15 Apr 2020
30 Comments
We don’t cook pork often, but my friends convinced us to try this popular Vietnamese grilled pork (thit nuong) and we’ve already made it 2x since! The pork is marinated until tender and flavorful, and when cooked on high heat, the coating caramelizes and gets a nice sear. You can enjoy it over a rice or vermicelli noodle bowl, lightened up inside a lettuce wrap, or in a banh mi style sandwich!
Pork Recipe
This recipe is very forgiving in terms of modifications, based on what you have at home. I tapped into my Vietnamese friends’ family recipe archives, and while everyone makes it differently (i.e. oyster sauce vs fish sauce, honey vs sugar), the approximate ratio of sweet to savory to aromatics in the marinade is generally similar.
This is also freezer friendly for quick meals – simply freeze uncooked meat with marinade in a ziploc bag, and put it in your fridge 1 day prior to slowly thaw before cooking.
Print Recipe
4.79 from 42 votes
VIETNAMESE PORK (FOR BOWLS, LETTUCE WRAPS, SANDWICHES)
Ingredients
- 1 lb pork preferably pork shoulder *
- 3 Tablespoons brown sugar or 2.5 Tbs honey
- 2 Tablespoons regular soy sauce or 2 teaspoons “dark” or “thick” soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoons fish sauce and/or oyster sauce I do half & half
- 1.5 Tablespoons neutral cooking oil
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 to 4 cloves minced garlic
- 1 stalk minced lemongrass ** see note – we never have any
- Optional: minced shallot or onion jalapeno/chili pepper or red pepper flakes
Rice or Vermicelli Bowl Topping Ideas
- cilantro
- crushed peanuts
- Nuoc cham sauce
- quick pickles
Banh Mi Sandwich Filling Ideas
- Generous spread of mayo we love Kewpie mayo from the Asian grocery
- Pate is tasty and traditional, if you have it on hand
- Pork, cucumber spears,pickled carrots, cilantro, jalapenos
Instructions
Chop + mix together all the marinade ingredients. If you have a food processor, you can put the garlic, shallot, and lemongrass all in together to chop finely.
Slice the pork to about 1/4″ thick pieces and pound with a mallet if you have one (with a layer of saran wrap or parchment paper in between).
Coat the pork well in the marinade, and refrigerate for 2 hours to 24 hours, stirring once in between.
To cook the pork, grilling in a basket is ideal. As we don’t have a grill, we’ve been making these 2 other ways that work well!
Easy-cleanup broil
Pre-heat your broiler oven while placing the pork slices on a foil lined baking sheet, making sure not to overlap the pieces. Once the broiler is ready, place the baking sheet on a high rack and broil with the oven door cracked open, until the pork pieces develop a nice sear on top. This takes about 6-7 minutes and no flipping of the meat is needed! Note: handle carefully as the broiler gets very hot, and don’t re-use the same piece of foil for multiple batches as the sugar in the marinade will burn.
Pan sear
Heat a frying pan to medium high heat with a little oil. Once the oil is hot, place the pork in the pan, flipping occasionally to make sure both sides get evenly browned and seared (about 4 to 5 minutes per side). Personally I liked the caramelization better from pan searing, but it’s hard to beat the ease of the foil-lined broil method!
Notes
* Pork with more fat and marbling is ideal, as the fat will help with caramelization on high heat and keep the meat juicy. “Pork butt” is a misnomer as it also comes from shoulder. If you must use pork chops, dark meat is preferred and definitely no need to trim off the fat. We’ve also made this with regular pork chops sliced small, and while it was still good, it’s definitely better with a fattier cut.
** Lemongrass stalks can be found at Asian + most larger grocery stores like Whole Foods, and freezes well for later use. You can skip, or use the juice from 1/2 of a lime (or lemon) – it’s not the same flavor, but citrus in marinade helps tenderize meat so doesn’t hurt.
