Tangy, bright, garlicky, and umami, this summery Vietnamese Dipping Sauce is liquid gold that will make your grilled meat and noodle dishes sing.

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Why You'll Love This Recipe
What is Nuoc Cham?
Ingredients to Make Viet Dipping Sauce
How to Make This Recipe
Expert Tips To Make Viet Dipping Sauce
What's The Difference between Nuoc Cham and Nuoc Mam?
Recipe to Make Viet Dipping Sauce

Why You'll Love This Recipe

Takes only 5 minutes to make
Easy to make a big batch
Uniquely flavourful - tangy, spicy, garlicky
Works as a marinade, dressing, OR dip!

What is Nuoc Cham?

Why, it's THE most famous Vietnamese dipping sauce!

Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese dipping sauce) is a bright, tangy dipping sauce that's also used as a salad dressing and marinade. It's base is made of fish sauce, which is basically used in place of salt in most Vietnamese home recipes. This is why it's the most popular sauce Viet people use.

Ingredients to Make Viet Dipping Sauce

Fish sauce
Minced garlic
White vinegar
Lime juice
Sugar
Minced, de-seeded fresh Thai birds eyes chiles

How to Make This Recipe

Simply mince everything and mix it into a bowl. Add extra vinegar to make it tangier, fish sauce to make it saltier.

Expert Tips To Make Viet Dipping Sauce

Use REAL limes! You can tell the difference when using real, fresh-squeezed lime vs bottled lime juice. You can always use leftover limes to make our refreshing Viet Limemade 😉
Add the chile peppers sparingly. You can always add more but it's hard to take it out if you add to much. Taste as you go.
If you make it too spicy, add extra sugar and vinegar to cut through the spice.
If you don't want your tongue to fall off but still want a bit a spice, remove the seeds from the chili before adding it to the sauce. Seeds hold the most capsaicin (the chemical that makes chilies spicy).
Don't leave out the garlic. It just won't be the same.
Make a huge batch so you can use it as a marinade (grilled pork chops anyone? or dressing for Viet herb salads.

What's The Difference between Nuoc Cham and Nuoc Mam?

Nuoc Cham is the sauce that's prepared with garlic, sugar, vinegar, lime juice, chilli peppers. Nuoc Cham translates to "liquid [to] dip". On the other hand, Nuoc mam is just the Vietnamese word for fish sauce. This means Nuoc Cham is made with Nuoc mam. Congrats Anh/Chi, you're now fluent in Vietnamese 😉 .