Inspired by Thai green papaya salad, this dish incorporates both of the key elements of the classic dish: som, or “sour,” thanks to a lime-juice-based dressing, and tam, or “pounded,” achieved by bashing the green beans before marinating. Summer’s best produce—in the form of juicy nectarines and heirloom tomatoes—and punchy grilled chicken round out the plate. Fair warning, you’ll want to save this recipe for the zesty marinade alone—the green chiles and cilantro combo is great on any protein, as part of this salad or not.
All products featured on Bon Appétit are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through the retail links below, we earn an affiliate commission.
What you’ll need
Blender
$40 At Amazon
Cast Iron Skillet
$30 At Amazon
Citrus Juicer
$20 $15 At Amazon
Whisk
$10 At Amazon
Rolling Pin
$13 At Amazon
Ingredients
4 servings
3
4
1
8
4
4
2
1½
3
12
2
1
2
Preparation
Step 1
Purée 3 green Thai or serrano chiles, 4 garlic cloves, ½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro, 3 Tbsp. fresh lime juice, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 Tbsp. brown sugar, and 2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt in a blender until smooth. Pour marinade into a large bowl.
Step 2
Make 3 short shallow slits across smoother side of each skinless, boneless chicken thigh (1½ lb. total) and place in bowl with marinade; turn to coat. Let sit at room temperature at least 30 minutes, or cover and chill up to 12 hours. If chilling, let sit at room temperature 1 hour before cooking.
Step 3
Whisk 3 Tbsp. fish sauce, ¼ cup olive oil, and remaining 5 Tbsp. fresh lime juice and 3 Tbsp. brown sugar in a large bowl; season dressing with salt.
Step 4
Place 12 oz. green beans, trimmed, in a large resealable plastic bag, close, and smash with a rolling pin until most of the beans are bruised. Add to bowl with dressing along with 2 nectarines, cut into ¼"-thick wedges and toss to coat. Chill while you cook the chicken.
Step 5
Heat remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high. Remove chicken from marinade, letting excess drip back into bowl; cook until browned and cooked through, 5–7 minutes per side. Transfer to a cutting board; let rest 5–10 minutes. Thinly slice.
Step 6
Drain beans and nectarines over a small bowl to catch dressing. Return to large bowl; add chicken, 1 medium heirloom tomato, cut into ¼"-thick wedges, and ½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro and toss to coat.
Step 7
Transfer salad to a platter and drizzle some dressing over. Crush 2 Tbsp. salted dry-roasted peanuts and scatter over along with more cilantro.
Leave a Review
Reviews (18)
Back to TopGreat recipe. If you don't want to par-boil the green beans, using haircot verts or, even better, Chinese long beans will give a better result. Smashing/pounding the beans aggressively will remove a lot of the raw flavor. Highly recommend smashing the beans in a large mortar and pestle the way you would do the papaya in som tam. Getting a Thai granite mortar and pestle was one of the best cheap kitchen upgrades I've made.
Nate Scherer
Columbus, OH
8/5/2023
I have decided to experiment with recipes lately, since I work from home and have the time. This was fairly involved (and I haven't even scrubbed my pan yet), but the result was very flavorful and well balanced. I am always looking for recipes that incorporate stone fruit. Like some others, I par-boiled the green beans. But maybe next time I won't - maybe the raw flavor would add a certain je ne sais quoi!
Rose
Chicago, IL
7/28/2023
The list of ingredients didn’t sound like a good combo to me, but yum! It was surprisingly delicious
SpatualCity123
Los Angeles
8/28/2022
This was excellent. We lightly blanched the green beans at the recommendation of another reviewer, and I was so glad we did. Still got the texture of the raw beans with a bit less of the woodiness. We added a few plums we had laying around, in addition to the nectarines, and added fried shallots to the peanuts. Would definitely make this again.
sbrooksh
Takoma Park, MD
8/23/2022
Lots of work for little payback. For our palates it was good, but not stellar.
Donna HK
Seattle
8/5/2022
Delicious! I was concerned about the raw green beans so I blanched them before adding them to the dressing. That method worked great. It is an involved recipe, but it was worth it.
Anonymous
Los Angeles, ÇA
7/27/2022
This dish is fire. I substituted chicken breasts, hammered them flat, cut them roughly to the size of thighs, cooked them 7 minutes on the first side and 4 on the second. I ended up marinading the chicken for ~6 hours, and the flavor and texture was incredible. Make sure that you really pound the green beans, because since they're not cooked, they need to be pretty bruised (kind of like kale, I guess?), and I didn't bruise them quite enough, or uniformly enough, and some ended up tasting raw. I made this for myself and it was so good that I was mad that there was no one there to share it with. Will make again, with company next time.
Michelle D.
Los Angeles, CA
7/20/2022
Forgot to add in previous review that I used 2 chicken breasts (1 pound) rather than 1.5 pounds of boneless chicken thighs. We prefer chicken breasts - only adjustment I made was to pound chicken breasts semi-flat and cook them 5 minutes a side, rather than 5-7 minutes.
Anonymous
Nashville, TN
7/10/2022
Incredibly tasty! It was a lot of work to compile two marinades and it left a mess in my kitchen, but I’d definitely make it again! An especially great dish when it’s oppressively hot, as it is in July in Nashville. Highly recommended.
Anonymous
Nashville TN
7/10/2022