FEATURE RECIPE
Vietnamese chicken rolls

Vietnamese chicken rolls

When chicken is cooked like this it remains nice and juicy. Make sure you use a good-quality pâté.

Serves 8

Cooking Time Prep time 30 mins, cook 1 hr 30 mins (plus cooling)



8   small bread rolls, halved
120 gm   good-quality pâté such as Pheasant Farm
1 cup each   (loosely packed) coriander and mint leaves
½ cup   (loosely packed) Vietnamese mint leaves
2   green onions, thinly sliced
4   small red chillies, finely chopped, to serve
Poached chicken
250 ml   (1 cup) fish sauce
6 cm   piece of ginger, thickly sliced
100 gm   light palm sugar
1   free-range chicken (about 1.6kg), brought to room temperature
Pickled vegetables
2   carrots, cut into julienne
1   daikon (about 430gm), cut into julienne
150 ml   aged rice wine vinegar (see note)
110 gm   (½ cup) white sugar
Lime mayonnaise
75 gm   (¼ cup) good-quality mayonnaise
¼ tsp   Dijon mustard
2 tsp   lime juice
1 tsp   fish sauce


1 For poached chicken, add ingredients to a very large saucepan of boiling water. Bring back to the boil and cook over high heat for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave chicken to cool in liquid until cooled to room temperature, then drain, discard skin and finely shred meat (discard bones). Refrigerate until required.
2 Meanwhile, for pickled vegetables, combine carrot and daikon in a heatproof bowl and set aside. In a saucepan, bring vinegar, sugar, 150ml water and 1 tbsp sea salt to a simmer over medium heat, pour over vegetables and set aside to cool to room temperature (20-30 minutes).
3 Meanwhile, for lime mayonnaise, combine ingredients in a bowl until smooth. 4 Spread top halves of rolls with mayonnaise. Spread pâté over remaining bottom halves, top with chicken, pickled vegetables, herbs and green onion. Add chilli to taste and serve immediately.

Note Aged rice wine vinegar is available from select delicatessens. If unavailable, substitute with rice wine vinegar.

Drink Suggestion Cold Tiger beer.

RECIPE Lisa Featherby PHOTOGRAPHY William Meppem STYLING Lynsey Fryers and Lisa Featherby DRINK SUGGESTION Max Allen


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