These colorful, Vietnamese-inspired Lemongrass Chicken Noodle Bowls are made with marinated chicken thighs and served over noodles with lots of vegetables and fresh herbs.
Lemongrass Chicken Noodle Bowls
These Lemongrass Chicken Noodle Bowls are inspired by Vietnamese bún gà nướng—a dish that combines grilled lemongrass-marinated chicken with rice noodles, fresh herbs, crisp vegetables, and a punchy fish sauce-based dressing (nuoc cham). It’s light and refreshing yet bold and hearty and makes for the perfect weeknight dinner. For more Asian-inspired bowl recipes, don’t miss my Spiralized Summer Roll Bowls with Hoisin Peanut Sauce and Asian Salmon Bowls.
Why You’ll Love This Vietnamese-Inspired Dish
We love going out for Pho and often enjoy a variety of Vietnamese dishes. This easy chicken dish is so flavorful, here’s why it works:
- Packed with Fresh Flavors: Bright herbs, crunchy veggies, and zingy dressing bring everything to life.
- High in Protein: Juicy, lemongrass-marinated chicken keeps this meal satisfying.
- Naturally Gluten-free: Just be sure to use gluten-free fish sauce and soy sauce.
- Dietary Restrictions: Weight Watchers-friendly, gluten-free, high-protein, dairy-free
If you make this chicken noodle bowl recipe, I would love to see it. Tag me in your photos or videos on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. And be sure to join the Skinnytaste Community to see what everyone’s cooking!
What is the flavor of lemongrass?
Lemongrass is an herb with a light citrus flavor with hints of ginger. It’s sold fresh (which you can also use in this recipe) and as a paste, which is a fantastic shortcut.
What You’ll Need
Here are the ingredients for the lemongrass chicken marinade and the vermicelli noodle bowls. See the recipe card below for the exact measurements.
- Chicken Thighs: Trim the fat off boneless, skinless thighs. If you prefer, you can use breast meat instead.
- Lemongrass Paste is a convenient way to get lemongrass flavor without any prep work. Gourmet Garden sells a paste, which is typically found in the refrigerated section of the produce department. Fresh grated lemongrass will also work.
- Garlic for its strong aroma
- Lime Juice for a fresh citrus taste
- Fish Sauce adds complexity and is a Vietnamese staple.
- Soy Sauce for salty umami flavor
- Sweetener: Sugar or honey will work.
- Avocado Oil is a neutral oil that keeps the chicken moist.
- Dried Vermicelli Rice Noodles are naturally gluten-free. Cook them according to the package directions.
- Vegetables: Bean sprouts, Persian cucumbers, julienned carrots, iceberg lettuce
- Herbs: Fresh mint and cilantro
- Crushed Peanuts as a topping
- Lime Wedges for serving
- Lemongrass Chicken Sauce: Sugar or honey, lime juice, fish sauce, and water combine to create nuoc cham, a popular Vietnamese sauce.
How to Make Lemongrass Chicken Noodle Bowls
If you want to prep these bowls the day before, marinate the chicken, wash and cut the vegetables, and make the sauce. Then, cook the chicken and noodles and assemble your bowls the next day. See the recipe card at the bottom for printable directions.
- How Long to Marinate Lemongrass Chicken: Combine all the marinade ingredients and add the chicken. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Make Nuoc Cham: Whisk the sweetener, lime juice, fish sauce, and water in a small bowl. Taste and add more sugar or lime if needed.
- Cook the Chicken in a pan over medium heat for about 8 minutes.
- Assemble the Noodle Bowls: Add vermicelli to bowls with the veggies and herbs. Top with chicken, peanuts, and the fish sauce mixture.
Variations
- Protein: Swap chicken thighs for chicken breast or beef.
- Vegetarian Noodle Bowl: Replace chicken with tofu.
- Lemongrass: If you can’t find lemongrass, try substituting lemon zest, grated ginger, and cilantro or mint. The flavor won’t be exact, but it’ll still taste good!
- Gluten-Free: Check that you’re buying gluten-free fish sauce. Tamari or coconut aminos are great GF soy sauce substitutes.
- Prefer a low-carb option? Use zucchini noodles or shredded cabbage instead of rice noodles.
- Lettuce: Sub iceberg with romaine.
- Vegetables: If you’re missing a veggie or don’t like one, feel free to skip it and add more of something else.
- Want more crunch? Add shredded cabbage.
- Don’t like cilantro? Skip it.
- Peanut allergy? Omit them.
Serving Suggestions
These easy chicken noodle bowls are packed with protein and vegetables on top of a filling base of noodles. It’s a complete meal in one!
Storage
- Store chicken in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or freeze it for 3 months.
- Meal Prep: If you’re taking these to work, add noodles and chicken to a food storage container and top with vegetables and herbs. Store the sauce and peanuts in separate containers. Leftovers can be eaten cold.
More Vietnamese-Inspired Recipes to Try
For more dinner ideas, check out these five delicious Vietnamese-inspired recipes to inspire your next meal!
