Recipe for Mi Quang – Danang style noodles

Last year I wrote two articles about central Vietnam's speciality noodle dish which is known as Mi Quang.
The first was in reference to the noodle lady who sets up shop outside my house at 6am every morning and makes this beef mi quang .
The second was about a great bowl of Mi Quang I found in a ramshackle diner on a dusty main road headed for Ba Na Hills.

Looking back, it makes me feel like a lazy chef . I didn't even give you a recipe.
A year and a half into staying here I'm comfortable about choosing, assessing and even cooking a decent mi quang. This boneless chicken version that we make at Lifestyle Resort Danang ticks all the right boxes.

This chicken mi quang recipe has:

• lots of fresh herbs and local leaves
• succulent pieces of meat in a tasty sauce -
• a fresh fried rice & sesame cracker
• a generous portion size 
• no bones!

To eat, just add in your preferred herbs, chillies and leaves, mix it up and dig in.

Mi Quang recipe – stewed chicken in broth

• Chicken, fresh skinless, boneless thigh 250g, cut into bite sized pieces
• Yellow Annatto Oil 5g
• Oil, vegetable/cooking 10g
• Shallots, red, peeled 20g
• Garlic, peeled 10g

• Peppercorns, freshly crushed, black 2g
• Sugar, white 5g
• Fish sauce, Vietnamese 8g
• Salt 2g 
• Knorr chicken or pork granules 4g
• MSG  (optional) 2g
• Chicken stock or water,450ml

1. Saute chicken in annatto oil with shallot, garlic, turmeric (if using)
2. Add chicken stock
3. Add seasoning ingredients – sugar, salt, MSG, Knorr granules, crushed black pepper and fish sauce
4. Simmer the ingredients together.until chicken is just cooked.

Chef's Tips for Mi Quang

• Chicken should be fresh, with no smell. Try and avoid frozen. Chicken with skin is best 
• Annatto oil is just plain oil simmered with annatto seed, also known as achiote. This is basically a red seed with no flavour at all. It colours the oil yellow to give a rich yellow colour to fried rice, soups and mi quang.
• Many recipes use turmeric root, especially for fish mi quang . If you use turmeric, then it also has the flavour of turmeric. This is nice especially for fish, seafood and chicken. Anatto oil ('coloured oil') is pretty much all for show, not for flavour.
• When you simmer the ingredients, look for a balance of flavours. It should be a little salty, rich with shallot, pepper and chicken, and a full-bodied, tasty sauce.

To assemble the dish:

• Fresh rice noodles (quang noodles) or rice noodle sheets cut thinly with a knife
• Sesame rice cracker – fried (or crisp fried cracker of some sort)
• Coriander and spring onion for garnish
• Crushed roasted peanuts
• A plate of greens and herbs. We use: banana flower, diep ca leaf, baby cress, lettuce, mint, basil, green chilli and mint.

Serving your Mi Quang

• Just put the fresh noodles in the bowl at room temperature.
• Ladle over the hot stewed chicken and broth to moisten the noodles
• Garnish with crushed roasted peanuts, coriander and spring onion
• Add the crunchy banh trang rice cracker for a textural contrast
• Serve with a great selection of vibrant greens, mix together and eat

NOTE: Real Da Nang style uses a boiled egg, cut in half, and also a whole cooked prawn, baby to medium size.

Enjoy this recipe? Click here for a great seafood mi quang recipe from Lello beach lounge. It's a summertime best-seller. 
Don't forget to share chef-a-gogo with some friends.
Thanks for stopping by.