Gỏi Gà
Poached chicken torn into shreds with cabbage, herbs and a sharp fish sauce dressing. Forty minutes, mostly cooling.
Photograph credit: Goi Ga by Nico Nelson · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr
Salt the shredded cabbage and squeeze it before it meets the dressing, or the salad floods within ten minutes. And poach the chicken rather than roasting it: poached meat stays moist enough to tear into long shreds, which hold dressing in a way that chopped roast chicken does not. Cool it in its own broth so it does not dry as it sits.
Questions About Gỏi Gà
How long does Gỏi Gà take to make?
25 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 35 minutes of cooling and salting, so allow 1 hour 15 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 4.
The Method for Gỏi Gà
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Simmer the chicken in the water with the ginger, spring onions and poaching salt for 15 minutes.
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Take the pan off the heat and leave the chicken in the broth to cool for 20 minutes.
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Toss the shredded cabbage with the drawing salt and leave 15 minutes, then rinse and squeeze dry in a cloth.
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Whisk the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic and chillies until the sugar dissolves.
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Lift the chicken out and tear it into long shreds with your fingers.
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Toss the cabbage, carrot and red onion with half the dressing.
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Add the chicken and the herbs and toss again with the rest of the dressing.
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Taste and correct — it should be sharp, salty and sweet in that order.
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Pile onto a platter.
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Scatter the fried shallots and crushed peanuts over and serve at once.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Tips That Matter
- Salt and squeeze the cabbage.
- Cool the chicken in its broth.
- Tear by hand, do not chop.
Ingredient Swaps
- Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
- Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the red chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
- Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
Serve It With
Prawn crackers · Rice · Cold beer
Storage
Dress to order. Undressed components keep 2 days refrigerated.
Gỏi Gà Nutrition Facts
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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