Vietnamese Chicken Summer Rolls
with pineapple banana smoothie
This Vietnamese meal is light and delicious and just takes a little practice. Once you get a hang of making these rolls, you can get creative with any filling under the sun! Enjoy dipped in classic nuoc nam and enjoy with a tropical smoothie!
Smarts: If you're feeling lazy and don't want to make the rolls, just enjoy this as a noodle bowl with the nuoc nam as a dressing.
Ingredients
- Pineapple - 1/2, chopped
- Bananas - 2
- Frozen strawberries - 2 cups
- Coconut milk - 1 cup ((Or sub plain yogurt))
- Rice vermicelli noodles - 4 oz ((Find these thin rice noodles in the ethnic aisle. If you can't find them, substitute with another thin noodle))
- Leftover chicken breasts - 1 lb, sliced
- Cucumbers - 2/3 lb, sliced into matchsticks
- Green lettuce - 4 leaves, torn
- Rice papers - 16 sheets ((You will probably make about 4 to 6 / person. Look for them in the ethnic aisle))
- Leftover grated carrots - 1 cup ((~1 carrot))
- Leftover nuoc nam - 1 cup
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Cook rice noodles - Cook according to package instructions. If wrapping summer rolls on the same day, keep the noodles in cold water until you’re ready to wrap. (Can be done up to 3 days ahead)
- Chicken - Slice if not done from yesterday. You can lightly warm them in the microwave - ~45 seconds will do.
- Cucumbers / Green lettuce - Prep as directed.
- Make smoothie - Blend pineapple with bananas, strawberries, and coconut milk (or yogurt). If it’s not sweet enough for you, you can sweeten it with honey, Stevia, or sugar. Refrigerate until serving. (Can be done up to 3 days ahead)
Unlock this meal along with hundreds of smart meal plans and never stress about "What's for dinner?" again
Try for freeLearn More
Make
- Fill a frying pan with about 1 ½” (3.75 cm) of water. Heat water over medium-low heat - it shouldn't be so hot that you can’t touch it.
- Dip rice paper into water and rotate through water (make sure to watch this video because it can be a bit tricky to prevent the rice paper from sticking). Place onto a plate. Do 4 at a time and then assemble 4 rolls.
- To assemble rolls, layer lettuce, noodles, carrots, cucumbers, and chicken at the end of the rice paper that is close to you. Don’t over-fill or the paper will break. Fold rice paper over the filling from the bottom up. Then fold sides over. Roll as tightly as possible (Again, watch the video, which is much better than my description).
- Repeat until done. Assemble until you have no more filling.
- Enjoy rolls dipped with nuoc nam sauce, and smoothie on the side!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
52 reviews
I favorited this, because I want to get good at making spring rolls. I think there is so much versatility if I master it! Need to check out other variations on CookSmarts. Notes to self: 1) be sure to heat the pan only lightly to soften rice paper rolls; 2) find a peanut sauce to use; 3) cover up with saran wrap to refrigerate or steam to reheat. Also, it's a great smoothie! I used 1/2 light coconut and 1/2 greek yogurt.
I couldn't find rice papers at my grocery store, so I opted to make this as a noodle bowl. The vermicelli noodles were really sticky and hard to eat - did I over-cook them? Other than those issues, there was a really nice flavor in this dish.
I've made these before and still prefer shrimp over chicken, but I enjoyed the sauce seasoning
chicken made this more filling than my usual recipe, but it was still a lot of work. made peanut sauce too, and enjoyed it more.
I would like basil in this which I will try next time. We had it with Hoisin sauce... relish!