Vietnamese rice noodle salad with grilled chicken

Chicken marinade:

• 4 chicken breasts or 8 deboned skinless chicken thighs
• 1 medium piece of lemongrass stripe the hard outer leaves and cut the white part into thick pieces *
• 2 – 3 garlic cloves sliced
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 Tbs soy
• 1 Tbs honey or brown sugar or palm sugar
• 2 Tbsp lime juice
• 2 tsp freshly ground ginger optional

Nuoc cham:

• 5 Tbsp fish sauce
• 4 Tbs rice wine vinegar
• ½ cup water 120 ml
• 3 Tbs freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 red chilli finely chopped or omit to keep it mild
• 1-2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1 Tbs grated palm sugar or light brown or white sugar
• 2 Tbs good quality sweet chilli sauce optional

Salad noodle bowls:

• 250 gm vermicelli rice noodles – cooked according to the pack instructions or see above
• 1 – 1.5 cups shredded or julienned carrot
• 4-5 cups of finely shredded cabbage
• 1 small head of romaine lettuce cut into ribbons
• Small bunch of fresh mint roughly chopped
• A small bunch of fresh coriander roughly chopped
• 6 spring onions finely chopped
• 6 Mediterranean cucumbers sliced
• 1 red bell pepper finely sliced
• 6-8 Tbsp roughly chopped roasted salted peanuts optional
• Additional sliced chilli to garnish optional