Recipe: Vietnamese Chicken Bánh Mì
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Edited by Stacy Schroeder
Nate Godfrey is one of three local amateur chefs who competed in the 2026 Great Gretna Plate, a cooking competition hosted by Mount Gretna Magazine. The challenge? Create a hand-held dish using the provided pantry and mystery ingredients within a one-hour window. A full event recap, plus bonus content, is linked at the bottom of this story. This post is all about the FOOD.
Nate and sous chef Joe Lento created a Vietnamese chicken bánh mì with a fresh vegetable salad, dressed with fish sauce and finished with a garlic aioli drizzle. The dish emerged as the judges’ top choice, securing Nate the title of winner of the first Great Gretna Plate. Read on for Nate’s recipes, behind-the-scenes info, and a link to video interviews.
Vietnamese Chicken Bánh Mì
Makes 4-6 servings
Chef’s note: I’m a firm believer in using what you have — sometimes substitutions reign supreme. Make it work, and for goodness’ sake, don’t skip a dish just because you’re missing an ingredient or two. Think sweet, salt, fat, acid, heat, and umami, and use what you can get your hands on.
INGREDIENTS
Quick-Pickle Brine:
1 cup rice vinegar
1 cup water
1 T salt
1 T sugar
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 small or medium daikon radish, cut into matchsticks
½ English cucumber (approx. equal amounts to the carrot and daikon), cut into matchsticks
Marinade:
1-½ lbs. boneless/skinless chicken thighs, cut in ¼-inch thin strips. (If you have time for a longer marinade time, you can marinade the thighs whole and cut them after cooking.)
3 cloves of garlic, minced, pressed, or grated
2 T fish sauce
2 T soy sauce
1 T sugar
½ tsp lime zest or juice
1-2 tsp Siracha sauce
1 tsp ginger, grated or minced
Garlic aioli:
1 cup mayonnaise or Kewpie mayo
2-5 cloves garlic (depending on garlic intensity), minced, pressed or grated
1-2 T fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
Salt to taste (about 1 T of Kosher salt)
Sandwich:
Cilantro, roughly chopped
Jalapeños, sliced
Rolls or baguettes for 4-6 sandwiches
INSTRUCTIONS
Make pickled veggies: Mix rice vinegar, water, salt and sugar together until dissolved. (Quicken this step by simmering on stove top or heating in microwave until salt and sugar are dissolved.) Add daikon, carrot, and cucumber in equal parts to the brine, but only enough that the brine will cover the veggies. Use a weight if necessary to keep them submerged. Set aside for as long as you can, but a minimum of 45 min. This can be done up to a day in advance to get a good pickling.
Marinade: Mix ingredients in a large bowl. Slice chicken and mix into the marinade. Set aside for at least 30 min.
Aioli: While waiting for the brine and marinade to do their work, prepare the garlic aioli. Add all aioli ingredients in a bowl and mix or whisk well. Taste and add salt, if needed. Set aside to allow flavors to meld. Note that about ¼ cup of this should be reserved for the side salad. The rest is for the sandwich.
Chicken: Heat 1 T of oil in a large cast iron pan, frying pan, or wok over med high to high heat until the oil is shimmering. You want the pan to be ready to fast sear the chicken at high heat. Place enough chicken in the pan so that it is not overcrowded, and the meat can sizzle and brown. You will likely have to cook the chicken in batches. Stir the meat, when necessary, but not too much. Once it is cooked through, place on a plate and cook the next batch until finished. Remember to keep your skillet piping hot to achieve good browning and crust on the chicken, but be mindful not to scorch or burn the meat.
Build the bánh mì sandwich: Cut open the bread roll and spread both sides liberally with the garlic aioli. Place the chicken on one side of the roll, followed by the pickled veggies. (Make sure to shake off any excess brine … we don’t want a soggy sandwich!) Top that with plenty of fresh cilantro and slices of jalapenos (if desired).
Side Salad
INGREDIENTS
2 T water
2 T Fish Sauce
1 T fresh Lime Juice
1-2 avocados, chopped
½ English cucumber, chopped
1 carrot, cut in matchsticks
¼ cup garlic aioli (reserved from sandwich recipe)
Sesame seeds and cilantro for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
Mix the first three ingredients together to make a dressing of sweet lime fish sauce. Set aside.
Mix the three vegetables together.
Dress the salad with the sweet lime fish sauce until well coated.
Gently stir or fold the veggies with the sauce. Taste and add more sauce if necessary.
Add the tiniest bit of water to the reserved garlic aioli so that it thins out more for drizzling. Stir together well then place in a Ziploc bag. (This will be your homemade piping bag.)
Dish out the salad into small bowls. Cut the very tip off of one corner of the Ziploc bag and drizzle the aioli over the salad.
Garnish with cilantro and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
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Q&A WITH NATE
How did you prepare for the event? I prepared by listing possible options and assessing what would work within the time and equipment constraints. I’d hoped to lean into my usual cooking style — international and a bit unexpected — but the handheld format limited those ideas. I jotted down ingredients and rough amounts, landing on a classic bánh mì variation that could adapt to the “mystery” ingredients. Mentally, I let go of the urge to refine and instead leaned into the spirit of the event — cooking for fun and for community — and relied on what I knew I could do.
Joe Lento and I set aside a Friday evening to practice and prepare our selected dish while spending time with family and friends. It turned into a bit of a revolving door of guests, which I realized would help us stay focused amid the distractions and still produce a finished dish within the time constraints. From that practice run, we made adjustments and refined the final version.
What made you choose the sous chef you did? Joe Lento is such a fun, engaging, entertaining and lovable guy… who also loves to cook! Once I thought of him, I knew it had to be Joe. He lives in Campmeeting, and I knew he would gladly be onboard to crank out a good finished product, but have a ton of fun along the way. In a text that he sent to me when I asked him to be my Sous Chef, he said he would be honored to do it, and that he understood his responsibility was to “commit crimes and trickery on your behalf”. There was no question…he was my guy!
Is there a particular moment from the day itself that stands out in your memory? I loved the camaraderie that we had amongst all of the chefs. We are all friends, and we were looking to help each other out, and have a fun time during the event. I loved the moment when we were all waiting for the final results from the judges, and we were earnestly arm in arm together, happy that we had made it through it while rooting for each other.
What surprised you most about the experience? What surprised me most about the experience was the amount of work, effort, excellence and risk that the Mount Gretna Magazine staff and volunteers assumed by taking on a fun community event… and, the first of its kind in our community! I know it takes a ton of work and preparation to create and pull something like that off, so my hat is off to all of them. I was impressed, and I have gained new friends through the process.
FOR MORE:
For more on our chefs — including Nate’s interview and his take on corn syrup — head to our YouTube playlist.
Read more in In the Kitchen with Nate.
Shelby's recipe
Alex's recipe
Facebook event photo album
