I grew up in a pretty traditional Chinese (Cantonese to be exact) family. Other than the occasional visit to McDonald’s and the Costco food court, 99.9 percent of our family meals were Chinese. Home-cooked meals were all Chinese, except for the 0.1 percent of the time when my mom made spaghetti with Ragu sauce. Eating out was Chinese: pastries, dim sum, noodles, family-style dinners, you name it.
So my exposure to other cuisines happened outside of my family environment. School cafeteria meals and the middle school lunch counter led me to some interesting foods that I don’t eat at home.
Such was the case with Vietnamese food. My experience with Vietnamese food didn’t happen until high school when I started going to church. My church elders oftentimes took me and my friends to their local Vietnamese spot (shoutout to Golden Star in San Francisco Chinatown!). Initially, I ate pho since it’s like a Chinese noodle soup but involving more beef. Then I dabbled with vermicelli noodles with grilled meats, which makes for a rather easy transition to broken rice dishes which included pork chops.
Over the years, I’ve tried to recreate those pork chops at home. With lots of trial and error, not writing anything down and failing to remember what I had done the time prior, here we are, almost 20 years since my initial try at Vietnamese food, I share my method of making Vietnamese-style pork chops.
I’m not going to lie: cooking pork chops is not the simplest thing in the world, but thanks to all of the resources on the Internet, flipping the chops constantly as if I was cooking a steak is probably one of the best tips I’ve learned. So give those bad boys lots of TLC once you start cooking!
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Vietnamese-Style Pork Chops
- Yield: 2 1x
- Category: Mains
- Method: Pan Fry
- Cuisine: Vietnamese
Description
Cooking pork chops is not the simplest thing in the world, so give those bad boys lots of TLC once you start cooking!
Ingredients
MARINADE
- 1 teaspoon of white pepper
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of fish sauce
- 1 small shallot, finely chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed through a garlic press
- 2 1-inch thick pork chops or 4 1/2-inch thick pork chops, bone-in
- 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
Instructions
- Create the marinade. Place all of the ingredients of the marinade into a large mixing bowl and combine well.
- Prep the chops. Pat the chops dry with paper towels. With a fork, prick the chops all over on both sides. Drench the chops in the marinade. If you are cooking the chops soon, marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes. If you can wait (and they’re worth waiting for), transfer the chops and the marinade into a large Ziplock bag and place the bag flatly in the refrigerator overnight. Bring the chops back to room temperature before cooking them, around 30 minutes. Save the marinade for the pan sauce.
- Cook the chops.
For 2 1-inch thick pork chops: Preheat a pan to medium-high. Pat the chops dry of the marinade. Cook the chops 2 minutes per side to create a crust. Turn the heat down to medium and cook 1 minute per side until the chops have registered at a minimum of 135⁰ F. If so, transfer them to a plate. If not, continue cooking 1 minute per side until the minimum temperature is reached.
For 4 1/2-inch thick pork chops: Preheat a pan to medium-high. Pat the chops dry of the marinade. Cook the chops 2 minutes per side to create a crust. Use a meat thermometer to check if the chops have registered at a minimum of 135⁰ F. If so, transfer them to a plate. If not, turn the heat down to medium and continue cooking 1 minute per side until the minimum temperature is reached. - Make the pan sauce. Add the butter to the pan and stir until melted. Strain the marinade through a fine mesh sieve and add the marinade liquid into the pan. Stir the marinade liquid constantly and bring it to a strong simmer to cook it through thoroughly. Turn the heat off.
- Put it all together. Move the pan away from the burner. Transfer the pork chops back into the pan and baste both sides with the pan sauce. Allow the chops to rest in the pan for 5 to 7 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to check if the chops register at a minimum of 145⁰ F. If not, transfer the sauce out of the pan and cook the chops on medium heat until the minimum temperature is reached. Enjoy immediately!
Notes
If you have a burner that causes pans to cook food unevenly, rotate the chops around the pan every time you flip them so that the chops will cook at a similar rate.
