What Is Bún Thang?
My knowledge of the Vietnamese language is about on par with my grandma’s English, so this gives us lots of opportunities to learn from each other. She watches Viet news and Korean dramas which have a surprising amount of English in them. The latest term I explained to her was “poker face” hah!
I asked her what bún thang means and she said “as a kid I used to sit around and wonder how ‘oranges’ got their name–nobody knows.” As if I was crazy for asking.
Luckily, mom noticed the word thang was used when mentioning Northern Vietnamese and Chinese medicine (thuốc Bắc), usually given as a mixed bag of dried herbs. I believe thang means “prescription” which in this Vietnamese medicinal context is usually a mixture. This recipe has a mixture of three different toppings not including the herb mixture, but you can commonly find variations with even five or more toppings.
Finicky Soup From The North
This chicken-based noodle soup originates from Hanoi, in the northern region of Vietnam. Although this delicious soup is comparatively basic in preparation and flavor, it has a rep for being fancy and fussy in its own ways.
This soup typically uses round rice noodles, a thinner version of what you usually see in bún bò Huế, but Grandma says you’re supposed to put Vietnamese coriander (rau răm) underneath the noodles which makes no practical sense to me.
I love the smell of rau răm and want that aroma immediately apparently when I sit down to a bowl of this. Why keep this as a hidden surprise extra veg element?
Some folks also get particular about making all the toppings being cut to the same size matchsticks.
And of course the ‘right’ way to cook it is to use a kind of chicken you can’t even get here. Not unless you raise chickens, or have the hookup with folks who do.
Chickens Must Be 6.05 to 6.27 Months Old
What’s the deal with this chicken requirement? It’s called gà mái dầu and it refers to a hen of a very specific age. Okay, I don’t know the exact age they’re supposed to be but the prized ones are old enough to have only laid eggs for about a week. Older chickens will have tougher meat, while ones that haven’t laid eggs yet are too young.
The closest thing we have to this here is gà chạy, or gà đi bộ, which is free-range chicken.
Finicky right?
Beetle Juice
A final addition you make to your bowl of soup right before eating is a few drops of cà cuống . A fair WARNING for the uninitiated readers before you search this term, cà cuống is indeed juice from a beetle. More specifically, it’s a type of extracted male beetle pheromone.
The packaging on this bottle is clearly Thai. I’m not exactly sure what Thai folks eat this with, however bug cuisine there is common so these beetles are not likely sought after just for the pheromones.
I’ve only had the imitation version of this beetle essence since the real stuff is hard to come by in the US, but supposedly it tastes even better. In Vietnamese cuisine it’s common to add this extract to dishes like bún thang, and the prepared fish sauce for gỏi cuốn (fresh spring rolls).
Loaded with toppings
Mom likes to remind me that the kind of soup you’d see above is abnormally loaded with extra meat and toppings compared to what she’s seen during her childhood in Vietnam.
This constant reminder has me now pondering every Vietnamese meal I have: is this legit, or the super-rich “Americanized” version of this dish? I can imagine a “leaner” bún thang of the 1960s and ’70s still being very satisfying, but for now will appreciate this soup for all its stacked glory.
What is bún thang?
Bún thang is a chicken based noodle soup from Hanoi and is topped with shredded chicken, scrambled eggs, Vietnamese sausages, and plentiful helpings of green herbs.
What is Vietnamese bún made of?
Bún in Vietnamese means “noodles,” and this dish has rice noodles which are made up of rice flour and water.
Other comforting chicken soups to try
- Cháo Gà (Vietnamese Chicken Rice Porridge / Congee)
- Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe (Súp Nui Gà)
- Chicken Phở
Bún Thang – Vietnamese Soup with Chicken, Pork, & Egg
Ingredients
- 1 package dried rice noodles (16oz) vermicelli, thin or medium thickness. The same type used in bún bò Huế.
