I Don’t Think I’ve Ever Loved a Salad As Much As I Love This Crispy Rice Salad.
Let’s discuss.
First of all, there’s papery thin vegetables (cucumber! shallot!) and a whole lot of herbs (mint! cilantro! add more, more, more!).
And secondly, there’s a beautiful pile of clumpy fried golden red curry jasmine rice – it’s crisped and golden on the outside, but soft and carby enough on the insides to still absorb some of the limey, garlicky, salty vinaigrette with all the flavor.
OOF I am drooling just thinking about it.
I can throw some crushed peanuts at this thing and be fully and absolutely happy without any other protein. But if you are the kind of person who wants to get some bonus protein up in the mix (you know what I’m going to say!) I’d recommend the air fryer chicken or the air fryer salmon here. We’ve done both; they’re both great.
This salad is a riff on Nam Khao which is a Laotian appetizer-style salad where the rice is fried into balls with fermented sausage, broken apart, and then eaten on a platter with lettuce cups. I tried a version of this at Hai Hai about a year ago and honestly have been thinking about trying to make it ever since. It was SO good. Then (it was fate!) Molly Yeh recently posted a video about making crispy rice in the air fryer! Genius. And this is how we ended up here, with a brand new salad obsession just in time for Summer 2024.
Welcome To My Home! Let’s Make Crispy Rice Salad.
1
Prep Your Dressing and Herbs.
Blitz up the dressing, and chop up the salad stuff. I like to use a mandoline for the cucumbers and shallots.
2
Mix The Rice with Curry Paste.
Mix the rice with a bit of oil and red curry paste. For the air fryer, I like to have the texture being sticky / wet enough that you can kind of squeeze it into loose chunks. If the rice is dried out / several days leftover, I will add a tablespoon or two of water and maybe even a bit of cornstarch to the mix to help it revive a bit.
3
Clump Your Rice Into the Air Fryer.
Yes, clump it. Just place sticky handfuls of the rice in the air fryer in a single layer. They don’t have to be balls, but you also don’t want each individual grain of rice to be separated. Just kinda clump it in there.
4
Air Fry the Rice!
I do it at 420 for about 8 minutes till it’s nice and golden brown and crispy around the edges! (If you don’t have an air fryer, there are other options in the notes.) When it’s done, scoop chunks of the rice onto your salad bowl! It’ll look like this:
5
Toss It Up! Yum!
Toss the veggies and rice with the dressing.
6
You’re done! YUM!
Seriously. This might be my favorite salad I’ve ever made.
Watch How To Make This Crispy Rice Salad
Crispy Rice Salad with Cucumbers and Herbs
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 3–4 servings 1x
Description
Paper-thin veggies, a shower of herbs, a pile of fried crispy red curry rice, and a limey garlicky vinaigrette all over top. This crispy rice salad is all I want to eat right now!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
The Very Excellent Dressing:
- a 1/2-inch knob of fresh ginger, or a spoonful of ginger paste (see note 1)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons avocado oil, or another neutral oil
- 1/4 cup lime juice (3-4 small limes)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon chili crisp (more for spicier)
Crispy Rice Salad:
- 2 cups cooked jasmine rice (see note 2)
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 2 teaspoons red curry paste
- half an English cucumber, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced or minced (about 1/4 cup)
- 1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 bunch mint, roughly chopped or torn (about 1/4 cup)
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
- chili crisp to taste
Instructions
- Dressing: Blitz everything up in a blender or food processor to make this SUPER yummy, punchy sauce.
- Crispy Rice: Toss the rice in a bowl with the oil and curry paste. Season with salt if you want. Air fry at 425 for 7-9 minutes, until golden and crisped. (See Note 3 for alternative methods – I find the air fryer to be fastest and most convenient!)
- You’re Done! Yum! Toss your crispy rice chunks with about half of the dressing and however many veggies you want. Garnish it with some peanuts and chili crisp if you want. I mean, honestly. Wow. This is so good.
Notes
Note 1 on Ginger: I don’t grate it or mince it because I just toss it in the the bldner with the rest of the sauce ingredients. I’ve also used lemongrass paste here and it’s delicious!
Note 2 on Cooking the Rice: Most crispy rice recipes call for day-old cooked rice. Maybe I’m just lazy, but honestly, I have not found this to be necessary. I cook the rice in the Instant Pot with this method – for this I do 2 cups of rinsed jasmine rice to 2 1/2 cups water, cooked for 3 minutes at high pressure and rested for a 15 minute natural pressure release. I often just make this, fry up a batch for the same-day salad, and then keep the rest in the fridge for another salad later in the week.
Note 3a on Oven Method: If you don’t have an air fryer, I would recommend “frying” the rice in the oven. Bake it at 425 degrees for about 8-10 minutes near the top of the oven (closer to the heating element). It’ll get crispy on the outside, but stay chewy on the inside.
Note 3b on Skillet Frying: You can fry this rice in oil in a skillet, but it’s not my favorite because a) it’s messy, and b) it requires your rice to be much drier to begin with in order to get it crisped up. You’ll want to use day-old rice, and then fry it in about 1/4 cup of neutral oil until it’s golden and crispy. Some recipes even recommend drying the rice out in the oven to ensure that the rice is dry enough to fry well, which, for me, is a dealbreaker. Too many steps. LOL. Another consideration: your finished rice will likely be more oily than the other two methods so you may find that you don’t need as much of the dressing.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: Laoatian-Inspired
Keywords: rice salad, crispy rice salad, crispy rice, salad recipe
Frequently Asked Questions For This Crispy Rice Salad!
Yes. Coat the rice with the curry paste and oil, layer it in clumps on a baking sheet, and bake at 425 for 15 minutes on a rack towards the top of the oven. It’ll get a dried, crisped exterior but the inside of the clumps will be chewy and soft. Delicious.
Not really. This is one that they’re not crazy about so they get all the parts of the salad deconstructed! Peanuts, cucumbers, some mint leaves for sampling, and – their favorite – plain jasmine rice. 🙂 
It’s best to store everything separately and crisp up the rice just before serving. That said, I’ve kept it this way for some make-ahead lunches and the rice texture gets a bit more chewy in the fridge but I didn’t hate it. In fact, I still very much loved it. 
The traditional Lao salad (nam khao tod) is a bit spicy as it often has both roasted and fresh chiles. But this version of a crispy rice salad is pretty mild – and if you want it to be more spicy, you can add more chili crisp or throw some chiles in the mix. My 5-year old-eats this and enjoys it!
Crispy rice salad is delicious with shrimp, salmon, or chicken. Pulled chunks of rotisserie chicken is an easy go-to in our house. We also rely heavily on the air fryer chicken and air fryer salmon for a moment like this! We have an air fryer tofu recipe that is SO good, but I’m not sure it’s the right fit for this recipe just because it has more of a “fried” texture that feels like it would compete with the rice. I don’t know. If you’re veg, you can try it and let me know. 🙂
The only thing in the salad that is not vegetarian is the fish sauce and (sometimes) the curry paste. I use Thai Kitchen red curry paste which is naturally vegan. For a fish sauce sub, you could try making your own fish sauce. Soy sauce or coconut aminos would also be a possible sub – it wouldn’t have the same flavor but would work in a similar way as the salty part of the dressing. You may need to dilute the dressing a bit if it’s too strong, depending on your specific soy sauce.
Yes, this recipe is gluten-free. You may want to confirm that your jasmine rice is certified gluten-free as there can be cross-contact contamination, and you may want to also check the label on the fish sauce and the curry paste just to confirm that these are gluten-free as it can vary from brand to bran. But all the other ingredients in the salad are naturally gluten-free.
