Chicken Bun Cha bowl

Chicken Bun Cha Bowl

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This recipe for Vietnamese-inspired Chicken Bun Cha bowls with fried shallots on top is based on a class I took at my local PCC in April 2023. It takes just under two hours from when I started until when we ate. When I redid this last night (2024-03-11), I made some of the sauces the night before, employed the food processor more, and things flowed smoother. Any extra meat or sauce can be used in Bahn Mi.

Daikon and carrot pickling in vinegar and fish sauce solution.
Daikon and Carrot pickling…

Make pickled daikon and carrots

Although you can do this the same day, there is some advantage to making this the day before. Cut daikon and carrot into match stick sized chunks, then add to a medium-sized bowl. (Uniformity is nice, but you have a lot of wiggle room here.) Bring the rice wine vinegar to a boil. Dissolve into this the sugar and salt. Pour onto vegetables & stir. Let cool, then store in a jar in the refrigerator until ready to use. If, for some reason you double it, you’ll have enough for Bahn Mi sandwiches later in the week.

  • 1 C rice wine vinegar (I like the Marukan brand from my local Uwajimaya store)
  • 1/2 C sugar
  • 2 T salt
  • 1 C daikon, cut into match sticks
  • 1 C carrot, peeled and cut into match sticks
  • 1 t crushed red pepper

Prepare Nuac Cham sauce

Since this uses ingredients similar tot he pickled daikon and carrots, I would recommend making this the day before. Mix the following together, stirring well:

  • 1/4 C fish sauce (I used Three Crabs, but Red Boat works fine, too; it’s a little saltier)
  • 1/4 C rice wine vinegar
  • 1/4 C granulated sugar
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 1/2 grated carrot
  • 1 Thai chili, seeded and minced finely
  • 2 limes, juiced

Prepare shallots

Peel then slice shallots thinly. Separate the layers like you would for onion rings. Stir in a tablespoon of flour or corn starch, and mix by hand. The purpose of the flour is to soak up excess water. The mixture should look dry. Give it some time to air out.

  • 1 large or two small shallots, peeled, then sliced thinly. Separate the layers.
  • 1 T flour or corn starch

Prepare rice vermicelli noodles

… according to directions. If, like mine, your rice noodles lack directions in English (or at all), try this: boil a lot of water. Place rice noodles in the boiling water for about three minutes, stirring once a minute to prevent sticking. Rinse them off with cold water (to retard cooking), shake all the water off you can, and set aside. Vermicelli is thin, so it will cook quickly.

  • 8 ounces rice sticks or rice vermicelli

Prepare meatballs.

In the food processor bowl, give the shallot, garlic cloves and Thai chili a few whirls to mince. Dump out into a bowl. Add the chicken to the food processor and chop up.

If you’re using a lemongrass stalk, bless you: I just cut with a knife – chopped off both ends, sliced in half to remove the tough outer layer, finely sliced, then minced. (2024-03-11: When I redid this, I used a heaping teaspoon of ground lemongrass powder. Much easier.) Add these to the medium bowl with the remaining ingredients. Mix well.

  • 12-16 ounces ground chicken, dark meat preferred, but chicken breast is ok. You can grind this in a food processor.
  • 1 grated carrot
  • 1 C shiitake mushrooms, chopped fine
  • 1 lemongrass (whatever the unit of lemongrass is), finely chopped
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 Thai chili, seeded and minced finely
  • 1 t sugar
  • 1 T corn starch

Prepare garnish.

Chop four large Romaine lettuce leaves. Mix in the remaining spices. (Or, if you have a fussy eater, just have everything in discrete bowls and let your eaters unleash their creativity.)

  • 4 large Romaine lettuce leaves, washed and chopped.
  • 1/4 C Mint leaves, torn
  • 1/4 C Thai basil leaves, torn. (Normal basil works fine, too.)
  • 1/2 C cilantro, roughly chopped, including the stems. The stems have the most flavor and provide some interesting crunchiness, something I appreciated after making Aash-e-Reshteh.
Fried shallots. After peeling then slicing the shallots, the individual rings are run through corn starch or flour to remove moisture. Fry for about 4-5 minutes at 325F until brown.
Fried Shallots complete. We make extras to nibble on while cooking the rest.

Cook the shallots

Fried shallot add a lovely caramelized taste and crunchiness. In a large skillet, heat several tablespoons of peanut (or other high smoke point) oil to about 325-350F. Drop the shallots in a single layer. Stir about once a minute. They should look crisp in about 4-5 minutes. Scoop these out and let them dry on a paper towel. With the oil still hot, let’s …

Frying ten chicken meat blobs for the Chicken Bun Cha recipe. I use a disher to dollop out a ball, flatten it, then cook few minutes on each side. The crispy exterior is pleasing.
Meat blobs, flattened and cooking on the second side. Ideally, you’d like the crispy part to be throughout.

Cook the meat blobs

Using a medium-sized disher, scoop out blobs of meat onto the hot pan with the shallot-infused oil from earlier. Gently flatten the blobs so they’re even thickness, which will help you when cooking. Cook a 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden brown and the meat is done.

This is an assembled chicken bun cha bowl. Vermicelli rice noodles, greens, chicken patties, carrots, fresh spices and fried shallots
One of infinity ways to serve. You really cannot go wrong.

Superheroes, Assemble!

To serve your chicken bun cha bowls, distribute the vermicelli noodles. Top with the garnish. Add some pickled vegetables, 3-5 meat blobs, then top with the fried shallots. Ladle on Nuac Cham sauce to desired level of awesomeness.

Flavors are all excellent. The extra meat blobs and pickled vegetables would work very well in Bahn Mi. For next time, I will try to make it mostly vegetarian by substituting jackfruit for the chicken.