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Vietnamese-Style Chicken and Herb Noodle Salad

Juicy chicken, rice noodles, crunchy vegetables and a lot of fresh herbs, tossed in a sharp lime and fish sauce dressing. Make the dressing first so the garlic and chilli have time to flavour it.

Lunch

40

Serves 2

A bowl of rice noodle salad with sliced chicken, carrot and cucumber matchsticks, fresh mint and coriander and chopped peanuts

Ingredients

  • For the dressing
  • 2 tbsp (30ml) fish sauce
  • 3 tbsp (45ml) lime juice (about 2 limes)
  • 2 tsp (about 10g) runny honey or sugar
  • 1 clove garlic (about 4g), finely grated
  • 1 red chilli (about 10g), finely chopped, seeds removed if you prefer it milder
  • 2 tbsp water
  • For the salad
  • 2 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 300g/10½oz in total)
  • 1 tsp neutral oil, such as rapeseed oil (canola oil)
  • A pinch of salt and black pepper
  • 100g/3½oz dried thin rice noodles (rice vermicelli)
  • 1 large carrot (about 100g/3½oz), cut into thin matchsticks or coarsely grated
  • Half a cucumber (about 150g/5oz), cut into matchsticks
  • 100g/3½oz lettuce, such as little gem (baby romaine) or romaine, shredded
  • 8g/a loosely packed ⅓ cup fresh mint leaves
  • 10g/a loosely packed ½ cup fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves
  • 30g/1oz/¼ cup roasted unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped

Method

  1. Mix all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl or jar and stir until the honey dissolves. Set aside.
  2. If the chicken breasts are thick, put them between two sheets of baking paper (parchment paper) and flatten with a rolling pin to an even 2cm/¾in. Rub with the oil and season.
  3. Heat a frying pan or griddle pan (ridged grill pan) over a medium-high heat. Cook the chicken for 5 to 7 minutes on each side, until golden and cooked through, with no pink in the middle and the juices running clear. If you have a thermometer, the thickest part should reach 75C/167F. Rest on a board for 5 minutes, then slice.
  4. While the chicken cooks, cook the noodles according to the packet instructions (usually 3 to 4 minutes in boiling water). Drain, rinse under cold water until cool, and drain well again.
  5. In a large bowl, toss the noodles with the carrot, cucumber, lettuce, mint, coriander and two-thirds of the dressing.
  6. Divide between two plates or bowls, top with the sliced chicken, spoon over the rest of the dressing and scatter with the peanuts.
  7. Best eaten straight away. If making ahead for lunch, cool the chicken and noodles quickly, refrigerate them within an hour, keep the dressing separate, and eat within 2 days. Do not freeze.

Why it works

A serving has about 44g of protein for 534 calories, mostly from the chicken. That is a full meal's protein in a lunch that still feels light, because most of the bowl is vegetables and herbs.

The dressing is the point. Lime, fish sauce, garlic and chilli give a lot of flavour with only a teaspoon of oil in the whole recipe, so the fat in this dish comes mainly from the peanuts. Fish sauce is salty: the dressing adds roughly 1.4g of sodium a serving (about 3.5g of salt). That is over half the UK daily maximum of 6g of salt and the US limit of 2,300mg of sodium. If you are watching salt, use 1.5 tbsp and add a little more lime.

Why it is not tagged for blood sugar. Rice noodles are a refined carbohydrate and the bowl has about 56g of carbohydrate a serving. The protein and vegetables help, but if you are managing blood sugar, use half the noodles and double the lettuce and cucumber.

Gluten and allergens. Rice noodles are naturally gluten-free, but check the fish sauce label, as a few brands add wheat. The dish contains fish (in the sauce) and peanuts; leave the peanuts out or use toasted sesame seeds if needed.

For another chicken dish with peanuts, see the chicken satay skewers.