Ingredients Condiments Our 21 Best Fish Sauce Recipes By Food & Wine Editors Updated on September 7, 2022 Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Photo: Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Kay E. Clarke Fish sauce is a wildly popular and versatile condiment, used widely to give a savory, umami note to dishes. It's prominent in the cuisines of a wide swath of East and Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia and China. Once you get your hands on a bottle, here are 21 of our best fish sauce recipes to try. 01 of 21 Sinigang Na Hipon Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Kay E. Clarke Sinigang is a soup from the Philippines with a tangy broth, often made using sour fruit like tamarind or unripe guava. For her sinigang na hipon (prawn sinigang), chef Melissa Miranda uses fresh grapefruit and lemon juice for the sour notes in the full-bodied fish broth that bathes succulent, grilled head-on Argentinean prawns and earthy charred shishitos. Get the Recipe 02 of 21 Bruised Cabbage and Herb Salad with Spicy Fish Sauce Dressing Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Dickey / Prop Styling by Heather Chadduck Hillegas When hardy vegetables like cabbage are lightly crushed in a tall Thai-style clay mortar with a long wooden pestle, they're tenderized just enough to yield a pleasing soft crunch. Bruised Thai basil, cilantro, and mint permeate this dish, with a dressing of fish sauce and lime, pounded chiles, garlic, and ginger. Get the Recipe 03 of 21 Spicy Shrimp Toast Photo by Antonis Achilleos / Prop Styling by Christina Daley / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall Shrimp toast has become a staple in American Chinese restaurants and is a fun snack to make at home. Here, 2011 F&W Best New Chef Stephanie Izard makes a shrimp mousse flavored with spicy sambal oelek; bright, tangy preserved lemon; and Shaoxing rice wine, and spreads it on white bread. Get the Recipe 04 of 21 Shaking Beef © Quentin Bacon Chef Charles Phan serves this sweet and vinegary Vietnamese dish with a tart dipping sauce of lime juice, salt, and pepper. In this easy version, the beef is served with fresh lime wedges instead of a dipping sauce. Get the Recipe 05 of 21 Green Curry Lobster Stew with Sweet Potato and Mushrooms Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Lydia Pursell ""Lobster stew is one of the pillars of Maine cooking," according to chefs Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor of Eventide Oyster Co. in Portland, Maine. For this green curry-laced version, they took cues from tom kha, a coconut milk-based Thai soup, and enriched it with umami-heavy Golden Mountain sauce and hen-of-the-woods mushroom confit to create a richly aromatic lobster stew. Get the Recipe 06 of 21 Cornish Hen Stew with Lemongrass and Chiles © Stephanie Foley Served in the rustic northern Thai style with the aromatics left in, this spicy, gingery stew makes a fantastic main course or starter. Get the Recipe 07 of 21 Crispy Garlic-Glazed Chicken Wings Justin Walker At Anan Saigon restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, chef Peter Cuong Franklin serves next-level chicken wings that are at once sticky-sweet and explosively umami. Baked then stir-fried in a mixture of fish sauce, lime juice, and soy sauce, the wings get finished with crunchy fried garlic and fresh scallions. Get the Recipe 08 of 21 Crab Summer Rolls with Nuoc Cham Sauce © Con Poulos Layering the crabmeat first in these summer rolls (often mislabeled as spring rolls in America) lets you see it through the translucent wrapper. The deeply flavored nuoc cham sauce brings together lime juice, fish sauce, chile, sesame, scallion, cilantro, and mint. Get the Recipe 09 of 21 Shrimp Fried Rice with Coconut and Pickled Onions © John Kernick For chef Chris Yeo's version of fried rice, known in Southeast Asia as nasi goreng, he adds two surprise ingredients: quick-pickled onions and nutty shredded coconut. Get the Recipe 10 of 21 Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew) Greg DuPree Baguette and bo kho are great friends, but you also can serve the stew with pasta — try it over pappardelle-size egg noodles or rice noodles. Add a green salad for a complete meal. Get the Recipe 11 of 21 Fish Sauce Caramel Chicken Christopher Testani This dish is inspired by ga kho gung, a Vietnamese dish of caramelized chicken with ginger and fish sauce. The sweetness