Vietnamese Pizza

Vietnamese pizza, also known as Bánh Tráng Nướng, is a popular street food made with a crispy rice paper wrapper base. It can be eaten as a quick snack, lunch, or dinner. Easily customize it to include any of your favorite toppings.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• Quick and easy - it comes together in under 10 minutes from start to finish, especially if your toppings are already made. 
• Customizable - use different toppings depending on what you have on hand. The options are endless, and it's a great way to use up any leftover ingredients in the fridge.
• Unique - this unique Vietnamese pizza is unlike any other regular pizza. For more unique pizza ideas try my kimchi pizza or Thai curry pizza. 
• Accommodating - this delicious recipe is naturally gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegetarian-friendly.

What Is Vietnamese Pizza?

Vietnamese pizza originates from Dalat (or Da Lat), a city in southern Vietnam but has become increasingly popular in Saigon, a region known as the paradise of street foods.

This type of pizza is made with a thin sheet of rice paper instead of dough. Unlike an Italian pizza that's cooked in an oven, Vietnamese pizza is traditionally cooked over charcoal. To make it at home, you can cook it in a cast iron skillet or grill pan on the stove.  

Street vendors place a sheet of rice paper over the hot coals until crisp and then top with a beaten egg, green onions, pork floss, dried shrimp, mayo, and sweet chili sauce or sriracha sauce. The result is a super crispy pizza base with a balance of salty, sweet, spicy, and savory flavors.

Ingredients

• Rice paper sheets - this replaces the pizza dough. I like the Blue Dragon brand.
• Egg - instead of tomato sauce, the egg acts as both the sauce and a binder helping the toppings stick to the crispy rice paper pizza base. Traditionally street vendors use quail eggs, but you can just use regular eggs.
• Green onions (spring onions) - these get cooked with the egg to add more flavor and also are added on top.
• Toppings -  I used cooked bacon and sauteed mushrooms, but you could also use ground beef or ground pork, canned meat such as tuna or salmon, cheese, prosciutto, spinach, peppers, onion, crispy shallots, chili oil, etc.
• Mayo - traditionally kewpie mayo is used, but feel free to use whatever you have. This gets drizzled on top of the pizza.
• Sriracha - this also gets drizzled on top of the pizza, but you can also use sweet chili sauce or spicy mayo.

​How to Make Vietnamese Pizza

Step 1. Heat a cast iron skillet or grill pan over medium heat and in a small bowl whisk together the egg and half of the green onions.

Step 2. Once the skillet is hot, add the dry rice paper sheet. You'll notice that it will want to curl up and not lay flat. Gently press down on it with tongs in a circular motion so that all of the surface area is in contact with the pan. After a few seconds of pressing it down, it'll stay put.

Step 3. Add the egg mixture and use the back of a spoon to spread it on top of the rice paper.

Step 4. Add your toppings of choice, a squeeze of mayo and sriracha, and the rest of the green onions. Cook for another 2 minutes and rotate the pizza to ensure even cooking.

Step 5. Serve by cutting it into slices with scissors or folding it up like a pizza wrap for a handheld option with multiple layers.

Helpful Tips

Use a seasoned cast iron skillet, cast iron grill pan, or a nonstick skillet. If for some reason you find that the rice paper is sticking, rotate the pizza in the pan a couple of times.

Have all your ingredients ready. This pizza comes together really quickly, so prep all your toppings before you heat the skillet.

Don't use high heat. Otherwise, you risk burning the bottom of the rice paper and cooking the eggs too quickly before the added toppings are able to stick.

More Asian Inspired Recipes

• Nasi Goreng Kampung
• Crispy Rice Paper Dumplings
• Creamy Coconut Lime Chicken
• Pineapple Fried Rice