 x shallots (mine were small, 2 average sized banana shallots would be enough)
• Salt
• Dressing-
• 1 x garlic clove
• 1 x lime zested and juiced
• 80ml / 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 30ml / 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Instructions

1. Begin by making the poaching liquor for the chicken breast. In a medium-sized saucepan, add 1 litre of water, a pinch of salt, mint stalks, coriander stalks, shallot trim, and crushed garlic cloves. Place on medium to low heat and infuse for 15-20 minutes.
2. Prepare the crispy shallots. Using a mandolin or knife, slice the shallots to a thickness of 1-2mm. Heat 120ml of neutral oil in a small frying pan on medium-low heat. Once heated, add the shallots and stir constantly until evenly golden brown. Drain the shallots on a paper towel and season with salt. Set aside to cool.
3. Poach the chicken breast in the poaching liquor for 15 minutes or until it reaches a temperature of 75 Celsius (167 Fahrenheit). Once cooked, remove from the liquor and let rest at room temperature.
4. Prepare the dressing by blending together 1 large garlic clove, 30ml fish sauce, 80ml rice wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar, lime zest, and lime juice. Taste and adjust as needed for balance between sour, savoury, and sweet.
5. Once the chicken is cooled, pull it apart or shred it into bite-sized pieces.
6. Assemble the salad by mixing together the shredded chicken, crispy shallots, mint leaves, coriander leaves, sliced green pepper, sliced cucumber, and cherry tomatoes. Toss with the prepared dressing.