Vietnamese Grilled Chicken with Rice Vermicelli Noodles

Sometimes the simplest things can come together and be amazing. That is how I feel about Vietnamese noodle dishes. Each component on its own seems rather mundane – noodles, vegetables, herbs, chicken. However, when you put them all together and add in a sauce that is all about complexity and balance, you get a taste extravaganza. It is warm and cool, sweet and salty, fresh and tart all at once.

An important part of this dish is the dipping sauce (also known as fish sauce or Nuoc Cham). The term “fish sauce” can be a little confusing because it refers to both the concentrated stuff you buy in the bottle as well as the sauce you make using the concentrated fish sauce. Although the sauce you make to eat with the chicken and noodles is not really a dipping sauce (you pour the sauce over the noodles), that is how the sauce is commonly referred so I decided to use the same naming convention here. Like so much of Vietnamese cooking, this sauce balances sweet, salty, and sour flavors. It ties all the other ingredients together so don’t skip that part of the recipe.

I am not particularly loyal to the brands shown in these photos. I wanted to include pictures of these ingredients in case this is your first time working with them. Given the choice, I usually buy the Three Crabs brand fish sauce. However, the last time I needed fish sauce, the store where I was only had the Thai Kitchen brand and it has been fine. Most grocery stores nowadays will carry these items in their Asian or Ethnic Cooking aisle. If your store does not carry them, it is time for an adventurous outing to your local Asian grocery store.

The rice vermicelli noodles are sometimes called rice stick noodles. Do not confuse these with mung bean noodles which are thinner and more clear looking. Cooking rice vermicelli noodles does not take long so do not get distracted and forget about them or you will quickly end up with a mess of mushy tasteless noodles. I set a timer for 6 minutes once I add the noodles to the boiling water. I also turn down the heat so the water is at a low simmer. As the noodles soften, stir them gently to prevent sticking. You do not want to stir too aggressively which can cause the noodles to break. When the timer goes off, take some noodles from the pot, rinse them under cool water and taste them. The noodles should be firm-tender. Depending on the brand, some noodles may take longer than six minutes. I have just found that six minutes is a good time to start checking. Once the noodles are cooked to your liking, drain them in a strainer and rinse with cool water. Unlike Italian pastas, rice noodles need to be rinsed.

The chicken tastes best when it is grilled. However, my husband is the grill expert in our family and he was not available when I needed to take these pictures. So, I roasted the chicken in the oven until it was almost cooked through and then finished cooking it under the broiler to get some nice charring.

Guess what I am having for lunch today?

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Try these other Vietnamese favorites –

This recipe for chicken pho is based on the spices and aromatics of my mother’s recipe for traditional Vietnamese pho soup –

This recipe for Vietnamese iced coffee is one of my favorites.

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