Vietnamese Stir-Fried Corn (Bắp Xào) Recipe

Corn is a New World food but it is beloved in Vietnam. Home cooks and street vendors prepare corn favorites like velvety corn soup, grilled corn on the cob coated with scallion oil, refreshing corn milk, and corn and coconut sweet soup. Years ago, at a Ho Chi Minh City sidewalk restaurant where my friends and I were nursing beers and snacks, a street food vendor stopped right in front of the restaurant and set up his cart to make bắp xào: stir-fried corn kernels with butter, chiles and tiny dried shrimp.

The chef and restaurant owner didn't mind the street vendor adding to their menu. They were pals. One by one, customers waved over the street vendor to buy a portion. I did too. What did bắp xào taste like? Think of it as a Vietnamese kin of esquites (Mexican corn salad). It was warm, sweet, spicy, and salty.

Vietnamese bắp xào is super-easy, and here's my recipe from Vietnamese Food Any Day. During sweet corn season, this snack is on rotation at our house. Serve it as a side dish, if you like but don't forget that it's a great snack with drinks too!

Ingredient tips

This recipe employs certain ingredients to mimic and evoke the flavors of bắp xào prepared in Vietnam. Depending on your ingredient selection, the resulting dish can vegan/vegetarian, pescatarian or omnivorous taste preferences.

• For smoky heat, I combine fresh chile with Spanish smoked pimeton paprika, which is sold in the spice aisle. Use a heady, flavorful smoked paprika like this one.
• Since dried shrimp is hard to find at supermarkets, I work in oceanic oomph via Japanese or Korean toasted seaweed, or Japanese furikake, a rice seasoning mixture that often includes dried bonito.
• Fish sauce, Maggi seasoning sauce, or Bragg liquid aminos bring on the umami oomph. Often times in Vietnam, a little MSG is added but you are fine using another source for savory depth. Unclear about condiments in the Vietnamese kitchen? Use this cheat sheet to help.

Ingredient and prep tips 

Hold on. Before diving in to make this recipe, here are some bonus tips!

How much corn on the cob do you need to start with? Buy 3 medium or 2 large ears of corn to obtain the 2 cups of kernels needed for a batch of the corn. And, when prepping the corn, it’s safer and less messy to lay the ear on the cutting board to cut off the kernels, instead of holding the ear upright. But if you prefer, stand it up with the sturdier stem end down. 

Print Recipe

Vietnamese Stir-Fried Streetside Corn

This recipe is published with permission from my cookbook, Vietnamese Food Any Day (2018, Ten Speed Press).

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter or virgin coconut oil
• 2 cups fresh corn kernels
• 1 seeded and chopped fresh chile such as Fresno or jalapeño
• 2 ½ teaspoons fish sauce, or 1 ½ teaspoons Bragg Liquid Aminos or Maggi Seasoning sauce plus ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• Rounded ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 green onion white and green parts, thinly sliced and separated into rings
• 1 ½ teaspoons furikake; 3 pieces Korean toasted seaweed crumbled; or ½ sheet sushi nori, toasted and crumbled

Instructions

• In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the corn and chile and cook for about 2 minutes, until heated through. Add the fish sauce and smoked paprika and cook, stirring frequently, for 1 to 2 minutes longer, until the corn has cooked through and developed a spicy and savory flavor. (In my carbon-steel skillet, when a couple of kernels jump and pop, it’s time to move on.)
• Remove the pan from the heat, add the green onion, and stir until softened. Let cool for 3 to 5 minutes, then transfer to a bowl and top with the furikake.
• Serve with spoons for each diner to mix things up, scoop, and eat.