Vietnamese Chicken Salad Recipe with Cabbage, Crunchy Peanuts, Crispy Fried Shallots

This Vietnamese chicken salad recipe makes a fantastic year-round salad called gỏi gà bắp cải in Vietnamese. The healthy Vietnamese shredded chicken salad has heaps of texture thanks to shredded cabbage and carrot, crunchy peanuts and crispy fried onions. It’s also loaded with umami with a lively dressing of Vietnamese fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic, and chilli.

Our easy recipe for a classic Vietnamese chicken salad – sometimes called a Vietnamese shredded chicken salad or a Vietnamese chicken and cabbage salad, as shredded cabbage is a key ingredient alongside the pulled poached chicken – makes goi ga bap cai or, more correctly, gỏi gà bắp cải, which literally means salad (gỏi) of chicken (gà) and cabbage (bắp cải).

It’s also one of our best nut recipes thanks to the crunchy peanuts, which give the salad loads of texture – also courtesy of the crispy fried shallots and shredded cabbage – in the way that the best Southeast Asian salads do. Som tam is another great example of those textured Asian salads. Like som tam, this salad is fantastic with grilled pork and fried chicken.

This Vietnamese chicken salad recipe makes one of the best Southeast Asian salads and one of the things I love most about Southeast Asian cuisines is salad. There’s an infinite array of Southeast Asian salads eaten both as single bowl meals (som tam, again) and as one of a number of dishes making up a spread accompanying rice for a family meal.

The cuisines of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam all feature deliciously addictive salads and we’ve got loads of Southeast Asian salad recipes in our archives, but if you’re new to Southeast Asian salads, some of my favourites are this Shan tomato salad from Myanmar, this Thai grilled eggplant salad, this Cambodian pork and yam bean salad and banana flower salad, and this Vietnamese bitter melon salad.

Before I tell you about this Vietnamese chicken salad recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon; or buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers.

And if you don’t find cooking inspo in this post, do browse our recipe archives, which are brimming with 15 years of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected around the world, from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. Now let’s tell you about this Vietnamese chicken salad recipe.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad Recipe for Goi Ga Bap Cai

This classic Vietnamese chicken salad recipe will make you a fantastic year-round salad. In summer, you can eat it just as it is, as a one-bowl meal or with other salads, perhaps some fish, and maybe slices of crusty baguette.

In winter, you can serve it with the poached chicken, still warm, alongside a warm Vietnamese rice porridge, hot Vietnamese soup, or even a Vietnamese beef stew. But I’m happy having a big bowl of this salad on its own, as it’s filling, healthy and so satisfying.

In many ways, this Vietnamese chicken and cabbage salad exemplifies what’s so good about Southeast Asian salads. It’s fresh, fragrant, textured, and flavourful, not only courtesy of the ingredients, but that quintessential Southeast Asian salad dressing of fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic, and chilli.

I’ll tell you more about that dressing and share some tips to making this Vietnamese chicken salad recipe below.

Tips to Making this Crunchy Vietnamese Chicken Salad Recipe

Just a few tips to making this Vietnamese chicken salad recipe as it’s super easy, starting with the chicken. Try to get hold of free range chicken if you can, which is closer in flavour to Vietnamese chickens, which locals call ‘running chickens’ as they’re not caged and can roam wherever they like.

We generally prefer brown chicken meat, which has so much more flavour than white chicken meat, but shredded chicken breasts work really well with this salad. I like to carefully poach the chicken breasts so they’re nice and moist with a lemongrass stalk, kaffir lime leaves and ground dried herbs.

But if you can’t source the fresh lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, just go with the ground herbs. Not only will they have subtly flavour the kitchen, you’ll end up with a lovely gently flavoured stock that you transfer to a glass jar, keep in the fridge, and use as a base for a Vietnamese rice porridge or soup.

Make sure to use a digital thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken as it’s poaching so it doesn’t over-cook. When it’s at 74˚C/ 165˚F it’s ready. After you’ve removed the chicken breasts and they’ve cooled, just pull the chicken apart by hand into strips and refrigerate them until the salad is ready.

Next, make the salad dressing, although you could also prepare it before you poach the chicken as the longer you leave it, the more the flavours will meld together. You want a really good quality Vietnamese fish sauce.