Ways to Enjoy This Pork
1. Rice or vermicelli bowl
Topping ideas:
- Cilantro
- Crushed peanuts
- Nuoc cham sauce (we followed this recipe and enjoyed it)
- Quick pickles – we’ve made so many versions of this! One of our go-to recipes is to slice 2 mini cucumbers (into either circular discs or spears) and place in a well stirred mixture of 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, 3-4 teaspoons sugar, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon fish sauce. Shake the container and refrigerate. These are ready to eat in about 10 minutes but don’t wait more than a few hours (hence the “quick” aspect), otherwise they can become too strongly flavored. If you want to make these ahead for eating more than a few hours later, add 3-4 tablespoons of water in to dilute the pickling liquid.
2. Lettuce Wraps
Using romaine lettuce hearts, with cucumber spears, cilantro, and good ole nuoc cham sauce again.
3. Banh Mi Sandwich
This was so delicious and definitely hit the spot. The right bread is typically important, but as we don’t have a lot of choices these days, I used my “take & bake” half baked baguettes from the Whole Foods freezer section which worked pretty well. For a moist inside yet crisp outer to the frozen bread, I first microwave it about 1-2 minutes, then finish in the oven or air fryer for about 5 minutes.
Fillings:
- Generous spread of mayo (we love Kewpie mayo from the Asian grocery)
- Pate is tasty and traditional, if you have it on hand
- Pork, cucumber spears, pickled carrots, cilantro, jalapenos
The pickled carrots sticks or “do chua” can be labor intensive to cut up, but friends tell me they also like a simplified version of using a vegetable peeler and peeling small ribbons of cucumber and carrots. Or, you can use a julienne tool (careful with your fingers!).
PS – if you’re craving Vietnamese cold cut sandwiches but don’t have access to those speciality deli meats, I’ve been indulging a bit in sliced mortadella from American grocery stores, sandwiched in toasted white bread but with traditional banh mi toppings (the pickled carrots here is key) – pretty tasty!!
For more easy meal ideas, check out our other Extra (Ap)Petiteposts!
I know several of you enjoy making thit nuong at home – let me know how you make your marinade and cook the meat!
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Leave a Comment
30 Comments
Grace wrote:
Hi Jean, what is the red+white stripe thing in the bowl? And what kind of bun you use for the sandwich? Thank you!Posted 1.14.21Reply
Jean | Extra Petite wrote:
Hi Grace, those are pickled carrots! I shared a link to the recipe we use for them under the Banh Mi sandwich section near the bottom of the post. The bread I used is a “take & bake” half baked baguette from the Whole Foods freezer section.
Posted 1.19.21Reply
Karen wrote:
How many does the recipe serve?
Posted 6.19.20Reply
Jean | Extra Petite wrote:
Hi Karen, sorry I’m not familiar with standard portions but since this is 1lb of meat you can use that as guidance based on other meat you cook. For us it serves 2 on a sandwich or bowl with plenty for leftovers!
Posted 6.23.20Reply
Wendy wrote:
Hi Jean,Thank you for the delicious recipe. I actually used meat from BBQ ribs and put it in the air fryer and it turned out really good (I cooked half a batch in the pan) and preferred the air fryer method as it made it crispier (but it also tasted saltier – not sure if it’s because it is drier). Even my Asian Mom liked it (and that’s saying something).
Looking forward to your other recipes and blogs!
Best,
WendyPosted 6.19.20Reply
Jen wrote:
Asian stores have chopped up lemongrass in the frozen section if you always want to have some on-hand. It’s called Xa Bam.
Posted 6.2.20Reply
Karin Woodman wrote:
The classic recipe uses a “caramel sauce” that is sugar boiled with water until it becomes quite dark but not burned. Honey or brown sugar are great substitutes though won’t give it that sweet umami flavor. Every Vietnamese woman of my mom’s generation has a little jar of this black gold in the kitchen!
Posted 5.20.20Reply
Sharon wrote:
Delicious and non-complicated recipe. Also, have many options to use it with.Posted 5.10.20Reply
Anonymous wrote:
Quick, easy, and so delicious!Posted 5.10.20Reply
Susan wrote:
I made the quick pickles tonight and they are delicious!!! Can you reuse the sauce?
Posted 5.9.20Reply
Alice wrote:
This recipe is great, thanks Jean! I’ve used it multiple times for steak tips, chicken thighs, and salmon.Posted 5.8.20Reply
Alex wrote:
LOVE this marinade! We used this pork first for banh mis, then mixed into simple noodle bowls.Posted 5.6.20Reply
Christine wrote:
Would pork tenderloin work for this? That’s all I have, although it’ll be lean and I agree the more fat the better!