of the caramel is nicely balanced by the saltiness of the fish sauce and the savory notes of shallots and garlic. Get the Recipe 12 of 21 Larb (Thai Ground Pork Salad) © Con Poulos At Thai restaurants, butcher Tom Mylan usually requests a double order of larb (or laab), an irresistible appetizer of ground meat spiked with chiles, lime juice, and fish sauce and served with lettuce leaves for wrapping. Get the Recipe 13 of 21 Pancit Miki Bihon Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Kay E. Clarke "Pancit is a catch-all term for noodle dishes in the Philippines — and there are so many variations of pancit" says 2021 F&W Best New Chef Carlo Lamagna. This pancit combines two types of noodles: bihon (long, thin noodles usually made from rice flour or cornstarch) and miki (egg noodles). Get the Recipe 14 of 21 Thai-Style Shrimp Cocktail Aubrie Pick Chef Kris Yenbamroong of Night + Market invites a quick garlic aioli and super spicy fish sauce–based dipping sauce to the shrimp cocktail party. Serve the shrimp alongside ramekins of aioli and nam jim seafood sauce for dipping, or arrange the shrimp around the rim of a coupe glass filled with nam jim for more intense flavor. Get the Recipe 15 of 21 Crunchy Cabbage Salad with Peanuts and Fish Sauce Cedric Angeles Chef Nick Bognar's salad of fresh shredded cabbage is a riot of flavors and textures. The tangy, spicy dressing soaks into each bite, which is punctuated with pops of sweet crunch from the quick-candied peanuts and bursts of verdant flavor from fistfuls of herbs. Get the Recipe 16 of 21 Savory Fish Sauce Caramel Porridge with Sweet Potatoes Photo by Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Rishon Hanners / Prop Styling by Heather Chadduck Hillegas This satisfying bowl of multigrain porridge — made with long grain brown rice, quinoa, and amaranth — is flavored with coconut milk and topped with sweet potatoes seasoned with a splash of fresh lime juice. The fish sauce caramel is both mixed into the porridge as well as drizzled on top just before serving for a sweet and savory umami hit. Get the Recipe 17 of 21 Spicy Green Papaya Salad © Maura McEvoy The classic northern Thai salad called som tam is often eaten with sticky rice and such ingredients as very small Thai eggplants, little tomatoes, crushed peanuts, dried shrimp, long beans, crispy pork, and even salted crabs. This is a minimalist version, and it's simply stunning. Get the Recipe 18 of 21 Butternut Squash and Pork Soup with Fish Sauce and Tender Herbs Photo by Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christina Daley In Vietnam, kabocha squash is simmered with pork to make a soup called canh bi do thit heo. This riff on that classic dish swaps in mild butternut, which holds its shape well and absorbs the rich flavors of the broth and pork while cooking quickly. Filled with tender ground pork marinated in fish sauce and sugar, this aromatic, brothy soup comes together in under an hour for a light and satisfying meal. Get the Recipe 19 of 21 Okra Tempura with Lime "Fonzu" Dipping Sauce Photo by Linda Xiao / Food Styling by Kate Buckens / Prop Styling by Maeve Sheridan For those who aren't fond of okra's gooey quality, there are two surefire ways to keep it in check: high-heat cooking and a dose of acid. Executive Editor Karen Shimizu's recipe for okra tempura with a zippy dipping sauce incorporates both. The "fonzu" sauce — inspired by ponzu — uses lime juice instead of harder-to-find yuzu and a shortcut of fish sauce instead of steeping in katsuobushi. Get the Recipe 20 of 21 Jeow Som Dipping Sauce Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer and John Somerall / Prop Styling by Audrey Davis This sweet, sour, and pungent Laotian dipping sauce from 2020 F&W Best New Chef Donny Sirisavath gets a kick of heat from Thai chiles, ginger, and garlic balanced by bright, fresh lime juice. It's a delicious partner for the beefy tri-tip. Get the Recipe 21 of 21 Grilled Quail with Sweet-and-Sour Plum Glaze Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Christine Keely Plums and blackberries form the backbone of this sweet-savory glaze from Top Chef Season 17 winner Melissa King; it's perfect for quail but also delicious with bone-in chicken thighs or pork chops. Serve alongside a crisp and refreshing arugula-radish salad with a tangy lime-sesame dressing for the perfect summer meal. Get the Recipe Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit