A delicious Vietnamese appetizer featuring sliced rare beef marinated in lime juice and fish sauce, topped with fresh basil, pickled onions, scallions, chilies, onion chips, garlic, and peanuts! This is one of my absolute favourite items to order whenever I visit Song Huong in Calgary. It also closely reminds me of the iconic dish from Phnom Penh in Vancouver. This dish is very well rounded and nothing like you have tasted before- I promise it will leave you wanting more. This is a perfect dish to create for an appetizer for dinner parties and family gatherings.
What is Bò Tái Chanh?
Bò Tái Chanh is a classic Vietnamese dish that is surprisingly not typically served at Vietnamese restaurants. The flavour and preparation is most similar to carpaccio or beef tataki except it is “cooked” with lime juice. It is then flavoured with fish sauce, sugar, birds eye chili, and topped with fresh Thai basil, scallion, fried garlic chips, and peanuts! The flavours of this dish are immaculate. You have savoury and umami flavours from the beef, fish sauce. You then have citrus nodes from the lime juice. On top of that, it’s balanced nicely with spice from the chilli, crunch from the garlic chips and peanuts, and slightly sweet from the sugar!
Vietnamese Rare Beef Salad | Bò Tá Chanh
Ingredients
Steak Marinade
- 2 pieces strip steak
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 limes juiced
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 birds eye chili (optional) diced
Pickled Red Onions
- 1/2 red onion sliced thinly
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
Toppings
- 5-6 garlic cloves minced
- Handful fresh thai basil
- 1/4 cup scallion chopped
- 1/8 cup crispy fried onion chips
- 1/8 cup crushed peanuts
Instructions
Steak Marinade
- Pat dry your steaks with paper towel to remove excess moisture. Season with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Heat up a cast iron pan until almost smoking point. Sear each side of the steak for 15s. Set aside for 5 minutes to rest.
- Once the beef has rested for 5 minutes. Slice the beef very thinly. Combine into a bowl with lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, and birds eye chili. Mix together and set aside in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. The acidity will help "cook" your beef- it will change from raw to rare beef.
Pickled Onions
- Combine your thinly sliced onion into a bowl, add in vinegar and sugar. Mix and set aside.
Assembly
- In the same cast iron pan, heat up 1 tbsp of oil. Once heated up, sauté the minced garlic for 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Be careful not to burn! Set aside.
- Remove your beef from the refrigerator. Top with fresh basil, chopped scallions, crispy fried onion chips, garlic, and crushed peanuts. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Notes
Let me know how you enjoy this recipe in the comments below! Stay tuned for more recipes!
xx, CWC
