Fresh Spring Rolls with Thai Chicken

I make these every week....they are great for lunch or a snack. I always use to eat them with spicy mayo in this recipe, but now I find adding chicken gives them much more flavour and a little more sustenance. In the following recipe I used a spicy Thai dipping sauce as the flavour enhancer when cooking the chicken, but these wraps are really friggin good with the Sticky Maple Chicken recipe too - a definite try!

Makes roughly 8 wraps when cut

Ingredients:

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast OR 3 chicken thighs

1/2 cup of Sweet Thai Dipping sauce (made here, or bottled stuff)

1 handful of vermicelli noodles (a little more than 1 cup when cooked)

1 lime

1 carrot, peeled and shredded/julienned

1 green onion, sliced thinly

1/2 red or yellow pepper, sliced thinly

1 & 1/2 cups of fresh cilantro

4 rice paper wraps

salt and pepper

olive oil

**If making these wraps with the Sticky Maple Chicken recipe, click here.

Directions:

Step 1: In a frying pan over medium heat, add 1 tbsp of olive oil. Slice your chicken breast in half, lengthwise. Season on both sides with a little salt and pepper. When the oil is hot, add your chicken. If you using chicken thighs, no need to cut them.

Step 2: Brown the chicken for 3-4 minutes then flip and brown again for another 3-4 minutes. Add the thai sauce or maple sauce and place a cover over the chicken. After 10 minutes, lower the heat to medium-low. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes with lid on.

Step 3: While the chicken is cooking, prepare the vermicelli noodles and veggies. Place noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let cook for 5 minutes, drain and remove excess water. When cooled, squeeze the juice of 1 lime over the noodles.

Step 4: When the chicken is cooked (it's usually falling apart by now), place on a cutting board and slice thinly.

Step 5: To assemble the rice paper wraps, place some boiling water into a deep dish that will allow the wrap to lay flat. Add a few splashes of cold water to the boiling water so you don't burn yourself. Place 1 wrap into the water, pressing down so all edges are submerged. Let cook for 30 seconds. Carefully squeeze out any water.

Step 6: Place the wrap on a large cutting board. Begin by add some vermicelli noodles (1/4 the amount) to the centre of the wrap, then shredded carrot, red pepper bell, chicken, lots of cilantro and green onions. If you wish, add a tiny amount of Thai sauce if needed.

Step 7: To roll, place part of the wrap closest to you over the vegetables. Now fold in the sides towards the middle and finish rolling. Let the wraps rest a few minutes before cutting the wraps in half. Continue with the remaining wraps and ingredients.

See the following photo on how to assemble the wrap:

Place ingredients in the centre of the wrap, fold the wrap over the vegetables, and fold in the sides then finishing rolling: