Chicken Breast

Curries can be quite mild or extremely spicy. It all depends on the type of curry powder that is used to make them—and how much is added. Feel free to adjust the recipe according to your own taste.

Saltimbocca, a classic Roman dish, provided the inspiration for this recipe. In our variation we replaced the traditional veal cutlets with chicken.

In this dish, the garlic tops serve as a roasting rack for the chicken. The garlic bottoms are then flipped halfway through the cooking time, to soak up the juices. Serve with toasted slices of French bread, if desired.

Mushrooms, acorn squash, and rosemary lend a woodsy taste to roast chicken. We used cremini mushrooms, but regular white button mushrooms can be substituted.

To complete the meal, add a side of spaghetti or other pasta tossed with a little olive oil and some grated Parmesan cheese, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

This dish may sound spicy, but roasting the poblano chile and combining it with cream actually mellows its flavor and heat. Serve with white rice mixed with chopped fresh cilantro and scallions on the side.

Wrapping the stir-fried chicken in lettuce keeps this dish lower in calories and carbohydrates than it would be if served with tortillas. You could omit the lettuce and serve the chicken over rice, if desired.

Browning the chicken seals in the juices and keeps the inside moist and flavorful. This recipe can be made with pork cutlets instead of chicken. For an earthier flavor, substitute shiitake, cremini, or wild mushrooms for the white mushrooms.

Look for hoisin sauce and rice vinegar in the Asian foods section of your supermarket. Although ingredients vary, hoisin is generally made with soybeans, chiles, and spices. It’s used as a seasoning at the table and in cooking.

This classic French sauce also makes an excellent topping for fish, such as seared salmon or trout. For four servings, steam 1 1/2 pounds trimmed asparagus until crisp-tender, toss with butter, and season with salt and pepper, as desired.

A cornerstone of Vietnamese cooking, this smooth meat paste is the most important recipe in the charcuterie repertoire and forms the base of three sausages in this chapter. It is also used to make meatballs (page 86), acts as the binder for Stuffed Snails Steamed with Lemongrass (page 42), and may be shaped into dumplings similar to French quenelles and poached in a quick canh-style soup (page 61). This recipe, which calls for chicken rather than the traditional pork, is my mother’s modern American approach to gio. Chicken, a luxury meat in Vietnam that is affordable here, is easier to work with and yields a particularly delicately flavored and textured paste. Additionally, chicken breasts and thighs are readily available at supermarkets, while pork leg, the cut typically used, isn’t. A recipe for the pork paste appears in the Note that follows.

This is my riff on the classic Vietnamese pairing of chicken and fresh straw mushrooms. Because only canned straw mushrooms are available here, I have used fresh oyster mushrooms, a good stand-in with a subtlety that complements the snow peas. If oyster mushrooms aren’t available, use fresh shiitakes, removing their stems and slicing the caps into 1/4-inch-thick pieces. For a light meal, serve this quick stir-fry with Napa Cabbage and Shrimp Soup (page 58), a simple stir-fried vegetable like thinly sliced summer squash, and, of course, rice.

An elegant preparation of northern Vietnam, this soup is special-occasion fare. Rather than simmering the rice until it disintegrates into a silky creaminess, the grains are cooked until their ends “bloom” into flowerlike petals, an effect achieved by parboiling the rice and then simmering it for a shorter time than for standard cháo. Tapioca pearls thicken the soup and lend an interesting shimmer, and the halved shrimp turn into pink corkscrews as they cook, adding a final flourish to the presentation.

The Vietnamese repertoire also includes panfried Chinese egg noodles, which are cooked just like rice noodles and crowned with a delicious stir-fry. Full of varied flavors, textures, and color, this stir-fry pairs exceptionally well with the egg noodles. I use fresh noodles about 1/8 inch thick. Their texture is superior to dried noodles, and they offer more body than thin ones.

Unlike the other salads in this chapter, this one uses vinegar in the dressing, rather than lime juice, for its tart edge. Raw cabbage and vinegar are great partners here, just as they are in any coleslaw. Using a mortar to make the dressing is important, as it allows the garlic and chile to bloom. First, pound the garlic and chile. When they have broken up, switch to a circular motion, using the pestle to mash the mixture against the curved walls of the mortar, an action Vietnamese cooks refer to as smearing (quet) food. A richly hued orange-red paste emerges that has a perfume and flavor that cannot be achieved with a machine or hand chopping.

For Vietnamese living abroad, a trip to Saigon would be incomplete without a visit to Ben Thanh Market, a huge maze of fresh food and sundries. Near the center is a food court where vendors hawk popular Viet treats. As you sample their wares, you are apt to strike up conversations with other gluttonous Viet kieu (Vietnamese expats). On one occasion, a man from Texas visiting his family for Tet told me part of his daily routine while in Vietnam included eating mien gà, which was so deliciously light that it allowed him to order more dishes from other vendors. This noodle soup is easy to prepare. Most versions contain shallot, garlic, and chicken giblets, but our family enjoys a simpler preparation that focuses on just a few ingredients, most of which go into the hot stock moments before serving and are then ladled directly into the waiting bowls, with no fancy assembly required. For a nice lunch, present large servings of this soup with a special-event salad (pages 46 to 55). Or, offer it in smaller portions for an elegant beginning to a celebratory meal. This recipe is easily halved.

This is probably the most commonly served salad in the Vietnamese repertoire. Festive looking and tasty, goi dua chuot often makes an appearance at our family celebrations. In fact, my mother made it for the one hundred guests at my wedding reception. Vietnamese delis pack this popular salad for their customers with the dressing on the side. But those versions are often prepared with cucumbers that have thick, waxed skins. I recommend pickling or English cucumbers, as their skins are thin and not waxed and their flavors are superior. Small, briny bay shrimp are easily distributed throughout the salad, to accent every bite, while the chicken and pork lend richness. For an extra note of authenticity, serve the salad with Fried Shrimp Chips (page 37) or Toasted Sesame Rice Crackers (page 320) for scooping up bitefuls.

Here is that American favorite, Chicken Cordon Bleu, deconstructed. This gorgeous dish pulls the soggy ham and cheese out of the stuffing, layering them instead over a crisp, juicy chicken cutlet. The rich triple cream cheese begins to melt when it hits the panko-crusted chicken, which then anchors the paper-thin slices of cured ham to them both. Baby arugula is tossed in a bright, acidic vinaigrette of Dijon mustard and red wine vinegar before being placed atop the dish. The peppery arugula and mustardy vinaigrette cut through the richness of the cheese and complement the salty ham. I serve this at lunch, but it would be wonderful at dinner as well.

Jim Manning and I attended Ole Miss at the same time, but never met. It wasn’t until later that we crossed paths working for Houston’s Acute Catering and discovered that I’d briefly dated one of his roommates. Jim now heads his own business, Jim Manning Catered Affairs, and is one of Houston’s top caterers. This recipe is a lot of work, but it’s elegant and serves a huge crowd, and most of the labor can be done in advance. It’s a great option if you’re hosting a large-scale event. Otherwise, the recipe can be cut in half or even in quarters.