Growing up eating Vietnamese food, I never once saw a salad made with lettuce. In Vietnamese cuisine, salads (or gỏi) are typically made with thinly shredded green papaya or cabbage, piled with aromatic herbs and finished with crushed peanuts for texture. My version of Vietnamese chicken salad brings it all together with steamed cabbage, steamed chicken, a generous handful of herbs, and served with a satisfying tahini-fish sauce dressing.

Steaming is one of the gentler cooking methods, which helps preserve water-soluble nutrients like vitamin C and folate better than boiling does. Steaming generally results in lower nutrient loss compared to boiling or microwaving for cruciferous vegetables. For the chicken, steaming also keeps the meat moist!

One more thing worth mentioning: soaking the sliced onion in ice water for 10 minutes draws out some of the pungent sulfur compounds that make raw onion sharp and lingering. Soaking leaves you with a milder bite that doesn’t overpower everything else.

Steamed Vietnamese Chicken Salad

This Vietnamese steamed chicken salad uses cabbage instead of lettuce, then it’s topped with shredded chicken, carrots, and fragrant herbs. The dressing is a savory-tangy sauce made with fish sauce and tahini.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 40

Total Time 55

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Vietnamese

Servings people

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Ingredients

1 cup shredded chicken breast
4 slices ginger
2 cups cabbage, thinly sliced
2 cups steamed purple cabbage, thinly sliced
¾ cup shredded carrots
⅓ cup onion, sliced thin and soaked in ice water for 10 mins
⅓ cup Vietnamese coriander leaves, chopped
⅓ cup Thai basil leaves, chopped
⅓ cup mint leaves, chopped

Dressing

1 Tbsp garlic, minced
2 Thai chilis, minced
1 lime, juiced
1 lemon, juiced
1 Tbsp mirin
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp tahini
2 Tbsp water

Topping

¼ cup peanuts, crushed
2 tsp sesame seeds

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Instructions
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Steam the chicken breast with ginger slices on top for 25-30 minutes. Remove and discard the ginger, let the chicken cool, then shred.
Steam the purple cabbage for about 7 minutes or until just tender. Set aside to cool.
Make the dressing until smooth and well combined.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all salad ingredients.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well to coat everything evenly.
Top with crushed peanuts and sesame seeds.

Keyword Biohacking, Chicken, Nutrition

Hi, I’m Tam!

I’m a Vietnamese American and the creator behind this recipe blog. I was previously a scientist but now do recipe development and content creation. I turned my love for research and food into intentional, science-backed cooking…

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