Vietnamese Fried Chicken Sandwich

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds chicken thighs
• 4-6 brioche burger buns
• 2 Tbsp room temp butter (for buttering your buns)
• Vegetable / neutral oil for frying 

Fish sauce glaze

• 2 tsp vegetable oil 
• 1-2 tsp garlic clove, minced
• 1 Thai chilli, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp Red Boat fish sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar or lime juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar 
• Cornstarch slurry (2 tsp cornstarch and 1 Tbsp warm water, or as needed) 

Buttermilk soak

• 2-3 cups of buttermilk
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp pepper
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper

Seasoned Flour

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp paprika 
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• ½ tsp sugar

Slaw

• ¼ of a whole cabbage, finely sliced (purple / white / both)
• ½ of a whole cucumber, medium julienne 
•  ½  cup cilantro, finely chopped
•  2 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1-2 Tbsp rice vinegar 
• Salt & ground black pepper to taste

Pickled carrots & daikon 

• 1 carrot
• 1/2 white radish / daikon 
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup distilled vinegar 
• 2 tsp salt 

Toppings

• Pickled carrots
• Cilantro 
• Mayonnaise spread

Directions:

1. Soak the chicken thighs in the buttermilk soak with salt, pepper, and cayenne into a glass container. Soak this for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight. 
2. Prepare the pickled carrots and radish. Slice the carrots and daikon into julienne size, in a bowl add a generous amount of salt and mix well. The salt will help remove as much liquid from the vegetables. After resting for 15 minutes, drain the liquid, rinse well, and drain the remaining liquid. In a large glass jar, make your pickled brine by combining warm water, sugar, distilled vinegar, and salt.  Add the carrots and radish into the jar, let it fully cool down, seal it with a lid, and store it in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.  
3. Make the fish sauce glaze. Pour oil into a saucepan; add minced garlic, Thai chilies, and sauté until aromatic. Stir in sugar, water, rice, vinegar, Red Boat fish sauce; simmer for 5 minutes. Make your cornstarch slurry in a separate bowl and whisk cornstarch mixture into the saucepan. Set aside to cool down. 
4. Make slaw by combining all of the chopped vegetables into a mixing bowl, along with mayo, rice vinegar, salt, pepper, and toss well. 
5. Coat chicken thighs in seasoned flour and shallow fry for up to 7-8 minutes on each side or until golden. Set aside to rest on a baking rack. 
6. In a mixing bowl, add fish sauce glaze and coat one piece of fried chicken at a time. Set aside to rest. 
7. Butter each side of the brioche buns (on the cut-side) and toast this on a frying pan cut-side-down until golden brown.
8. Assemble fried chicken burger with slaw, fried chicken, picked carrots and daikon, more cilantro, and mayo. Enjoy!

Recipe Source: Sylvia Nguyen from Nguyen Food Stall