This quintessential rice dish of Vietnamese pork chops is packed with flavor, super easy to make, and a crowd pleaser!
The marinade adds a ton of garlicky, lemongrassy flavor that pairs great with the pork chops. Grilling adds an amazing aroma and sear, and as if the chops aren’t flavorful enough, they’re topped with scallions & oil.
It comes with veggies and a lil’ bowl of dipping fish sauce on the side which goes great with Sambal Oelek (my choice!) or fresh chilies if you prefer.
These chops are something I used to eat all the time during late night food outings and it’s a dish that was the bulk of what Mom sold at her restaurant–so you bet I got some tips from her on this recipe!
Prepping the pork chops
A cool trick for these “Asian pork chops” is to snip the pork chops around the edges like these. About 3-5 cuts per chop, about 1″ deep each. It looks kinda cool once you grill them up, but the important thing is that the pork chops will stay flat.
If you don’t cut the edges like this, the chops will curl as it cooks, making it more difficult to manage and cook evenly unless you’re baking them. Just cut em.
Marinade the pork chops
Look how much aromatic action we have going into this marinade: a fistful of garlic, shallots, and lemongrass!
Marinade for at least 3 hours, but ideally overnight. It’s going to take a bit of time to infuse these pork chops with all that incredibly aromatic garlic, shallot, and lemongrass, but the overnight wait is worth it.
You can flip it midway through marinating to ensure the chops are coated and marinating evenly.
The lemongrass is what makes this marinade different than a normal one. You could pull out the lemongrass and use this as an Asian marinade for any kind of meat.
And thats it! Pull em out of the marinade and discard the extra liquid.
How to grill the pork chops
I LOVE the smell of cooking these on the grill, plus you get these great looking sear marks.
Once the grill is preheated on high, you can lower temps a bit them throw the chops on. It doesn’t take too long to get the marks! Just rotate them ~45 degrees after the first set of marks are on, then flip and repeat on the other side.
Then pull em off the grill and serve with your favorite veggies! These pork chops are topped with even more flavor: scallions and oil.
How to serve Vietnamese pork chops
Dipping sauce: The dipping sauce is the same fish sauce recipe here. If you’re making a big bowl of sauce to share for dinner, use a spoon to sauce up your plate instead of dipping your cuts in so you keep the sauce clean for everyone else.
Rice: You may typically find this dish served with com tam (broken rice) but long grain rice you typically find with Vietnamese cuisine works.
I actually love the stickyness of short grain rice and would recommend it with these pork chops too.
I used to eat these often at late night Viet restaurants when nothing else is open and always got it topped with a fried egg. Come to think of it, if I had em on hand, throwing a seasoned ramen egg on there would work just as well!
Try it out, and leave a comment below to let me know how it turned out for you!
Vietnamese Pork Chops (Sườn Nướng)
Ingredients
- 2 lb pork chops about 6 chops
Marinade
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp monosodium glutamate (MSG)
- 4 Tbsp neutral cooking oil
Marinade Aromatics
- 6 Tbsp lemongrass, minced
- 2 Tbsp garlic, minced about 6 cloves
- 2 Tbsp shallots, minced
Veggies & Garnish
- 1 tomato, sliced
- 1 cucumber, sliced
- 6 leaves green leaf lettuce
- 3 Tbsp scallion & oil (mỡ hành)
- 3 Tbsp dipping fish sauce (nước chấm)
Equipment Used
- tongs
Instructions
- Rinse pork chops under running water and lightly scrub with salt. Pat dry with paper towels.
- Combine all marinade ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and stir to combine and dissolve sugar and MSG. Then add the Marinade Aromatics.
- Marinade the pork chops in a bowl or bag in the fridge for at least 3 hours, but ideally overnight.
- Remove the chops from the marinade and discard the extra liquid–you can keep the aromatics on that stuck to the chops though.
