Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Chops

These Vietnamese lemongrass pork chops served with a side of fresh vegetables and a fried egg is an absolute classic. It’s a combo that can’t go wrong! This recipe is super simple to make and will taste like restaurant quality!

The pork chops only need 1 hour or less to marinade depending on how thick they are. We got “fast fry” pork chops which means the meat is really thin! This allowed us to cut down our cooking time significantly. Thinner slices of pork chop are perfect for family meals as you can make a lot with less time!

Vietnamese lemongrass pork chops are one of my favourite go-to dishes at any Vietnamese restaurant. This recipe is easily extensible by adding sides such as jasmine rice, a fried egg, and pickled carrots and daikon. To make our rice, we like to use a rice cooker because it always cooks it perfectly! However, you can always just cook your rice over the stove top with a pot.

Your pork chops should have a beautiful golden brown colour and charring for extra flavour. While pan frying your pork chops, the zesty lemongrass marinade will fill your kitchen with a delicious aroma! We used a lemongrass paste as it’s a lot easier to work with and store for later use.

How to Serve Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Chops

Dipping sauce: use fish sauce to serve with your pork chops and sides. We added lime juice and Thai red chilli peppers to help counteract the fishiness of the sauce. We used this fish sauce by Blue Dragon and it was really strong so make sure you follow our recipe to dilute it. But of course, if you feel like it’s still too fishy for your liking, just add more water and sugar!

Rice: the ideal rice to use for this dish is com tam (broken rice), but any other rice will work just fine! Com tam consists of fragmented pieces of rice and has stickier texture because of its short grains. Thus, it is able to soak up the flavours of the fish sauce much better than traditional long grain rice.

Print Recipe

Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Chops

Cooking Method: Pan-fry, Pickling Cuisine: East Asian, Vietnamese Courses: Dinner, Lunch, Mains

Difficulty: Beginner Prep Time 10 mins Cook Time 20 mins Total Time 30 mins

Servings: 4

Best Season: Spring

Description

These Vietnamese lemongrass pork chops served with a side of fresh vegetables and a fried egg is an absolute classic. It's a combo that can't go wrong! This recipe is super simple to make and will taste like it came from your favourite Vietnamese restaurant.

Ingredients

Servings

• 1.5 lb pork chops (fast-fry - thinly sliced)

Marinade

• 2 Thai red chilis
• 0.5 cup chopped thai basil
• 6 clove minced garlic
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp lemongrass paste
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 dash lime juice
• 1 tbsp fish sauce

Fish Sauce (Nước chấm)

• ¹⁄₄ cup fish sauce
• 6 tbsp water
• ¹⁄₄ tbsp white sugar
• 2.5 tbsp lime juice
• 1 garlic clove (minced)
• 1 Thai red chilli

Sides

• 1 cucumber (optional)
• 4 lettuce leaves (optional)
• 1 tomato (optional)
• 1 cup pickled carrots and daikons (optional)
• 1 fried egg (optional)

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to a ziplock bag or a bowl with a lid.

2. Massage ingredients into pork.

3. Store in refrigerator for 1 hour if pork is thinly sliced, or 2 hours if thick.

4. Remove from refrigerator and let come to room temperature. 10 min.

5. Cover bottom of large pan with cooking oil and bring to medium-high heat.

6. Cook pork chops 2 min per side if thin, 3 min per side if thick. Try not to crowd pan.

7. Garnish with green onion and serve with rice and a fried egg.  Best served with picked carrot and daikon (recipe here).

Fish Sauce

1. Cut the Thai red chillies and put into a small serving bowl.  

2. Add all of the ingredients for the fish sauce into the same bowl as the Thai red chillies and mix. 

Keywords: Vietnamese, pork chop, spicy, Asian, lemongrass