Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dipping Sauce)

Nuoc cham is Vietnam's go-to dipping sauce, made with fish sauce, fresh lime juice, sugar, water, garlic and chilies. It's sweet, sour, salty and spicy all at once, and ready in 5 minutes.

Prep Time5

Cook Time5

Course: Main Course, sauce

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Keyword: fish sauce dipping sauce, nuoc cham, nuoc mam cham, vietnamese dipping sauce

Servings: tablespoons

Calories: 13kcal

Author: Mike Hultquist

Ingredients

1/2 cup warm water
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 Thai chilies or use bird's eye chilies, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves finely minced (optional)

Instructions

Add the warm water and sugar to a small bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely, about 30 seconds.
Stir in the lime juice and taste. It should taste like a strong sweet-tart flavor (think limeade that's just a little too sweet).
Stir in the fish sauce and taste again. Adjust with more lime, sugar or fish sauce to your liking.
Stir in the garlic and chilies. They should float on top. Let the sauce rest for 10 minutes before serving to let the flavors mingle.

Notes

You can easily adjust the ratios of all of the ingredients to make this dish your very own. I personally enjoy more bold fish sauce for umami and more spicy chilies, but you can easily add more water, more garlic, less lime juice, whatever you'd like. It is best to taste, adjust, and experiment.

Ratio: Equal parts lime juice, sugar and fish sauce, plus about 2½ times as much water. Scale up or down from there.
Heat level: For mild, use half a seeded fresno or serrano, or skip the chilies. For hot, use 4 to 5 Thai chilies, minced. For wild, add a spoonful of chili garlic sauce or a minced habanero.
Vinegar Variation: Use rice vinegar or white vinegar for part or all of the lime juice.
Storage: Refrigerate, covered, for up to 1 week. For longer storage, mix the water, sugar and fish sauce as a base (several weeks), then add the lime, garlic and chilies right before serving.

Nutrition