- Vietnamese Shaking Beef (Bo Luc Lac)
- Quick Shrimp Pho with Vegetables
- Shrimp Summer Rolls with Peanut Hoisin Dipping Sauce
- Asian Beef Zoodle Soup (Whole30 Low-Carb Pho)
- Slow-Cooker Banh Mi Bowl
Lemongrass Chicken Noodle Bowls
Ingredients
For the Lemongrass Chicken:
- 1 ½ lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemongrass paste, or fresh grated lemongrass
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce, check labels if gluten-free
- 1 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce, or gluten-free soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar, or honey
- 2 teaspoons avocado oil, divided
For The Bowls:
- dried vermicelli noodles, about 6 ounces, cooked following package instructions
- 2 cups bean sprouts
- 2 Persian cucumbers, julienned
- ½ cup fresh mint leaves
- ½ cup fresh cilantro
- 2 carrots, julienned
- 4 cups iceberg lettuce, finely sliced
- ¼ cup roasted peanuts, crushed
- 4 lime wedges, for serving
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoons sugar, or honey
- 1 ½ tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce, check labels if gluten-free
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the chicken marinade until smooth. Add chicken and marinade with 1 teaspoon of the oil to a large ziploc bag and place in the refrigerator to marinate for 2+ hours or overnight.
- To make the fish sauce, combine the fish sauce ingredients and mix well to dissolve the sugar. Adjust to your taste (lime + sweetness) and set aside for at least 30 minutes for all of the flavors to meld together. Set aside.
- In a frying pan over medium heat, heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil. Remove chicken from the marinade, and place into the pan cooking each side until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes on each side.
- Remove from the pan and set aside to slightly cool while you build the bowls.
- Add cooked vermicelli noodles to a bowl. Top off with desired amounts of bean sprouts, cucumber, mint, cilantro, carrots, and iceberg lettuce.
- Slice chicken and add to bowls. Top off with crushed peanuts and fish sauce. Enjoy right away.
Super flavorful and fresh tasting! Big hit in the house.
Very good and even better if you add one sliced Thai chili to the sauce!
So flavorful! I made it exactly to the recipe. My whole family (kids included) loved the chicken and how the flavors all came together in the bowl. It will be on repeat for sure!
Perfect!
Delicious recipe. Made as written. We all enjoyed it. Thank you.
This meal was fantastic AND super filling. A delicious bowl of flavor and freshness. We grilled our chicken on the bbq and it was perfect. That sauce is super zingy and brings it all together. This will be on repeat for sure. Thanks, Gina!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Our family enjoyed this very much! Marinated chicken for 3 hours but would consider longer or even overnight next time. We also opted to grill chicken as this is our preferred cooking method when possible. I will note that prep did take considerably longer than 15 min especially for julienne style cutting of veggies. But time well spent because it was light, fresh and delicious.
Your site was recommended to me for healthier recipe ideas, and I am so glad to have found you! Bravo, this was an amazing light summer salad! I love that I can put any vegetables in it and it’s the chicken and the sauce that carry it. I am two for two with making really exceptional dinners for the hubby and myself. Can’t wait to find my next one! Thank you so much.
I’ve so thrilled to hear!
Edit to add that this recipe made 6 servings for me and I still struggle to east the whole serving – it’s very filling (also reduces the calories).
Another winner! I made this for meal prep for work lunches and just reheated the chicken separately when ready to eat. I switched out cilantro with Italian flat leaf parsley. I love that your recipes include so many vegetables – one meal almost fills my daily requirement! Thanks, Gina!
I made these tonight-big hit in my house that includes hubby and twin teenage boys. I used chicken breast instead of thighs, but otherwise served as is. We’ve never had pho, but everyone loved the flavors and asked to put on the rotation. Thanks, Gina!
Great!
Such a tasty dinner. So fresh! Can’t wait for leftovers!
hi- I’m allergic to avocados, can we use olive oil or would something else work better?
You could use olive or sunflower oil.
Made exactly as written, except cilantro that was stored wrong in the fridge and died before I used it. Sooo very yummy!
Delish!
The marinade for the chicken is delicious! I used fresh lemongrass and marinated the chicken overnight. For the Bowls, I used lots of mixed veggies – carrots, sugar snap peas, shredded cabbage, shredded brussels – two different bags of mixed stir-fry veggies from trader joes. I served it over fried rice because I didn’t have glass noodles. The whole family loved it!
This was so delicious, and leftovers were just as good! Made as directed using honey instead of sugar and it was phenomenal. Definitely adding it to our rotation!
This is a new favorite
Made this for my weekly meal prep and it’s so good, doesn’t get old! Delicious!!
This dish was absolutely delicious.
The flavor went so well together—it was so refreshing and not heavy but filling. The sauce was good even though I made a mistake — added 2 tablespoons of honey instead of one — next time I will add only one tablespoon of honey.
This recipe is a keeper. Thanks.
This was so fresh and delicious. Made exactly as directed. Huge hit.