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You are here: Home / Recipes / Vietnamese Dipping Fish Sauce Recipe (Nước Chấm)

Vietnamese Dipping Fish Sauce Recipe (Nước Chấm)

July 26, 2020 by Zoe Nguyen-Patalano Leave a Comment

Nuoc Cham Recipe

Vietnamese Dipping Sauce (called nước chấm in Vietnamese) is a staple in all Vietnamese families. We eat it with all of our meals, dipping vegetables, meat and seafood into this delicious sauce. It’s pretty easy to make, but you have to the ratios correct.

The ratio of fish sauce, water, lime juice, and sugar. (Vietnamese Dipping Fish Sauce also includes garlic and chilis, but they’re more of an afterthought. You have to get the liquid ingredients just right.)

Too much fish sauce, and it’s way too salty for dipping. Not enough lime juice and it’s missing a je ne sais quoi. Too much water, and it just doesn’t have much flavor. You have to get the ratio just right.

Over the years, I’ve tried various ratios to get it to my liking, but this is the ratio that I think tastes the best:

6 parts warm water
2 parts sugar
2 parts fresh lime juice
2 parts fish sauce

This is the perfect starting place for your Vietnamese Dipping Sauce (Nước Chấm), and you can adjust it from there, based on your tastes.

If you’re eating this with Vietnamese pancakes (banh xeo), you’ll want to add more water to water it down. But if you’re just dipping and eating with rice, this fish recipe is awesome!

Nuoc Cham Recipe

Nuoc Cham Recipe
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Vietnamese Dipping Fish Sauce Recipe (Nước Chấm)

This delicious Vietnamese dipping sauce goes with everything, from sautéed vegetables to serving over fried fish. Made with fish sauce, lime juice, warm water, and sugar.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Asian, Vietnamese
Keyword Fish Recipes
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 1 cup

Ingredients

  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1-2 fresh fresh Thai chili, sliced
  • 4 tbsp fish sauce
  • 4 tbsp fresh lime juice
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 4 tbsp white sugar

Instructions

  • In a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic cloves and fresh Thai chilis together.
  • Add the fish sauce, fresh squeezed lime juice, warm water, and sugar. Stir together until the sugar dissolves.
  • Taste and adjust, if desired.

Notes

If you don’t have fresh Thai chilis, you can substitute with chili garlic sauce (or Sriracha) and adjust to your heat tolerance.

Review
recipe image
Recipe Name
Vietnamese Dipping Fish Sauce Recipe (Nước Chấm)
Zoe Nguyen-Patalano
Published On
2020-07-26
Preparation Time
5M

Filed Under: Recipes, Asian, Vietnamese Tagged With: Dipping Sauce, Nuoc CHam, Vietnamese Recipes

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Welcome, Y’all!

Hi, I'm Zoe Nguyen-Patalano, a busy mom to the sweetest baby boy and wife to my childhood sweetheart. I'm a wedding and portrait photography who loves to cook and share my traveling adventures. My food philosophy is to create delicious and easy recipes perfect for busy families. More About Me

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