Bánh bột chiên, or bột chiên, is a Vietnamese fried rice cake featuring fried pieces of flour cakes until they are crunchy on the outside.
Ideally, the dish is served hot off the frying pan to enjoy the crunchy exterior and soft interior of these flour cakes. In Ho Chi Minh City, bánh bột chiên is a street food or a snack for the afternoon and night or sometimes even works as a breakfast item.
Food stalls aside, bánh bột chiên is also sold mobile on carts designed particularly to include a cooking station. These carts often roam the street at a steady pace or stop at roadsides to serve customers.
In case you want to recreate this snack at home, this is your chance to do so with meticulous methods of making this dish and some tips for serving it well.
What Is Bánh Bột Chiên?
Bánh bột chiên is a dish of Chinese origin. It’s a popular street food in Vietnam, particularly in Ho Chi Minh City. The dish consists of fried flour cakes, which are cut into small squares and fried until crisp.
The flour cake is a combination of rice flour and cornstarch mixed in warm water to create a thick batter mixture. The blend is then simmered over fire until it begins to thicken. Then, people will steam it in a block to produce a cake ready for slicing and frying.
Often, the cooked cake block is sold widely in Vietnamese markets for an affordable price.
Bánh bột chiên is typically fried with egg and green onions. The dish is presented over a bed of shredded young papaya for added crunchiness.
Served hot right after cooking, bánh bột chiên comes with a soy sauce-based sauce that is poured over the cake. To nail this rice flour cake recipe, you need the right tools to handle many of its cooking processes.
What Are The Tools Needed to Make Bánh Bột Chiên?
Making bánh bột chiên from scratch requires a few tools to be set up properly to cook the dish. Some options you must have include a steamer, a frying pan, a bowl, a sieve, a ladle, and a saucepan.
What Ingredients Are Necessary for Making Bánh Bột Chiên?
Once you’ve got all the tools noted down, let’s prepare the ingredients below for making perfect bánh bột chiên. Aside from the flour, there are many elements that directly influence your final dish.
For The Cakes
For The Accompaniments:
For The Sauce:
What Steps Are Essential for Making Bánh Bột Chiên?
When all the elements for making bánh bột chiên are ready, you can easily make the dish with 5 simple steps.
Step 1: Prepare the Batter
Add these components to a bowl to mix thoroughly.
Let the mixture rest for around 30 minutes.
Transfer the mixture into a cooking pot at medium heat before stirring steadily in one smooth motion.
Stir for 10 minutes until the batter thickens. Add cornstarch and oil to the mixture.
Keep stirring the batter so it thickens even further before removing from the heat.
Step 2: Steam the Rice Flour Cake
Lightly oil the mold before pouring the batter in to prevent stickiness.
Steam the mold with batter for around 30 minutes. Test the batter’s doneness by poking it using a chopstick. If the chopstick doesn’t have white batter sticking then it means the mixture is cooked.
Remove the rice flour cake once it’s cooked and let it cool before wrapping it for storing in a refrigerator.
Step 3: Make the Dipping Sauce
In a saucepan, combine these ingredients in a saucepan before placing the mixture over heat.
Let it boil for 1 minute until the sugar completely dissolves.
Step 4: Fry the Rice Flour Cakes
After the rice cake is cool, cut it into bite-sized pieces.
Place a skillet or a frying pan over a stove along with some cooking oil. Wait for the oil to heat up before frying.
Fried at medium heat for around 5 minutes until all the surfaces are golden brown. Then, continue to fry for another 3 minutes.
Remove oil from the pan, leaving a little bit of it for frying eggs. Cook the egg with the rice flour cakes and sprinkle it with some green onions.
Step 5: Present the Dish
Transfer the dish over a plate with some shredded young papaya over the surface. Pour the sauce over the dish to enjoy.
What Tips to Make The Perfect Bánh Bột Chiên?
Bánh bột chiên is a tasty snack to try in case you want something new in your diet. These are some tips you can try while making bánh bột chiên to make the dish suit your style better.
How to Store Bánh Bột Chiên?
Bột chiên, right after being steamed, needs to be cooled off and preserved in a refrigerator. For that, you should wrap around the rice cake block using a food wrapper.
This should help the rice flour cake to last around 1 to 2 days without the flavor being diminished.
Savor the Flavor of Vietnamese Bánh Bột Chiên
Bánh bột chiên is a beloved street food in Vietnam, particularly in Ho Chi Minh city, offering a delightful meal. I encourage you to try making this savory fried rice cake at home to introduce a piece of Vietnamese culture to your kitchen.
If you enjoyed this bánh bột chiên recipe, please share it with your friends and family so they too can explore the wonders of Vietnamese cuisine. I’m eager to read your thoughts in the comments section; and share your most memorable experiences with Vietnamese food.
Bánh Bột Chiên Recipe (Vietnamese Fried Rice Cakes)
Equipment
- Steamer
- Skillet
- Mixing Bowl
- Saucepan
- Ladle
- Mold
- Spatula
- Knife
- Plate Lifter
Ingredients
For the rice flour cakes:
- 8.8 ounces rice flour
- 2.11 cups water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Cooking oil
For the accompaniments:
- Shredded green papaya
- 2 eggs
- Chopped green onions
For the dipping sauce:
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine rice flour, water, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Mix well.
- Let the batter rest for about 30 minutes.
- Then, place a pot on the stove over medium heat and stir the mixture continuously in one direction.
- After about 10 minutes, when the batter starts to thicken, add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.
- Add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil.
- Continue stirring until the batter mixture thickens further and becomes heavy to stir, then remove the pot from the heat.
- Lightly oil a mold to prevent sticking, and pour the batter into the mold.
- Place the mold in a steamer and steam for about 30 minutes. Check if the batter is cooked by poking a chopstick into it; if the chopstick comes out clean without any white batter sticking to it, the batter is cooked.
- Once cooked, remove the batter from the steamer and let it cool.
- In a saucepot, combine water, sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar. Heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves and let it boil for about 1 minute, then turn off the heat.
- Once the batter is completely cooled, cut it into bite-sized pieces.
- Heat a pan on the stove, add about 5 tablespoons of cooking oil, and wait until the oil is hot before adding the batter pieces to fry.
- Fry over medium heat for about 5 minutes until one side is golden brown, then flip and fry for another 3 minutes.
- Then, remove some of the oil from the pan, leaving about 2 tablespoons. Add eggs and fry for about 2 minutes until the eggs are cooked, then sprinkle some chopped green onions on top to finish.
- Serve the dish with some shredded green papaya, and drizzle sweet and sour dipping sauce over it to serve.
Video
Notes
- You can swap cornstarch for glutinous rice flour for more chewiness to the rice flour cake.
- The batter dictates the flavor of bánh bột chiên; thus, you need to pay attention to the process of incorporating water and flour to make sure it’s at the right consistency.
- After shredding papaya, soak them in a diluted vinegar solution to keep them white.
- You can mix the rice flour cake with a bit of soy sauce for a more vibrant color when fried.
Nutrition
Tien – Alden
Content Writer
Expertise
Home Cooking, Recipe Development, Food Editor, Beverage Editor, Cooking-video Maker, Asian Food Content Creator
Education
Saigon Tourism College
Advanced Culinary Workshop, Beijing
Vietnamese Traditional Cooking School
American College of Vietnam
Alden is a skilled chef with expertise in Asian cuisines, known for blending traditional Vietnamese and Chinese cooking with contemporary innovations. Alden’s passion for Asian flavors and her creative approach to both food and beverages inspires fellow chefs and those aspiring to enter the field.