Rice vermicelli (Recipe: rice noodle salad with chicken)

Updated June 2010.

 

My name is Lydia, and I'm a noodle-holic.

You know the drill.

"Hi, Lydia."

If there's a Noodles Anonymous chapter nearby, please let me know. I need it. I have never, ever, met a noodle I didn't love. I'd like to think I'm picky, like a chocoholic who eschews Hershey bars for cacao with a pedigree. But when it comes to noodles, I'm not picky, and my pantry proves it.

One shelf stocks Italian pasta: rotini, gemelli, cavatappi, spaghetti. Farfalle and lasagna. Orzo and teeny weeny ditalini. On another shelf, you'll find a stash of Asian noodles, with exotic names like banh pho, lo mein, banh trang, cellophane noodles (translucent, made from mung beans) and rice vermicelli.

Wait a minute. Vermicelli — isn't that Italian? What's it doing on the Asian shelf?

Popular in every Asian cuisine, rice vermicelli, a.k.a. rice sticks, a.k.a. mi fen or mee fun in Chinese, sen mee in Thai, maifun in Japanese, bihoon in Tagalog, banh hoi in Vietnamese and bee hoon in Malay, probably originated in China, which has been called the mother-cuisine of all Asian cooking.

Product labeling is inconsistent; what's called rice vermicelli comes in a variety of thicknesses, from thread-like to the flattened ribbons resembling fettucini, commonly used in making pad Thai. You want to buy the thin noodles, the ones that look like Italian vermicelli (thinner than spaghetti). Shop with your eyes, and read the ingredients on the label (always listed in English, for packaged food sold in the US) to make sure what you're buying is made from rice and water.

Dried rice noodles need a bit of a presoak, in warm tap water for 15-20 minutes. Then, drop the noodles into boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Rinse under cold water, and drain.

Bun gao (rice noodle salad with chicken)
Goi cuon/nime chow (fresh Vietnamese salad rolls with or without shrimp) 

Two recipes in one: same ingredients, different sauce. Or maybe you want to use the same sauce? Or switch them around? These dishes expand or contract with the number of people you’re serving. Make as much or as little as looks good to you. With the components cooked, shredded and chopped, and stored in the fridge, assembling these dishes takes only a minute.

Serves 6 or more, depending on what else you serve.

Ingredients

1-1/2 lb rice vermicelli
1 package banh trang (rice paper rounds)

Leftover cooked chicken (1 lb for 6-8 people)
1 dozen cooked and cooled medium  shrimp, optional

Shredded carrots
Shredded cucumber (European seedless cukes work best)
Shredded iceberg lettuce (3/4 head for 6 people)
Handful of mint leaves
Mung bean sprouts (1/2 lb for 6 people)
Chopped peanuts (dry roasted, unsalted), for topping – a few tablespoons

Nuoc Cham
Chinese peanut dressing

Directions

Fill a bowl with hot water. Soak the rice vermicelli for 15 minutes, until flexible. Drain. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in the rice vermicelli, and cook for 1 minute. Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain again. Set aside.

To make the bun gao salad: To a large serving bowl, add the cooked rice vermicelli , carrots, cucumber, lettuce, bean sprouts, and mint leaves. Top with chicken. Toss with nuoc cham. Top with chopped peanuts and serve. (If assembling the salad ahead, don’t add the dressing until you are ready to serve.)

And here's my recipe for goi cuon salad rolls, using the same ingredients.

VARIATIONS: Cooked pork instead of shrimp for the salad rolls, or grilled tofu strips for a totally vegetarian dish. Grilled shrimp or thinly sliced grilled flank steak instead of chicken in the salad. Use leftover meat, chicken, fish, even grilled tofu in the salad. Fresh basil leaves instead of, or in addition to, mint leaves in either dish.

[Printer-friendly recipe.]

More rice noodles:
Rice stick noodle salad with caramelized shrimp, from The Perfect Pantry
Pad Thai, from The Perfect Pantry
Fried rice vermicelli, from Rasa Malaysia
Mee Siam, from Teczcape

Need more ideas for how to create salads with pizzazz? Get Dress Up Your Salad, my e-book packed with easy mix-and-match recipes, full-color photos and a few fun videos. Exciting salad recipes from everyday ingredients can be just one click away, on any computer, tablet or smart phone, with the FREE Kindle Reading app. Click here to learn more.

One shelf stocks Italian pasta: rotini, gemelli, cavatappi, spaghetti. Farfalle and lasagna. Orzo and teeny weeny ditalini. On another shelf, you'll find a stash of Asian noodles, with exotic names like banh pho, lo mein, banh trang, cellophane noodles (translucent, made from mung beans) and rice vermicelli.

