Vietnamese-style rice noodle salad

Remove any excess fat or sinew from the chicken thigh fillets, then roughly chop into 3cm chunks and set aside. Place a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and add 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Add the chicken and cook until golden all over and almost cooked through, about 8 mins.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Boil the kettle. Squeeze the juice of 3 limes into a medium bowl, followed by the sugar, and fish sauce. Finely grate in the garlic cloves, then add 2 tbsp of just-boiled water, stirring gently to mix together and dissolve the sugar. Finely chop the chilli and coriander stalks, adding half to the sauce and reserving half for serving. Pick the coriander and mint leaves and set aside.

Peel the carrots into thin strips. Do the same with the cucumber and spring onions and divide evenly between 4 bowls. Pick away the leaves of the lettuce and finely slice the core, then divide the leaves and shredded lettuce between your bowls.

Just as the chicken is almost cooked, add half of the sauce to the frying pan, take it off the heat and allow to cook for a moment, stirring so all the chicken is evenly coated in the sauce. Divide between the bowls, then put the frying pan back over a medium heat and, with 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, cook the noodles for a couple of minutes until heated through. Add to your bowls alongside the chicken, then top with chopped chilli and coriander stalks, whole mint and coriander leaves.