Cooking
- Grill on a BBQ, giving at least 1-2 inches spacing between each chop. Sear on high heat for browning or grill marks for a few minutes, then lower to medium heat and cook on both sides, flipping often until cooked all the way through. When done, the pork should read 145 °F using an instant read thermometer at the thickest part of the cut.
- Pan fry: 1-2 chops at a time on medium to medium high heat without crowding the pan. When done, the pork should read 145 °F using an instant read thermometer at the thickest part of the cut.
- In the oven: Bake at 375 °F for 15-20 minutes until the internal temperature of the meat hits around 135 °F. Lower the rack and broil, flipping a few times during broiling, to get nice coloring on both sides. Again, the pork is done when the internal temp reaches 145 °F.
- Serve with a side of rice, veggies & garnish, and nuoc cham (dipping/prepared fish sauce).
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I haven’t made this recipe yet, but I will at first opportunity. We (our household-east coast of Canada) are very big on Vietnamese and Thai food! Have several cookbooks on each culture. always guessed at the ingredients when out to a restaurant, but I am certain you nailed it in this recipe if the “optional” is added. Thank you!
Hey Frank, good to hear from ya let me know how it works out for you! Yeah I tend to list things as ‘optional’ sometimes but think it’s pretty obvious this time what you can leave out if you don’t want it. E.g. will leaving out tomatoes blow up this recipe?.. only one way to find out 🙂
Hi Huy! I love, love this dish! I was wondering if I wanted to use tofu/beef/chicken instead, would I need to make adjustments to the recipe?
Hey Sarah! For beef and chicken it could probably be fine untouched, but tofu likely absorbs it differently so it would be hard to say until I tried it.
This was such an awesome recipe!! Thank you so much! It was super easy and super tasty. Thank you so much for sharing!! PS, None of your recipes have ever let me down, they’re seriously all dummy proof and my friends/family think I’m an amazing cook thanks to you!
That’s awesome to hear it worked out for you Mayland! I do try to make them dummy proof (so I don’t screw it up in the future too hah). Being an amazing cook though–that’s all you 🙂
I made this recipe after speaking about food all day, all night and in my dreams to my boyfriend. The flavors of this dish are excellent. I will make this dish again.
Also, will this marinade be good on chicken as well?
Lol heyo Abithy–glad ya liked it! Pretty simple right? Never tried it with chicken tbh, but I’d imagine it would work well too.
I’ve used it on chicken many times. Doubled the marinade for 5 lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs. Let sit overnight in a bag, flipping every few hours. Grilled. Everyone loves it whenever I make it.
Hi Huy, I plan to make this recipe soon, have all the ingredients ready. Question, do we need to tenderize the pork chops before cutting the edges?
I don’t have grill, can I cook them in the oven?
No need to tenderize first, and yes you can cook these in the oven.
Any Vietnamese cuisine made with lemongrass is a win in my book. The pork chops with lemongrass…mmmmm!!
Hey Hang, yup lovin lemongrass myself too 🙂
Wow, seriously so good. Thank you for sharing…. it’s super reminiscent of the place I used to go in my childhood. The pork was the perfect balance of savory and sweet. The scallion oil and dipping sauce is a must to complete the dish. Both my boys (3 and 5 yo) gobbled up their plates tonight so it’s definitely a success if both kids and adults like it!!
Im glad both the kids and adults like it, thanks for sharing Wei2!
I made this recipe and it was delicious! Just like the com tam places in little Saigon! Even my Vietnamese mother was impressed with how flavorful it was! Love your recipes and I can’t wait to try more!
Glad you enjoyed it Jh, thank you!
Made this with cơm tấm, turned out great! I prepped some nước chấm on the side, and served it on a leaf of lettuce to imitate the street vendors in HCMC. I pan fried the pork chops, and the only issue I had was that the marinade burned a bit in the pan – I thought I’d removed the extra liquid, but I should’ve removed it all. Didn’t impact the taste though, just made for some extra scrubbing after dinner. Great recipe, thank you!
