Bun Noodles With Grilled Chicken And Lots Of Herbs

This has been our favourite dish in the hotter months for quite a few years now. We used to call up our local Vietnamese restaurant, place the order and pick them up afterwards whenever cooking was too much of a chaos in out heated up kitchen. As convenient as it might be, the result was always less than satisfactory (really how hard is it to get this right???). The grilled chicken was forever deep fried, the noodle was always too wet and you'll be lucky if you get more than one type of herb in it. Yet another fairly warm day in Melbourne and since I still have some herbs left over from out Vietnamese bbq, I thought this might be the perfect dish for dinner tonight. This is a no brainer, once you have got your dipping sauce right it's all about getting the freshest herbs you can lay your hands on. You may also change the toppings to bbq pork, stir fried beef, beef wrapped in wild betel leaves or sugarcane prawns.

P.S make sure you cook the noodle at least 30 minutes before dinner time as it needs to be completely dry before plated, otherwise the sauce won't stick to it.

serves 4

you'll need;

1/2 cup of Vietnamese mint, roughly chopped

1/2 cup of mint, roughly chopped

1/2 of purple perilla, roughly chopped

1/2 cup of coriander, roughly chopped

1 cup of shredded lettuce

1 cup of bean sprouts

1/4 of a cup of toasted peanut, roughly chopped

5 pieces of rice vermicelli, cooked, rinsed with cold water and drained

sliced chilies

1.5 cups of Vietnamese dipping sauce

3 chicken maryland, boned, skin on (marinated with dash of soy, dash of fish sauce, 1/2 tbs of 5spice powder, grated ginger, grated garlic and dash of cooking oil)

Mix herbs, shredded lettuce, cucumber slices and bean sprouts in a bowl and set aside.

Cook marinated chicken on the bbq for 10 minutes each side, skin side up first. (I used medium flame and closed the hood) Once cooked set aside and rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting.

Place some noodle in a bowl follow by the herbs and vegetable mixed....

Add sliced chicken(pork chop or beef wrapped in wild betel leaves) and top with some roasted peanuts and sliced chilies, pour the Vietnamese dipping sauce over...

Mix well and enjoy!! :)