Winter Rolls with Crispy Chicken and Blood Orange Nước Chấm

3 recipes in 1 for a double newsletter week

So this might not look like your typical Super Bowl food, but a few years ago my husband (who is a diehard Eagles fan) and I started a tradition where we would make a big batch of gỏi cuốn/Vietnamese fresh rolls to enjoy while watching the Eagles game together on Sundays. I’m not totally sure how this tradition came about, but it was probably due to the timing of getting a Costco membership (the trays of cocktail shrimp are one of my pre-made guilty pleasures) combined with learning about how the Eagles owner, Jeffrey lurie, met his wife, and us trying to cut back on chicken wings. Most Sundays we would assemble classic rolls with poached shrimp, lots of mint, and crunchy little gems. Sometimes we would sub out the shrimp for whatever we had leftover in the fridge, like char siu pork or five spice chicken. While I was writing Chinese Enough, I was (and still am) obsessed with the Chili Crunch Salmon Fresh Rolls, especially during the summer. Whether you call them fresh rolls, summer rolls, or even spring rolls, gỏi cuốn are essentially handheld salads and always a great meal idea.

I was inspired to make these “winter rolls” simply by going grocery shopping and seeing all the beautiful winter greens and citrus available. Even though you can technically buy oranges and radicchio anytime of year, the bitter greens and juicy citrus are really showing off right now. I also wanted an excuse to work on my chicken cutlet technique. The combination of bitter greens, bright fruit, juicy and crispy chicken, and springy rice noodles is so perfect. These rolls still feel light and fresh but balanced with a little indulgence at the same time. All the components with the blood orange nước chấm make for a great salad too, if you ever get tired of wrapping!

I’ll be making these again on Sunday to cheer on the Eagles, in addition to some mini cheesesteaks and all the chicken wings our Traeger can fit at one time. Go Birds!

My Chicken Cutlets Practice

I love chicken cutlets, katsu, breaded tenders… all variations of crispy lightly fried chicken. What I don’t love is the amount of dirty things to wash after an assembly line production. Unfortunately, I don’t really see a way around it if you want well breaded and golden brown cutlets. Since this is a little more labour intensive, I like to make it worth it and prepare a bunch of chicken for the week that I can add to my meals or freeze them to warm up for later. But you do you!

Here are some of my favorite tips!

Invest in quarter sheet pans | This recipes validates my obsession with quarter sheet pans and makes me feel okay with owning so many. They are the best vessels for setting up your flour/egg/breadcrumb stations. They are light and so easy to clean.

Season, season, season | I like to aggressively season the flour layer with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and togarashi. Togarashi is a spicy Japanese spice blend that has hints of orange and ginger, which I think tastes so good with the oranges and bitter greens in the rolls. Once the chicken is out of the oil I immediately sprinkle on more salt and a dusting of togarashi so you can more layers of flavor.

Slice thin | Ideally, you want to use chicken breast or tenders here. If using tenders you will want to cut them in half so that they are extra thin. If you’re using breasts, you will want to cut them into a little less than 1/2” thin slices, against the grain, while trying to angle your knife so you can a little more surface area with each slice. While you go through the process of battering your chicken, the pieces will naturally start to flatten (especially during the panko stage because you want to really press the breadcrumbs in), resulting into thin cutlets.

A gentle fry | I like to do a shallow fry in avocado oil, if you prefer a deep fry then by all means add that oil. When I fry, I allow enough time for the oil to properly warm up on medium-low heat. You can test the temperature by lowering a piece of chicken into the oil and if it sizzles then the oil is ready. If you hear nothing then it’s not hot enough. On medium-low heat, the chicken takes about 3 minutes on each side to get golden brown, but if your chicken is browning at a much faster rate then your oil is too hot.

There are so many uses for this chicken beyond the winter rolls if you want to take them there! Dip in ranch, top a caesar salad with it, make some chicken parm!

The Flavors of Winter

I’m fully aware that I live somewhere that the produce is always good and that’s not the case for everyone. So if you can’t find winter greens like frisee and radicchio at your market right now, it’s absolutely okay to swap with romaine or whatever crisp lettuce you have available to you. Maybe add some arugula into the mix for a punch of pepperiness.

I like to think that blood oranges are pretty widely available, but again if you can’t find them a classic orange will do the trick. I love how vibrant this blood orange nước chấm is. Nước Chấm is classically a sauce consisting of sugar, water, lime juice, fish sauce, and garlic (sometimes chilis too). I swapped out the sugar and water for freshly squeeze blood orange juice because it’s naturally sweet and helps support the zesty flavor of the lime juice. Isn’t the color just so good?!

Winter Rolls with Crispy Chicken and Blood Orange Nước Chấm

Serves 4