Last month I visited Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for a few weeks. One of my goals was to try many Cơm tấm restaurants. With the goal to taste many different styles of Sườn Nướng.
A delicious Vietnamese style of grilled pork chops.
Flavors of Vietnam
The major reason why Vietnamese grilled pork is so delicious is because of the country’s famous fish sauce nước mắm. It is a blend of fermented anchovies and salt.
Essential ingredients for making your tastebuds scream wowwwww!
In addition to fish sauce, there’s lemongrass. A superb fragrant citrus ingredient that pairs well with garlic. Plus a few more ingredients and you’ll have a bold, complex marinade for the pork.
Keys to Great Vietnamese Grilled Pork
One thing I noticed eating at the Cơm tấm restaurants throughout the city of Saigon, is the thickness of the pork. Or the lack of thickness.
And it’s not a bad thing.
The restaurants I went to used .75cm to 1cm thick pork cuts. It’s not because the restaurant is being stingy. For one thing, thinner cuts of pork means it’s affordable for customers.
So for this recipe I’ll be using 1cm to 1.5cm thick pork chops. Too thin it’ll overcook too fast. Too thick and it’ll take too long to cook.
Another key to great Vietnamese grilled pork chops is good quality Vietnamese fish sauce. Because of it’s fermented quality, it helps tenderize the pork.
There is another important step to making the best Vietnamese style grilled pork chops. But I’ll get to that later.
What is Cơm tấm?
It means broken rice. Back in the day, poor Vietnamese couldn’t afford full grains of rice. So the grains of rice are smaller and when cooked much fluffier.
If you live in Southeast Asia you might’ve come across the term “economy rice” particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Where diners can choose all sorts of dishes with their rice. Cơm tấm restaurants operate the same way. There’s more choices of proteins and vegetables to choose. So it can be a small meal or as big as you want.
To accompany my grilled pork chops I typically pick Chả Trứng Hấp (steamed pork and egg meatloaf) and Bì Heo (shredded dried pork skin) I’ll show you how to make those the next time.
But for this recipe I do have to show you how to make Nước chấm (a dipping sauce) and Scallion oil as a dressing.
Let’s go!
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 500g (1lb) 3 Pork Chops cut 1cm to 1.5cm thickness
The Marinade
- 1 Tbsp Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Fish Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 Tsp Chicken Seasoning Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
- 2 Tsp Honey
- 3 Tbsp Lemongrass
- 1 Tbsp Shallot
- 3 Garlic Cloves Minced
Nước chấm (dipping sauce)
- 3 Tbsp Vietnamese Style Fish Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Lime
- 3 Garlic Cloves Minced
- 1/2 Cup Warm Water Chopped Chili (optional)
Scallion Oil
- 1/4 Neutral Flavor Oil
- 3 Spring Onion Stalks
Cooking Instructions
Prepare the pork chops by cutting 5 – 6 slits along the fat cap. This will prevent that side of the pork from curling up. The flatter the pork chop is the better it will and cook evenly and beautifully.
Then use the back of your knife and run it down the pork chops in a hashtag # pattern. This step will tenderize the pork further, allowing the following marinade to penetrate deeper, yielding a better tasting pork chop.
Don’t need to spend too much time on this and you only need to do this to one side.
Of course if you have a meat mallet feel free to use one.
Vietnamese Pork Marinade
Add all the sauce ingredients to a bowl. Finely chop shallots and garlic. Add it to the sauce.
If you’ve never handled lemongrass here’s what to do. Remove the outermost layer. Cut off the top third and discard. Also cut off about half inch of the root section and discard.
Use something heavy, like a hammer and just whack at the lemongrass. This will tenderize it and make it easier to mince. There will be a pleasant citrusy smell.
Add the minced lemongrass and mix well
I recommend minimum 8 hours marinade time in the refrigerator.
Nước chấm
Add all this ingredients into a bowl and mix well. It’s important to taste. If you’ve never had this before it is more sweet than salty and sour. Chances are, depending on how sour your limes are you will need to add enough sugar to balance out the flavors.
Scallion Oil
Separate the whites of spring onions, chop it and put it with the diced onions. Chop up the green sections. Heat oil on medium heat for 3 minutes. Drop a piece of spring onion, if it sizzles, add the rest with the salt. Stir and mix for about a minute. And set aside.
Time to Cook
Never cook meat straight out of the refrigerator. Let it come to room temperature first by leaving it out.
Because these pork chops are thin it’ll cook fast, about 5 minutes. So figure two and a half minutes per side.
Heat your pan on high heat. When it starts to smoke, add couple of tablespoons of oil. When the oil shimmers, carefully lay in the pork chops.
With all the pork chops in the pan, lower the heat to medium. Use tongs to push the meat down to the pan for a nice sear.
About two and a half minutes in you can take a look at the bottom to check for doneness. If the pork chops don’t flip easily, it means you have to cook a bit longer.
Cook the other side for another two and a half minutes, remember to gently press pork chops into the pan often.
When it’s ready remove and set aside for at least 5 minutes to give the pork chops some time to rest.
How to Serve It
A big plate of rice, some shredded cabbage. Traditionally sliced tomatoes and cucumbers are added. As well as a fried egg.
Also pickled sliced carrots and radish is common. But I opted for Korean kimchi, which is common in modern Saigon restaurants serving this.
Don’t forget to drizzle that delish scallion oil all over the dish. Close your eyes take a bite and you’ll think you’re in Saigon!
