Vietnamese Poached Chicken Salad With Mint & Coriander

Vietnamese Poached Chicken Salad With Mint & Coriander

This salad is a combination of lightly poached chicken, bean sprouts, spring onions and herbs with roasted chopped nuts and sesame seeds. The slightly sticky fish sauce, lime juice and chilli dressing add some extra zing, too.
Serves
8 – 10 as a first course or 4 as a main course
Total Time
25 Minutes
Ingredients
50g of root ginger, peeled and sliced
4 small skinless, boneless, free-range chicken breasts
1/2 large cucumber
8 spring onions, trimmed, halved and shredded
150g of fresh bean sprouts
Small handful of mint, torn into small pieces
Small handful of fresh coriander sprigs
1 tbsp of sesame seeds, lightly toasted
60g of roasted, salted peanuts, finely chopped
Dressing
4 tbsp of Thai fish sauce
2 tbsp of red wine vinegar
2 tbsp of lime juice
2 tbsp of light soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp of cornflour
1 medium-hot red chilli, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Method
Step 1

Put the ginger into a large, shallow pan with a litre of water and bring to the boil. Add the chicken breasts and leave them to simmer for 5–6 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the chicken to cool in the liquid.

Step 2

For the dressing, put the Thai fish sauce, vinegar, lime juice and sugar into a small pan and bring to the boil. Mix the cornflour with a teaspoon of water, stir this into the pan and simmer gently for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and leave to cool, then stir in the red chilli and garlic.

Step 3

For the salad, peel the cucumber, cut it in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. Cut the flesh into 5cm-long matchsticks and add them to a large bowl with the spring onions, bean sprouts, mint and coriander, then toss together.

Step 4

Lift the chicken breasts out of the poaching liquid and pull them into long chunky strips. Add these to the salad bowl and mix gently. Serve the salad with the dressing drizzled over the top and scattered with sesame seeds and chopped peanuts.

TIP: When peeling ginger, use the bowl end of a teaspoon to scrape the skin off. It’s much easier than using a peeler.

Rick Stein at Home by Rick Stein (BBC Books, £26). Photography by James Murphy. Visit Waterstones.com

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