Wait a minute. Vermicelli — isn't that Italian? What's it doing on the Asian shelf?

Popular in every Asian cuisine, rice vermicelli, a.k.a. rice sticks, a.k.a. mi fen or mee fun in Chinese, sen mee in Thai, maifun in Japanese, bihoon in Tagalog, banh hoi in Vietnamese and bee hoon in Malay, probably originated in China, which has been called the mother-cuisine of all Asian cooking.

Product labeling is inconsistent; what's called rice vermicelli comes in a variety of thicknesses, from thread-like to the flattened ribbons resembling fettucini, commonly used in making pad Thai. You want to buy the thin noodles, the ones that look like Italian vermicelli (thinner than spaghetti). Shop with your eyes, and read the ingredients on the label (always listed in English, for packaged food sold in the US) to make sure what you're buying is made from rice and water.

Dried rice noodles need a bit of a presoak, in warm tap water for 15-20 minutes. Then, drop the noodles into boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Rinse under cold water, and drain.

Bun gao (rice noodle salad with chicken)
Goi cuon/nime chow (fresh Vietnamese salad rolls with or without shrimp) 

Two recipes in one: same ingredients, different sauce. Or maybe you want to use the same sauce? Or switch them around? These dishes expand or contract with the number of people you’re serving. Make as much or as little as looks good to you. With the components cooked, shredded and chopped, and stored in the fridge, assembling these dishes takes only a minute.

Serves 6 or more, depending on what else you serve.

Ingredients

1-1/2 lb rice vermicelli
1 package banh trang (rice paper rounds)

Leftover cooked chicken (1 lb for 6-8 people)
1 dozen cooked and cooled medium  shrimp, optional

Shredded carrots
Shredded cucumber (European seedless cukes work best)
Shredded iceberg lettuce (3/4 head for 6 people)
Handful of mint leaves
Mung bean sprouts (1/2 lb for 6 people)
Chopped peanuts (dry roasted, unsalted), for topping – a few tablespoons

Nuoc Cham
Chinese peanut dressing

Directions

Fill a bowl with hot water. Soak the rice vermicelli for 15 minutes, until flexible. Drain. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in the rice vermicelli, and cook for 1 minute. Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain again. Set aside.

To make the bun gao salad: To a large serving bowl, add the cooked rice vermicelli , carrots, cucumber, lettuce, bean sprouts, and mint leaves. Top with chicken. Toss with nuoc cham. Top with chopped peanuts and serve. (If assembling the salad ahead, don’t add the dressing until you are ready to serve.)

And here's my recipe for goi cuon salad rolls, using the same ingredients.

VARIATIONS: Cooked pork instead of shrimp for the salad rolls, or grilled tofu strips for a totally vegetarian dish. Grilled shrimp or thinly sliced grilled flank steak instead of chicken in the salad. Use leftover meat, chicken, fish, even grilled tofu in the salad. Fresh basil leaves instead of, or in addition to, mint leaves in either dish.

[Printer-friendly recipe.]

More rice noodles:
Rice stick noodle salad with caramelized shrimp, from The Perfect Pantry
Pad Thai, from The Perfect Pantry
Fried rice vermicelli, from Rasa Malaysia
Mee Siam, from Teczcape

Need more ideas for how to create salads with pizzazz? Get Dress Up Your Salad, my e-book packed with easy mix-and-match recipes, full-color photos and a few fun videos. Exciting salad recipes from everyday ingredients can be just one click away, on any computer, tablet or smart phone, with the FREE Kindle Reading app. Click here to learn more.

Comments

I love noodles, I love pasta, I love food and I love the salad rolls. That was one of the best cooking group menus.

I like the way rice noodles taste and the seem sort of smoother than wheat noodles. Is it my imagination, or do they hold the sauces better?

Seems to me that the noodles have less flavor of their own than wheat noodles, so maybe they just show off the assertive flavor of sauces better. Like tofu. I like to cook them with incredibly spicy sauces, full of my favorite chili paste with garlic. Yum.

Just this meal we ate noodles. I have read this one already before and I searched again because I wanted this to be done by our cook next she gets the chance of having noodles on our table.

Is it possible to use banh hoi noodles instead of banh pho for pad thai?

Rashmi, banh hoi (very fine) rice noodles might not hold up well in a dish like pad thai. I've never tried it, so I can't say for sure, but I think you'd want to stick with the thicker rice noodles for pad thai.