Yesss glad you liked it Jason! Cool idea with the leaf lettuce–I didn’t notice this on my recent trip to Saigon.
I made these during the week, followed your recipe exactly except cut down a little on MSG. It was amazing, it’s restaurant standard. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe, my family all loved it, I can’t wait to cook this for my friends after we are out of lockdown. 🙂
That’s so cool to hear Wei! Very nice of you to be thinking of your friends and fam too 🙂
Great easy to follow recipe. I didn’t use any MSG and it tasted great! My kids loves it too!
This recipe is AMAZING. First time I followed a recipe word for word and it tasted EXACTLY like how I was craving. I love Vietnamese grilled pork chops and since I’ve moved from Queens I’ve been craving. These hit the spot entirely.
Oh! And to speed up marinating time just take a sharp, thin knife and stab the heck out of your pork chops. Then marinate these for about an hour or less. And super duper seasoned
Awesome and thanks so much for the tips Nhellie!
This was so yummy and authentic. I omitted the msg but it was still great. I find that it burns easily on the grill so keep a close eye. Thanks huy. This is the first time I tried your recipe and will try more soon.
Glad you liked it Phuong, thanks for sharing 🙂
This was unbelievably good. I pan fried these and even the picky kids couldn’t get enough! I boiled the leftover marinade for safety then thickened with a cornstarch slurry to make a great sauce for rice along with quick pickling some veggies. This will be a weekly hit at our house!
So glad your household enjoyed this Amy, you know its a winner when even the kids will eat it!
Huy, my SIL is vietnamese and she uses rock sugar instead of regular. I’ve tried it both ways, and hers is just a tad bit better, but thank you for sharing this recipe with people. Most people know it in a restaurant, but would never cook something like this without people like you to help! Thank you for enlightening the world
This is a recipe I looked for a long time. I grilled it, it gives off a delicious aroma. Thank you for sharing, Huy.
Thanks Barnard, grilling is always a welcome upgrade 🙂
Huy, thanks for this. I’ve long loved this dish, and gotten it at restaurants. This recipe is easily 5 times as good as what I’ve had eating out. Now I won’t bother ordering it again, it’s too easy and inexpensive to just do it at home. I’m lying back now, fat and happy, looking forward to my leftovers tomorrow. Give your mom a hug from me for this recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it Megan! 🙂
I love your recipe for this Sườn Nướng. The flavors are just superb. I serve it with glass noodles and your awesome nước chấm recipe. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise!
Hello! I love this recipe and worked into my weekly rotation of meals because of how delicious and simple it is. I have a question about how long do you think is good to broil the pork chops when cooking them in the oven? Thanks again!
Awesome Christian! As for timing you really need to watch it–it depends how hot your oven is, and how close you put it to the heat. Gotta just watch and check to see once its no longer pink and juices run clear.
Made this recipe today. Used chicken instead of pork (it was what we had on hand) didn’t add any MSG either. Have to say hands down the best Vietnamese Pork recipe I’ve tried. Everyone loved it. Super easy directions to follow too. Thank you for sharing.
Wow thanks so much!
Made this the other night for not only our household (12 plus) but our daughter’s household. I also made two other types of chicken, hands down your recipe was the favorite. Thank you for sharing this recipe, I made a few changes like using chicken instead of pork and no msg. This recipe was so flavorful there was no need for the msg. Can’t wait to try some of your other recipes.
This marinade is absolutely spot on perfect! Your recipes in general are amazing 🤩 My husband and I have been making pork roasts with this, trying to marinate for at least 24-48 hours before searing and then slow cooking on the barbecue. Along with the fish sauce, rice and pickled daikon and carrots, it’s a full success every time.
I appreciate these Vietnamese recipes so much.
Thank you for sharing 💛
Have to add that we also don’t use MSG, but instead I add some dry Miso flakes for extra flavour.