Posted 5.2.20Reply
Jean | Extra Petite wrote:
Hi Christine – because of the low fat content I don’t think pork tenderloin would be ideal. Though I suppose these days we’re all using whatever we’re able to find, so if you do try it you’ll have to let me know how it turns out!
Posted 5.4.20Reply
Rebecca P. wrote:
I actually did try this with tenderloin as I didn’t have any pork shoulder – still turned out yummy! I was very cautious of overcooking it so I pan-seared since I feel like I have some more control during the cooking process.
Posted 8.10.20Reply
Sewy wrote:
Made this grilled pork with vermicelli, a warm salad and some cabbage kimchi. Was a huge hit among my family members — they finished the meat I had initially doubled the portion for dinner 😂 Thanks for sharing another excellent recipe, Jean!
Posted 4.26.20Reply
Jean | Extra Petite wrote:
That sounds delicious – I’m so glad it was such a hit with your family! x Jean
Posted 5.4.20Reply
anita wrote:
hi, really looking forward to trying this recipe. would it be possible for you to provide an abbreviated version (recipe only, photos) for printing? thanks!
Posted 4.20.20Reply
Jean | Extra Petite wrote:
Hi Anita, we’re working on figuring out how to format our recipe posts to make them printer-friendly, thank you for the suggestion! x Jean
Posted 4.21.20Reply
Marisa wrote:
Jean – your marinade was amazing! I didn’t have pork so I used tofu for banh mi sandwiches and it was delicious. I marinated for a little less than 2 hours because my husband and I were too hungry to wait, but it was delicious. I made your garlicky noodles (with shrimp) two days ago and my husband is obsessed. He asked where I got the marinade for the tofu and I told him both dishes were your recipes. He said you’re 2 for 2 and to put this in our regular rotation. Thanks so much! 🙂
Posted 4.18.20Reply
Jean | Extra Petite wrote:
Hi Marisa! I’m glad you and your husband are both enjoying the Extra (Ap)Petite recipes 🙂 It’s good to know that swapping in tofu was successful, we’ll have to give that a try sometime. x Jean
Posted 4.20.20Reply
May wrote:
Thank you for this! Ive been wanting to cook this for a while but like you, have no grill. Also, thanks for all the cooking/lifestyle post. Since we are all stuck at home for the most part, I really appreciate your non clothing posts as it is more relatable and applicable for our current life. Thanks and please post more recipes!!!
Posted 4.17.20Reply
May wrote:
Also, im going to try this in an air fryer… hopefully it works!
maybe you can share grocery list and meal planning??? thank you thank you!
Posted 4.17.20Reply
Jean | Extra Petite wrote:
Hi May, thank you for your kind message! I’m curious to hear how this works in the air fryer, you’ll have to let me know! x Jean
Posted 4.20.20Reply
Morgan wrote:
I think this may be a really dumb question, but do you have trouble getting oyster sauce out of the bottle or is there a magic secret? I just opened some the other day that’s in a similar bottle, and I could not for the life of me get any out because it was so thick, and the neck of the bottle was so small.
Posted 4.16.20Reply
Jean | Extra Petite wrote:
Hi Morgan! I actually store my oyster sauce upside down in the fridge to help with this issue – just be careful when you open it (don’t open it while upside down) because the sauce will come right out! x Jean
Posted 4.17.20Reply
M Curry wrote:
Try turning the bottle sideways and poke with a butter knife or a single chopstick. When the sauce is about half-full, I trickle in some very warm water, a bit at a time, cover, and shake well until I get the right viscosity. The sauce will taste the same but be a bit more manageable. Just be sure to keep it in the fridge.
Posted 4.20.20Reply
DoAnn wrote:
Amazing! Being Vietnamese, I’ve been wanting to try to make banh mi so thank you for making it so simple! Can’t wait to try it. Hope you guys are doing well!
Posted 4.16.20Reply
Anonymous wrote:
This looks yummy and easy to do! It’ll be a great addition to my limited meal ideas during the shelter in place mandate.
Posted 4.16.20Reply
