Sugarcane Shrimp / Chạo Tôm

Chảo Tôm is a delightful Vietnamese dish that combines the sweet, savory, and aromatic flavors of shrimp and sugarcane. It’s perfect for summer gatherings, special occasions, or whenever you want to treat yourself to something delicious! Springy shrimp paste is wrapped around sugarcane and deep-fried to golden perfection. Chao tom can be served on a broken rice plate (com tam), with fine woven vermicelli noodles, in a spring roll, or on its own!

Making the Chao Tom

You can use any size of shrimp for this recipe as it’ll be blended up; typically, restaurants use the smallest and cheapest ones. The only caveat is that you would have to peel and depoop more shrimp.

The secret to the bounciest and chewiest chao tom is actually pork fat—not lard, but whole pieces of pork fat blended into a paste. The pork fat will give the shrimp a natural bounciness, and some fat will be added to the mixture. Alternatively, if you have access to gio song (pork paste), which is just ground pork and pork fat blended, that will also give the sugarcane shrimp its signature texture and flavor.

Wrapping the sugarcane

This recipe is pretty simple. The trickiest part, though, is getting the shrimp around the sugarcane. The paste is pretty loose and very sticky. Ensure you apply plenty of oil to your hands to prevent the paste from sticking. Rolling the paste around in the palm of your hands will help smooth out the exterior.

If you don’t have access to sugarcane, you can also substitute it with stalks of lemongrass instead.

Cooking Alternatives

My recipe calls for deep-frying the chao tom in 350F oil for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown, but you also have some other options for cooking these sugarcane shrimp.

Grilling chao tom is also a very traditional cooking method, and these cook just as quickly. Get your grill nice and hot, and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Grilling will add a nice char and smokiness to the chao tom.

Alternatively, you can air-fry these at 375F for 7-8 minutes, flipping halfway in between. Make sure you spray these with plenty of oil.