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Vietnamese Noodle Bowl

Posting Date: 12/16/15

Vietnamese Noodle Bowl is very delicious. The grilled meat will satisfy your craving for grilled meat while the vegetables and herbs will give the freshness needed. The sweet and sour dressing will give flavors to the vermicelli, meat and vegetables. It is like eating salad in a bowl. To make it vegetarian, you can use tofu, instead of chicken. You can also use beef or pork, instead of chicken. This recipe serves for 3 people. If you want it to be more filling, you can use 3 sheets of rice vermicelli, instead of 2 sheets. If you are not familiar with rice vermicelli, click here.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2.5 tablespoons fish sauce
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon lemongrass, white part minced while the green part discarded
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 pieces of skinless and boneless chicken breast
For dressing: 1 cup water
For dressing: 2 tablespoons sugar
For dressing: 4 tablespoons fish sauce
For dressing: 1 tablespoon vinegar
For dressing: 2.5 tablespoons fresh lime juice
For dressing: 1.5 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
2 sheets of rice vermicelli
1.5 cups of chopped lettuce
1 cup bean sprouts
1 carrot, peeled and julienned
1 cucumber, halved, deseeded, and cut into strips
1 green onion, sliced
1 handful fresh mint, minced
1 handful cilantro, minced
crushed peanuts for topping, if preferred

Methods:

Mix vegetable oil, lime juice, fish sauce, garlic, lemongrass, red pepper flakes, granulate sugar, and brown sugar in a ziploc bag. This will be used to marinate the chicken.
Pound chicken breasts with meat tenderizer. Place the chicken with the marinade sauce in the ziploc bag and make sure each piece of the breasts is coated well with the sauce. Leave it in the fridge for at least 2 hours but turn the bag occasionally (every half an hour or so) to ensure the meat is coated well with the marinade.
To make the dressing, combine water, sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, lime juice, and sweet chili sauce. Whisk them together until the sugar is dissolved.
Clean the grill and oil the grill grates. Grill the chicken and turn several times until it is cooked. Remove from the heat and let it sit for 10 min before cutting. If you don't have BBQ grill, you can bake the chicken in the oven at 375 deg. Turn the chicken half way during cooking. Once it is almost cooked, broil it until it is fully cooked and slightly charred.
Cook rice vermicelli according to the package instruction. While cooking it, make sure you stir the pot once a while. Rice vermicelli has a lot of starches and some brands have more than the other. Stirring it while cooking will prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Once it is cooked and soft, drain and rinse it thoroughly with cold water on a strainer. The cold water will stop the cooking process and make sure vermicelli doesn't stick to each other. Shake vermicelli on a strainer to let the excess water drip down.
Split vermicelli evenly to 3 separate bowls.
Top each bowl with lettuce, bean sprouts, carrot, cucumber, sliced chicken, green onion, mint, and cilantro split evenly for 3 bowls. If you prefer, sprinkle crushed peanuts on top.
Split the dressing evenly into 3 small separate bowls and serve the dressing with the noodle bowls. Pour the dressing on top of the noodle when you are ready to eat it.

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