I have an aged artisanal Vietnamese fish sauce I adore, but you won’t find it outside Vietnam. I’ve never tried it, as it’s not available in Southeast Asia, but American friends, recommend a Vietnamese-American fish sauce, made in Vietnam called Red Boat Fish Sauce.

Fresh lime juice, fresh garlic (not minced garlic in a jar) and fresh chillies are all essential. We use birds eye chillies, but I usually suggest the long red chillies, deseeded, for this salad, if you’re not a fan of spicy.

I use a mix of both white/green and purple cabbage, for the colour combo, as we eat with our eyes, right? – which is also why I suggest purple shallots, but white/brown onions will work too – and I recommend using a mandoline to shred the cabbage and I use this snazzy tool for the carrot, otherwise, a good old-fashioned box grater or a food processor with a shredding attachment will do the trick.

Lastly, fresh fragrant herbs, pan-roasted peanuts and crunchy fried shallots are all a must.

When it comes to the herbs, a traditional Vietnamese chicken salad recipe will call for rau răm or Vietnamese coriander, but I know it can be hard to source outside Vietnam.

We rarely see it here in Cambodia, only occasionally at the markets, so I use whatever I can get my hands on: fresh coriander (cilantro), fresh mint, or even fresh basil. I used fresh mint for today’s photo shoot.

You can buy roasted peanuts, but I usually pan-roast raw peanuts in this adorable little non-stick single-egg pan, which we use to fry perfect eggs.

While you could fry up your own shallots, I suggest buying store-bought crispy fried shallots, as they’re usually crunchier than you can get them at home.

Crunchy Vietnamese Chicken Salad Recipe for Goi Ga Bap Cai

Crunchy Vietnamese Chicken Salad Recipe for Goi Ga Bap Cai

AuthorLara Dunston

This Vietnamese chicken salad recipe makes a fantastic summer salad called gỏi gà bắp cải in Vietnamese. This healthy cabbage and chicken salad has a lively dressing of Vietnamese fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic, and chilli, and is topped with crunchy peanuts and crispy fried onions. It's often called Vietnamese slaw as it’s made with two kinds of cabbage and carrot.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Salad

Cuisine Vietnamese

Servings made with recipeServings 2

Calories 464 kcal

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• 2 chicken breasts - poached, shredded
• 1 tsp dried ground coriander
• 1 tsp dried ground ginger
• 1 tsp dried lemongrass or a stalk of fresh lemongrass
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 3 tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 birds eye chilli or a milder long red chilli - finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove - finely chopped
• 150 g green/white cabbage
• 100 g purple/red cabbage - shredded
• 100 g carrot - grated
• 1 purple shallot - finely sliced
• 1 tbsp fresh mint leaves
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander/cilantro
• 1 tbsp pan roasted peanuts
• 2 tbsp fried shallots

Instructions

 

• Poach the chicken breasts: place the chicken breasts in a pot large enough so they’re sitting on the bottom of the pot; pour in just enough water to cover the chicken pieces; add the dried ground coriander, ground ginger and dried lemongrass or a stalk of fresh lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves; bring the water to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the chicken breasts are done. Use a thermometer to check that the internal temperature is 74°C/ 165°F.
• Remove the chicken breasts to cool, then when they’re cool shred the chicken pieces by hand into strips.
• Make the dressing: to a mixing jug with spout, pour in the Vietnamese fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, sliced chillies, and chopped garlic, and stir vigorously until well combined and the sugar has dissolved.
• To a large mixing bowl, add the shredded cabbage, grated carrots, sliced purple shallots, and half of the fresh herbs, and use your hands to combine well, then add the salad dressing and use a spoon to thoroughly combine, then add the shredded chicken just before serving and combine.
• When you’re ready to eat, pile the salad onto a serving dish, sprinkle on the rest of the fresh herbs, pan-roasted peanuts and crunchy fried shallots, and serve immediately.

Nutrition

Calories: 464kcalCarbohydrates: 43gProtein: 54gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.03gCholesterol: 145mgSodium: 2503mgPotassium: 1590mgFiber: 7gSugar: 29gVitamin A: 9404IUVitamin C: 104mgCalcium: 130mgIron: 3mg

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make this Vietnamese chicken salad recipe as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.