Our Best Fish Sauce Recipes

By Food & Wine
Updated October 05, 2020
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 a few of our best fish sauce recipes.
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Green Mango with Dipping Sauce (Mak Muang Som Klub Jaew Wan)

Credit: © Con Poulos
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This simple dipping sauce from chef James Syhabout is a mix of pungent fish sauce, chiles and shallot. It's great with green mango, as well as ripe mango and pineapple.

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Spicy Green Papaya Salad

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For this Thai classic, Andy Ricker uses a mortar and pestle to pound crunchy raw green beans with a piquant mix of chiles, garlic, fish sauce and lime juice. He then tosses in crisp strips of unripened papaya.

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Vietnamese-Style Shrimp and Watercress Stir-Fry

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The fish sauce and peanuts in this seafood stir-fry are hallmarks of Vietnamese cooking. Ample amounts of fresh ginger and lime juice bump up the flavor of the dish.

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Thai Ground Pork Salad

Credit: CON POULOS
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At Thai restaurants, Tom Mylan usually requests a double order of larb (or laab), an addictive appetizer of ground meat spiked with chiles, lime juice and fish sauce and served with lettuce leaves for wrapping.

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Shaking Beef

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Chef Charles Phan serves this sweet and vinegary Vietnamese dish with a tart dipping sauce of lime juice, salt and pepper. In the easy way, serve the beef with fresh lime wedges instead of a dipping sauce.

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Cornish Hen Stew with Lemongrass and Chiles

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Served in the rustic northern-Thai style with the aromatics left in, this spicy, gingery stew makes a fantastic main course or starter. It's also believed to boost energy. For an even healthier version, remove the skin from the Cornish hens before searing.

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Thai Green Curry Hot Wings

Credit: Tina Rupp
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The classic accompaniment to a cold beer gets a spicy update with plenty of green curry paste.

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Roast Beef Summer Rolls

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Vietnamese summer rolls are often filled with chicken or shrimp, but Grace Parisi makes hers with roast beef from the deli.

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Rice-Noodle Salad with Chicken and Herbs

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This cool Vietnamese-style noodle salad is tossed in a bright citrus dressing.

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Shrimp Fried Rice with Coconut and Pickled Onions

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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.

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Fish Sauce Caramel Chicken

Credit: Christopher Testani
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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.

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