How to make Colm O'Gorman's bang bang chicken banh mi

I had such a lovely response to my chicken fillet roll recipe a few weeks ago, that I decided to bring you another street food chicken sandwich recipe this week. 

This one is a fusion of a Vietnamese ban mhi sandwich and Chinese bang bang chicken. 

I usually use poached chicken to make bang bang chicken, but for this recipe I marinade the chicken in my bang bang sauce and then air fry it on skewers.

The nutty, sweet and spicy bang bang chicken is glorious served in fresh baguettes with a delicious fresh pickled carrot salad and smothered with yet more sauce. 

This gorgeous sandwich is destined to become a family favourite here in our house, so I hope you love it as much as I do.

Bang Bang Chicken Banh Mi

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

The nutty, sweet and spicy bang bang chicken is glorious served in fresh baguettes with a delicious fresh pickled carrot salad and smothered with yet more sauce.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 30 mins

Total Time

 50 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• Bang bang chicken:

• 300g skinless chicken breast fillet

• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

• 15g fresh ginger root

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 red chilli

• 1 tsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp fish sauce

• Juice of a lime

• 1 tbsp runny honey

• 75g crunchy peanut butter

• 1 tbsp sriracha

• 125ml water

• Freshly ground black pepper

• Pickled carrot salad:

• 200g carrots

• 125ml white wine vinegar

• 125ml water

• 50g caster sugar

• ½ tsp flaky sea salt

• ½ courgette, about 100g

• 50g sugar snap peas

• 1 spring onion

• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

• To serve:

• 1 fresh large baguette

• A little mayonnaise

• ¼ cucumber

• Handful of chopped roasted peanuts

• Some thinly sliced red chilli

• A little fresh coriander

Method

1. Make the bang bang sauce. Grate the garlic and ginger and finely chop the red chilli. Leave the seeds and pith in the chilli if you like a bit of heat but discard them if you want a milder sauce. Heat a teaspoon of sesame oil over a high heat in a small saucepan.

2. Reduce the heat to medium, add the garlic, ginger, and chilli and cook for a minute or two. Next, add the soy sauce, honey, lime juice and fish sauce. Stir well, bring the sauce to a soft boil, and then stir in the peanut butter and sriracha. Add 125 ml of cold water, stir to combine and bring the pan back to a simmer. Add a good grind of black pepper and cook for about two minutes. Taste and season with more soy sauce or lime juice if needed. Now remove the sauce from the heat and allow it to cool a little.

3. Cut the chicken breasts in half lengthways, and then cut the strips crossways into thirds to make roughly 3cm chunks. Pop those into a bowl and pour over one third of the bang bang sauce. Stir to thoroughly coat the chicken, cover and set aside.

4. Time now to make the pickled carrots for the salad. Heat the vinegar, water and sugar in a small pan over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the salt. Wash, peel and trim the carrots. For this salad you should ideally julienne the carrots, which means to cut them into very thin strips. The easiest and quickest way to do this is to use a food processor with a julienne blade, or a mandolin, but you can also do it using a good sharp knife.

5. To do it with a knife, cut the peeled and trimmed carrot into 10cm lengths. Trim away one side and lay the carrot on a flat surface. Now cut it into 2-3mm thick slices. Arrange the slices in a stack and cut into 2-3mm thick matchsticks. Repeat with the remaining pieces of carrot. Pop the prepared carrot into a bowl and pour over the pickling liquid. Give it a stir to make sure the carrot is well coated with the liquid and set aside.

6. Next, wash, trim and julienne the courgette. Wash and trim the spring onion and cut that into thin long strips as well. Wash the sugar snap peas and cut those into three lengthways. Set aside while you prepare the chicken for the air fryer.

7. Skewer the marinated chicken pieces tightly onto some bamboo skewers cut to length so that they will fit into the basket of your air fryer. You should be able to get six chunks of chicken onto each skewer. Arrange the skewers in the basket of your air fryer, and cook them at 190 Celsius for 15 minutes, turning then once halfway through. If you do not have an air fryer, you can cook the chicken in your oven at 200 Celsius for the same time, or on a griddle pan. Do check the chicken to make sure it is properly cooked when you take it off the pan by cutting through one of the thicker chunks.

8. While the chicken is cooking, finish the salad. Remove the carrots from the pickling juice and pop them into a bowl along with the courgette, spring onion and sugar snap peas. Add one teaspoon of toasted sesame oil and toss to mix the salad.

9. Cut the baguette into four equal sized pieces and warm them in your oven or air fryer at 160 Celsius for a few minutes. Warm the remaining bang bang sauce, adding a little water to loosen it up a little if required. Cut the cucumber into julienne, or into thin strips widthways if you prefer.

10. Remove the cooked chicken from the skewers. Slice the warm baguette pieces in half lengthways and spread them with a little mayonnaise. Arrange a generous serving of the pickled carrot salad on the base of each piece of bread. Divide the chicken across the four servings, piling it on top of the salad. Spoon the bang bag sauce over the chicken, and top that with a little more salad, the cucumber, some chopped peanuts, a little finely sliced red chilli and some roughly chopped coriander. Add the top of the baguette and cut each sandwich into two widthways to make them more manageable to eat.

11. Serve immediately with any remaining picked carrot salad on the side.