Having carved a niche in Little Saigon over the past year with its lauded chicken wings, Mama Hieu’s, the brainchild of mother-son chefs Jimmy Le and Nho Thi Le, now introduces a new addition to the menu: a hot chicken sandwich infused with a distinctly Vietnamese twist.
According to Jimmy, the new sandwich, which he started serving on May 2, is already a smash. “It’s been crazy since we started serving it,” he shared. “We went through a lot of sandwiches this past week.”
Mama Hieu’s hot chicken sandwich features an ample chicken breast that undergoes a 72-hour marination in a brine of buttermilk, oyster sauce and a secret seasoning blend. After being fried to a crispy, golden hue, the breast is dipped in spicy chili oil and seasoned with a chili blend mix.
“The gỏi is what really sets it apart” from other hot chicken sandwiches, he explained. Mama Hieu’s gỏi, a Vietnamese salad, serves as the sandwich’s characteristic slaw topping, composed of shredded green and red cabbage, carrots, cilantro, pickled red onions, mint and dill, with the latter two herbs providing a cooling, herbaceous contrast. The “slaw” is then tossed with a buttermilk nước chấm dressing, dolloped atop the breast and sandwiched between plush Martin’s potato rolls.
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“That’s what makes it a Vietnamese hot chicken sandwich,” added Le.
While hot chicken sandwiches, specifically the Nashville variety, have made cameos on more and more menus in recent years, ranging from mom-and-pop eateries to chains like KFC and Los Angeles-based Angry Chickz, the dish’s roots stretch back to Prince’s Hot Chicken in Nashville. Legend has it that, sometime in the 1930s, a scorned lover of Hornton Prince, chef-founder of Prince’s Hot Chicken, helped light the fuse that sparked an American culinary phenom.
Still in operation after nearly a century, Prince’s Hot Chicken explains on its website, “While we don’t know if Prince came home one night with a faint hint of perfume or a smudge of lipstick on his collar, we do know that after another one of Prince’s nights out, his scorned lover wanted revenge. And using Prince’s love of fried chicken as bait, she concocted the perfect recipe,” doctoring his Sunday morning chicken “with a wallop of spice.” The revenge dish failed at its mission of vengeance, but succeeded in creating a culinary hit. Price put the hot chicken on his menu, and a legend was born.
From Nashville to Westminster’s Little Saigon, hot chicken sandwiches can be found on many a menu, with eateries like Mama Hieu’s making it their very own. The Vietnamese hot chicken sandwich costs $15 alone; a combo, with either fries or tater tots, runs $18.
Find it: 9090 Bolsa Ave., Westminster, 714-261-6110