Thai Glass Noodle Salad with Chicken and Mango Recipe
A light, refreshing salad with glass noodles, chicken and sweet mango is the perfect dish for warm days. In Thailand, similar salads are often eaten as a quick lunch or a snack at street markets – they are filling but don’t weigh you down.
This is a variation on Thai yum-style salads with glass noodles, where sweet fruit is combined with tangy lime and salty fish sauce. The streamlined ingredient list lets you recreate the feel of street-food salads without a special trip to an Asian grocery store.
The combination of sweet mango with a tangy, salty fish-sauce dressing gives this salad a distinctly Thai character that you rarely find in classic chicken salads. Glass noodles make the dish substantial yet still light enough even on hot days. It also travels well, so it’s perfect for a picnic or a packed lunch.
Chef's tips
If you’re taking the salad to a picnic, pack the dressing separately and pour it over just before eating – the noodles won’t swell up and the herbs will stay fresh. Go easy with the chili at first, especially if you’re not sure how hot it is; it’s much easier to add a few extra slices on the plate. Choose a mango that’s slightly soft near the stem but still springy to the touch – if it’s very soft, it will fall apart when you mix the salad.
How to serve
Serve in a large bowl with extra lime wedges and a small bowl of toasted peanuts for sprinkling. It pairs well with a simple cucumber and coriander salad or with grilled prawns as a starter. It’s ideal for summer “bring your own bowl” parties or as a colourful work lunch.
Watch out for
- Don’t soak the noodles for more than 7 minutes – if they get too soft, they’ll turn rubbery and clump into one mass once mixed with the dressing.
- Add the mango at the very end and mix gently with a wide spoon, otherwise a ripe fruit will turn into purée and cloud the dressing.
- Don’t overcook the chicken – it continues to cook a little after you take it off the pan; if you slice it immediately, the juices will run out.
Ingredients
- glass noodles (mung bean vermicelli) - 80 g
- chicken breast - 250 g
- ripe mango - 1 piece
- carrot - 1 piece
- fresh cucumber - 0.5 piece
- onion czerwona mała - 0.5 piece
- fresh coriander - 3 tablespoons
- fresh mint - 2 tablespoons
- fish sauce rybny - 2.5 tablespoons
- lime juice - 3 tablespoons
- sugar brązowy - 1.5 tablespoons
- red chili pepper - 1 piece
- oil roślinny - 1 tablespoon
- roasted unsalted peanuts - 3 tablespoons
Preparation
- Pour boiling water over the glass noodles and leave for 5–7 minutes, until they soften and become translucent. Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside to drain well. The strands should be springy and smooth, not rubbery or falling apart.
- Lightly salt the chicken breast or drizzle with 1–2 teaspoons of soy sauce. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat and fry for 6–8 minutes, turning, until golden on the outside and completely white and juicy inside, with no pink spots.
- Set the cooked chicken aside for 5 minutes so the juices can redistribute, then slice it into thin strips across the grain. The meat should look moist on the cut surface, not dried out at the edges.
- In a small bowl, mix together the fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar and finely chopped chili. Stir until the sugar dissolves; the dressing should be distinctly tangy, salty and slightly sweet – if it’s too sharp, add a pinch more sugar.
- Cut the carrot into thin matchsticks, the cucumber into half-moons and the red onion into very thin slices. Roughly chop the coriander and mint so they’re noticeable in every bite.
- In a large bowl, combine the drained noodles with the carrot, cucumber and onion. Gently toss, using your fingers or tongs to separate the noodles so they don’t clump into a ball; the vegetables should be evenly distributed among the strands.
- Add the chicken strips, then the mango cut into long, not too thin slices – the fruit should be ripe but firm so it doesn’t fall apart. Add the chopped coriander and mint.
- Pour the dressing over everything and very gently mix from the bottom up so the mango keeps its shape and the dressing reaches the bottom of the bowl. The noodles should have a light sheen and be evenly coated in dressing.
- Leave the salad to stand for about 10 minutes at room temperature so the noodles can absorb some of the dressing and the flavours meld. Taste before serving and adjust with extra lime juice or fish sauce if needed.
- Just before serving, sprinkle the salad generously with roughly chopped toasted peanuts. Serve slightly chilled or at room temperature – the noodles should be soft but springy, and the vegetables and peanuts distinctly crunchy.
Storage
No storage information available for this dish.
I most often make this salad in the morning before a trip to the lake – I pack it into containers and we eat it on a blanket instead of sandwiches. It always disappears first, because it’s so colourful.