Broth
- 2 lb chicken any cuts, or whole chicken
- 1 medium yellow onion halved
- 2 tablespoons dried shrimp
- 1/4 teaspoon monosodium glutamate
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce optional
- water enough to cover the chicken (8-12 cups)
- Salt to taste
Toppings
- shredded chicken from the chicken used for broth
- 4 large scrambled eggs fried thin and julienned
- 1/2 pound Vietnamese pork sausage chả lụa, julienned
Herbs & Garnish
- scallions roughly chopped
- cilantro roughly chopped
- Vietnamese coriander rau răm
- red onion thinly sliced
- fried shallots optional
- thai chiles optional
- shrimp paste mam tom, optional
- ca cuong beetle extract, optional
Instructions
- Add chicken and all broth ingredients into a pot, except the salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for ~15-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Season to taste with salt. Discard onion.
- Meanwhile, prepare the eggs. Beat eggs in a bowl and add 1-2 tablespoons water to thin it out a bit. Lightly oil a pan and add just enough egg to make a thin layer, flipping about midway. Make as many as it takes to use up all the eggs, then loosely roll the egg crepes individually to cut into strips / julienne.
- Remove chicken from broth when it’s fully cooked. Wait until cool, then shred. Cut the Vietnamese sausage to match the thickness of the chicken and eggs.
- Lightly fry or deep-fry thinly sliced shallots if you want to use this.
- Prepare rice noodles according to package instructions.
- Assemble your soup bowls. Add noodles, toppings, herbs, garnish, broth, a few drops of beetle extract per bowl, and serve.
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Fantastic post! This soup looks absolutely incredible and I love hearing about the history and ‘finicky’ ingredients 😉
Thanks a lot Kathleen! Digging into little facts like this is fun and helps put recipes and Vietnamese food into better context for me. I think we’ll get along 🙂
Wow, I have never had this dish before, where can I get myself a bowl of this? Thank you for being so generous and sharing this beautiful recipe! I cannot wait to make it myself!
Hey Jordyn, your best bet is to go for a Vietnamese restaurant that cooks all sorts of stuff. The type of place that gives you a book-sized menu, haha. Mainly because this isn’t a soup that restaurants specialize in.
I vote the option of making it yourself though 🙂
One of my favorite Northern dishes asides from Pho Bac; even though it looks complicated with so many ingredients, it’s actually easier to make than Pho for you don’t have to simmer the broth all that long
At home, I added a few dry calamaris to make the broth even sweeter and more pungent.
To be thoroughly complete as per the original recipe, one may add thin slices of steamed pork, and some shredded steamed shrimps prepared the same way as the chicken
Adding a twist of lime to the broth before eating would also enhance the taste for Vietnamese cuisine tends to have a mix of all the tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, hot
Cheers,
Thanks for sharing this recipe Huy. I’ll try and make it for dinner tonight.
Wonderful and amusing stories!! Loved reading this and I laughed out loud and my Caucasian husband has no idea why. Maybe I’ll explain one day. ?
Huy,
Thank you for sharing the recipe. My grandmother is from north Vietnam and she used to make this dish with 4 toppings. The missing topping is ground pork (season with fish sauce and turmeric powder, green onions, sauté in a pan). The ground pork does add another layer of flavor to the dish. You can also add a little bit of “shrimp paste” ” mắm tôm” to the bowl, it’s yummy.
I’ve only seen this in family kitchens and have not seen it with ground pork, but that sounds interesting. Thanks for the tip Le!
Hey, Hungry Huy!
Any more recipes in the pipeline?
Hey man! Yeah it’s been a while but new recipes are on the way 🙂
Nhìn ngon quá ! Thèm đi ăn rùi 🙂
Thang = soup in old vietnamese language (Nôm)
Tang in Mandarin, Ton in Cantonese.
The female cook who invented this dish wondered, why all of vietnamese noodle soup, non of them have the word soup in their name? That’s why she named this dish Bún Thang… Noodle soup.
Bún thang is my favorite dish, especially when you add shrimp paste and very spicy chili oil. I prefer this over Pho.
Thanks for this tip Jack, I had no idea!
I made this and it was so good! I didn’t realize it had rau ram, I think growing up I must have refused to eat that part so that’s why I don’t remember it in the dish lol. It is a lot more flavorful with the rau ram. Thank you for sharing, my whole family including my kids loved it too. This will now go into regular rotation.
Amy, glad you and your fam enjoyed the recipe! Rau ram is one of my favvvvorites yeah it kinda changes this dish up a lot so I’d try to source it when you can 🙂
Really good.
Thanks Huy