Vietnamese Rice Noodles with Chicken

Thursday is the best day of the week at home. Jeff and I always have it off and we have labeled it our date night. We usually go watch a movie at Alamo Drafthouse and if there isn't anything we want to watch then we usually grab a pint and a growler to go. Thursday at the Westlakes Drafthouse is $2 pints and $10 growlers. A great deal, especially considering that some of the beers on tap are so much more expensive in the grocery stores.

Tonight there wasn't anything interesting to watch so we decided to get a Stone IPA to go and go make Vietnamese food. There is this restaurant we LOVE to go to off of Braun and 1604 called VN Bistro, and they have this dish that we always get. So today we decided we would try to mimic it. We got a recipe online and tweaked it with things we knew came in the VN Bistro dish. Jeff was so excited about this dish that he basically made it all on his own.

The dish is a big bowl with different layers. The first layer is an assortment of veggies, then goes the vermicelli noodles, and then topped with chicken, crushed peanuts, cilantro, scallions, and a sauce.

I have broken down the ingredients and instructions as best I could. The final picture will show how it all comes together.

INGREDIENTS FOR SAUCE
1 tablespoon Lime Juice
1 crushed Garlic Clove
1/4 cup Water
1/4 cup Fish Sauce
2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar
2 tablespoons Sugar

In small bowl, pour in the ingredients and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Let stand for 30 minutes so the ingredients come together.

INGREDIENTS FOR CHICKEN MARINADE
2 Large Chicken Breast, tenderized
1/2 Lime, squeezed
2 Cloves of Garlic, diced
1 Serrano Pepper, sliced
2 Scallions, sliced
2 teaspoons Sugar
2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
 
Tenderize chicken by putting them in a zip-lock bag and pound chicken with cast iron skillet. Pour in marinade and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

INGREDIENTS FOR NOODLE BOWL
4 bundles Vermicelli Noodles
1/4 Head of Lettuce, shredded
1/2 Cucumber, sliced thinly
1 cup shredded Carrots


The noodles that we used were bought from an oriental store and were already separated. This is the bag we used:

  To make noodles, boil a pot of hot water and pour over noodles in a pyrex bowl. Let stand for 4-6 minutes, then drain and run under cold water. We used 4 bundles for 2 people, I would probably suggest less if you aren't that hungry. It turns out to be a lot of food.

Next, blanch the carrots in boiling water for 30 seconds. Then drain the carrots and immediately put in a bowl of ice cold water.

  

Drain the carrots, shred the lettuce, and slice the cucumber into small strips. Place in a large bowl.

 

 Now we are ready to start the chicken. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Foil a baking sheet and place the chicken on it with all the contents of the zip-lock. We wanted to lightly bread it to make it crispy, so Jeff decided to sprinkle some Panko bread crumbs on top. To make the Panko bread crumbs stick we added a little bit of olive oil to it. About 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs and 2 teaspoons of olive oil.

Bake the chicken for 15-20 minutes, until the breadcrumbs are a golden brown and chicken juices run clear.

 

While chicken is resting, we finally get to prepare the layers of the bowl. The bottom layer will be a handful of veggies, followed by noodles.

Slice the chicken and arrange on the top of the bowl. Garnish with peanuts, scallions, and cilantro. Add more flavor with Sriracha and Hoision Sauce.

This was probably the hardest recipe I've had to explain, but hopefully with all the pictures it made a little bit more sense. =] ENJOY!!