My boyfriend and I are both big fans of Vietnamese food. When we were in Maryland for President’s Day weekend to visit some of his college friends, we had to go grab some authentic Vietnamese dishes at Eden Center, Virginia.
While we ate quite a few delicious things there, one of the standout dishes was the pork chop over rice. It was delicious and cooked to perfection. After coming home from that trip, I kept thinking how nice it would be if I could recreate this Vietnamese pork chop dish at home.
So I started doing research on how to make this dish. After several trails and errors, I finally made a Vietnamese pork chop tastes very close to what we had from Eden center at home a couple days ago.
Needless to say, I was super excited! I want to share this super delicious recipe with you today, because good things are worth sharing!
The key for a flavorful pork chop with great texture is marinating. Marinades not only add flavor, it makes the meat more tender and juicy as well.
A little about marination:
There are three primary components for a marinade:
1) An acid. The acid helps to tenderize the meat by breaking it down during marinating. Common choices are lemon juice, vinegar, wine or other fruit juices. For this recipe, I used rice vinegar.
2) The oil. Oil in marinades gives the meat a nice surface. It helps to preserve the meat during marination and protect it from cooking too quickly. Vegetable oil was my choice for the pork chop marinade.
3) Seasonings, spice and/or herb. Those ingredients give the marinade flavor. A combination of brown sugar, fish sauce and soy sauce, etc. helps to give my pork chops a nice flavor and color.
How to serve:
Typically, Vietnamese pork chops are served over a bed of white rice, with a couple slice s of cucumber and tomato at a restaurant.
For a balanced meal, my homemade version of the pork chops include brown rice, mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing and a fried egg.
Now whenever I have a craving for a pan grilled Vietnamese pork chop, I can make it right in my own kitchen, instead of having to travel 200 + miles. The pay off for the time and efforts invested for figuring out the recipe is totally worth it!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. If you like this recipe, please leave a rating and share it with your friends!
- 2 large pieces of 1-inch thick-cut, bone-in pork chops (about 2 pounds total)
- Marination:
- ¼ cup finely chopped white onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- Pan grill:
- 1 tablespoon oil
- Garnishments:
- chopped green onion, chopped cilantro and/or lime wedges
- Optional Extras:
- mixed green salad, cucumber and tomato slices, etc.
- white or brown rice, couscous, cauliflower rice, etc.
- Whisk finely chopped white onion, minced garlic, brown sugar, fish sauce, rice vinegar, vegetable oil, soy sauce and black pepper together in a large bowl.
- Add the pork chops to marinade in bowl, flip to coat well on both sides. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and let the pork chops marinate at room temperature for an hour, turn at 30 minutes.
- Heat oil in a large cast iron pan over medium-high heat, tilt the pan until oil is evenly distributed.
- Transfer pork chops from marinade onto the hot pan (scraping off as much excess as you can before adding, keep the remaining marinade for sauce later)
- Sear the pork chops about 5-6 minutes each side or until browned and cooked through.
- Let rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
- While the pork chop is resting, add the remaining marinade into a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn to low heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes or until reduced to about ¼ cup worth.
- Top the pork chops with reduced marinade, freshly chopped green onion or cilantro and lime wedges to serve.
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