Vietnamese Spring Rolls

We have two chickens in the freezer, half a chicken in the fridge, and way too much chicken stock for two people, the goal tonight was to incorporate chicken into dinner without turning the oven on to roast (it was about 80 all day.) We had some friends over for dinner the other night and served spring rolls with avocado as a first course to Ben's famous pork belly steamed buns from the Momofuku cook book. The spring rolls were so good, we had so many rice wrappers left, and you can throw just about any veggie in these rolls. Here is the recipe for shredding chicken and making Vietnamese spring rolls.

1 chicken breast

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 carrot julienned or shredded

1 cucumber finely sliced

1 cup lettuce chopped

1 cup cilantro chopped

1 avocado sliced

4-6 spring roll skins (rice wraps)

1 package vermicelli rice noodles

First, bring a large pot of water to a boil. (If you wish add a carrot, onion, celery rib, and some parsley to use the water for stock after you boil the chicken.) Add the chicken breast and turn the heat down to a medium heat, so that the water is just bubbling lightly and the chicken is simmering. Allow to cook for about 30 min. Meanwhile boil about 5 cups water in a small pot and add your noodles, they should only need to cook for about 5-8 minuets. Strain noodles and set aside to cool. Check the temperature of the chicken with a meat thermometer, if done cooking, the temperature should be 180 degrees. Remove chicken from pot, allow to cool and then shred with two forks, or your hands if you are Ben Geare, and you are a MAN.

Bring about 5 cups water to a boil on the kettle and pour hot water into a bowl. Place a spring roll skin in the hot water and allow the skin to soften for about 30 seconds. Remove skin from bowl with a chop stick and straighten out your skin on a plate.

Now you are ready to add your ingredients, add the heavier ingredients first, a few carrots, cucumbers, avocado, chicken, noodles, and then lettuce. The goal is to keep your ingredients tight enough so that you have a compact roll. Bring both sides of your skin together so that they are sticking together, bring opposite sides together to form tight roll. Serve with hoisin and chili sauce (rooster sauce.)