This recipe for Vietnamese Pork Chops has the signature sweet, salty umami depth of flavor you find on a Vietnamese restaurant’s pork chop plate. Top it with scallion oil and plenty of nuoc cham, and serve it with a few slices of cucumber, tomato, and steamed rice. This is definitely one of the tastiest ways to make a pork chop!
One of My Favorite Dishes to Order
There are a few unavoidable ingredients you need to make a truly knockout Vietnamese pork chop: fresh lemongrass and fish sauce in particular!
Traditionally, annatto seed oil is also used to give the pork chops flavor and color. But I’ve found over the years that it’s tricky to track down, even in a well-stocked Asian market. So I went ahead and left it out. But if you’re able to find it, you can add a couple tablespoons to the pork chop marinade!
The other nifty ingredient is condensed milk. I’ve learned it’s a common ingredient to add sweetness and to keep the pork chops juicy.
Grab Your Air Fryers!
Traditionally, Vietnamese pork chops are grilled. It works well because the pork chops don’t soak in their own marinade liquid as they cook, and you get a nice smoky flavor.
That said, in addition to grilling, this is a very air-fryer-friendly recipe. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say it’s ideal in an air fryer.
The circulating heat keeps the pork chops caramelized on the outside and juicy inside, cooking them in just 10-12 minutes. When testing this recipe, I was always happier with the result in the air fryer than in the frying pan.
If you ARE using a frying pan, just don’t crowd the pan. One or two small pork chops at a time is ideal. Any more than that, and the juices from the meat plus the sugar and condensed milk can cause the pork chops to steam rather than sear. You may also want to wipe down the pan between batches to pick up any residual caramelized bits of marinade or darkened garlic that could ruin your next batch.
That’s why I love the air fryer for this one! The only limiting factor is how many you can cook at a time. Keep the first batch of pork chops warm under an aluminum foil tent while the others cook!
When you’re ready to serve you could even pile the pork chops that cooked earlier into the air fryer basket, and let them heat through for 1-2 minutes so they’re all hot when they hit the table.
Our Favorite Vietnamese Creators!
Andrea Nguyen of Viet World Kitchen and Ken Tran @Feedthepudge on Youtube are both great resources for Vietnamese cooking. If you want to make extras like Cha Trung (Vietnamese Egg Loaf) or Bi Heo (Shredded Pork Skin), which you sometimes find on Vietnamese Pork Chop Plates, definitely check out Feedthepudge! And Andrea Nguyen has a great substack (Pass the Fish Sauce) where she regularly posts!
How to Serve Vietnamese Pork Chops
I like to serve these the way they do at the restaurant. With a big side of rice, scallion oil (we’ve included it in the recipe below), slices of crunchy cucumber and ripe tomato, and plenty of nuoc cham to soak into the pork and rice and dress the veggies. It’s heavenly.
If you’re craving rice noodles though, serve this over a bed of rice noodles, lettuce, and crunchy vegetables the way Sarah does in her Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad.
First cut a series of ½-inch (1cm) incisions around the perimeter of your pork chops. This prevents them from curling while they cook. If your pork chops are thicker than about a half an inch, use a meat tenderizer or the back of your knife to pound them out to a ½-inch thickness.
Add the pork chops to a large bowl along with the brown sugar, lemongrass, garlic, shallot, sweetened condensed milk, fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, onion powder, and pepper. Mix with your hands until the marinade is well-mixed and the pork chops are well-coated. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or ideally overnight.
While the pork chops are marinating, make your scallion oil and nuoc cham. Both of these come together really quickly. Heat a saucepan over medium-high heat until a water droplet beads on the surface. Add your oil, followed by the scallions. They’ll immediately sizzle up, but they shouldn’t turn dark right away, or your heat is too high. Cook for 1 minute until the oil has permeated the scallions and they’re bright green. Remove from the heat and use a rubber spatula to transfer to a heat-proof bowl for serving. Stir in the salt.
To make the nuoc cham, dissolve the sugar in the hot water. Add the fish sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, and garlic. You can also add sliced chilies if you like! Set aside.
Once you’re ready to cook the pork chops, prep your sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and start your rice.
Add the pork chops to the air fryer two at a time and air fry at 380°F for 10-12 minutes. When the first batch of pork chops is done, keep them warm under foil while the next batch cooks. When all the pork chops are cooked, you can pile them into the air fryer basket and let them heat through at 380°F for 2 minutes so all the pork chops are hot when they hit the table.
If you want to cook the pork chops in a skillet, preheat a pan over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoon of oil, and cook one chop at a time for 4-5 minutes on each side until brown and caramelized on both sides, reducing the heat as needed to avoid burning.
Serve the pork chops with the rice, cucumber, tomato, scallion oil, and nuoc cham. You can also cook up a fried egg if you like!
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Recipe
Vietnamese Pork Chops
Ingredients
For the pork chop marinade:
- 3 pounds bone-in pork loin end chops (about 5 pork chops – 1.4kg)
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons minced lemongrass (or 1 teaspoon lemongrass powder)
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic (3 large cloves)
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot
- 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (optional)
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
For the scallion oil (to spoon over the pork chops and flavor the rice):
For the nuoc cham:
- 1½ tablespoons palm sugar (or light brown sugar or granulated sugar)
- 2 tablespoons hot water
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 clove minced garlic
For serving:
- Sliced cucumbers
- Sliced tomatoes
- Steamed jasmine rice
Instructions
- First cut a series of ½-inch (1cm) incisions around the perimeter of your pork chops. This prevents them from curling while they cook. If your pork chops are thicker than about a half an inch, use a meat tenderizer or the back of your knife to pound them out to a ½-inch thickness.
- Add the pork chops to a large bowl along with the brown sugar, lemongrass, garlic, shallot, sweetened condensed milk, fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, onion powder, and pepper. Mix with your hands until the marinade is well-mixed and the pork chops are well-coated. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or ideally overnight.
- While the pork chops are marinating, make your scallion oil and nuoc cham. Both of these come together really quickly. Heat a saucepan over medium-high heat until a water droplet beads on the surface. Add your oil, followed by the scallions. They’ll immediately sizzle up, but they shouldn’t turn dark right away, or your heat is too high. Cook for 1 minute until the oil has permeated the scallions and they’re bright green. Remove from the heat and use a rubber spatula to transfer to a heat-proof bowl for serving. Stir in the salt.
- To make the nuoc cham, dissolve the sugar in the hot water, and add the fish sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, and garlic. Set aside.
- Once you’re ready to cook the pork chops, prep your sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and start your rice.
- Add the pork chops to the air fryer two at a time and air fry at 380°F for 10-12 minutes. When the first batch of pork chops is done, keep them warm on a plate tented with foil while the next batch cooks. When all the pork chops are cooked, you can pile them into the air fryer basket and let them heat through at 380°F for 2 minutes so all the pork chops are hot when they hit the table.
- If you want to cook the pork chops in a skillet, preheat a pan over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoon of oil, and cook one chop at a time for 4-5 minutes on each side until brown and caramelized on both sides, reducing the heat as needed to avoid burning.
- Serve the pork chops with the rice, cucumber, tomato, scallion oil, and nuoc cham. You can also cook up a fried egg if you like!
