I’m kind of a big sucker for umami-packed Vietnamese noodle dishes that come together easily and allow me to control the volume on the key components. Throw in a bunch of fresh veggies and juicy chicken strips, and you’ve got a winner. I will be making this chicken vermicelli recipe again and again, and anyone who hasn’t made a dressing before from these ingredients is in for a revelation and a treat.
My chicken thighs were on the large side, as were my carrots and my cucumber. The result was a hearty platter of chewy rice noodles tangled up with long strips of carrots and cucumbers, coated in a signature sweet, salty, sour, spicy dressing. 5 minutes was perfect soaking time for the noodles to become tender but not mushy.
I spaced out the prep for this recipe, so after making the dressing in the morning, I was able to let the chicken marinate in the fridge in a ziplock for 8 hours and this really deepened the flavor of the chicken.
Once the dish was completed my wife and I promptly attacked, had seconds, and had enough left for dinner. We paired it with a California sparkling wine – the slight sweetness of the wine was a nice complement to the flavors and also tamed the chiles a bit.