[Vietnamese Recipes] Shrimp Mousse on Sticks (Chao Tom) (2024)

What is Chao Tom

Chạo Tôm features flavorful shrimp mousse, which is bouncy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The mousse is often wrapped around a sugarcane or lemongrass stick and then fried until golden. I call it shrimp on sticks but it can also be called Vietnamese shrimp on sugarcane (or shrimp on lemongrass).
Ingredients

The star of this dish is obviously the shrimps. The fresher they are, the tastier the dish will be. To make the dish flavorful, we will also need typical Vietnamese aromatics and seasonings such as garlic, shallot, ginger, fish sauce and black pepper. Everything will be processed into a shrimp paste in a food processor.

One important thing to note here is that the shrimps should be very coldthroughout the process so that the texture will turn out right. I recommend putting them in a freezer for about 20 minutes before placing them in your food processor.

Some people like to add some pork paste to the mixture for a chewier texture. I’m not really a fan of it since I feel that it reduces the overall sweetness of the mixture.

I personally prefer using lemongrass sticks to make chao tom since sugarcane is much harder to find. More importantly, the shrimp mousse will be infused with a very pleasant and subtle lemongrass fragrance after cooking.

First, prepare the lemongrass by cutting it into 4 1/2-inch sticks. Make a few slits along the sticks to make it easier to release the lemongrass aroma. If you can find sugarcane, feel free to use it instead of lemongrass. Then make the shrimp mousse, which is super easy with a food processor. Wrap the top parts of the sticks with the paste.

The second step is cooking the shrimp skewers. Traditionally, they will be steamed for 5-6 minutes and then fried until golden. I find it totally fine to fry them right away. You can even put them on the grill. In the photo below, the fried sticks are on the lower plate and the grilled ones are on the upper plate.

How to Serve Chao Tom

There are several ways to serve Vietnamese sugarcane shrimp:
serve them as an appetizer with some sriracha or Thai sweet chili sauce on the side and some lettuce and fresh herbs
serve with Vietnamese nuoc cham dressing, some rice vermicelli noodles (bún or bánh hỏi), lettuce and herbs
use rice paper wrappers to make fresh spring rolls with the shrimp mousse, vermicelli noodles, lettuce and herbs

My other favorite shrimp recipes:

Vietnamese Shrimp on Sticks (Chao Tom)

Vietnamese Shrimp on Sticks (Chao Tom) consists of flavorful shrimp mousse wrapped around lemongrass or sugarcane sticks. It is a tasty appetizer for daily meals or parties.