This Vietnamese Pork recipe is an epic Vietnamese food speciality that’s easy to recreate in your own home. Slow cooked tender pork pieces in a sticky savoury-sweet glaze, Vietnamese Caramel Pork is a magical way to transform pork shoulder into something exotic and spectacular. And it’s SO easy!
Complete your Vietnamese banquet with fresh Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls to start and a side of fluffy coconut rice. And don’t miss the chicken version – Vietnamese Coconut Caramel Chicken!
Vietnamese Caramel Pork recipe
Vietnamese Caramel Pork is one of those gems that seem exotic, yet is unbelievably simple AND you can get everything you need at your local supermarket. The pork is braised until tender, and looks completely unimpressive until the last 5 minutes when it magically caramelises and turns into something that you’d pay serious $ for at a posh Asian restaurant.
It’s sweet yet savoury, and the pork is fork tender. It’s called Thit Kho To in Vietnamese, and it’s traditionally made with pork belly. Personally, I prefer making it with pork shoulder (butt) because I find pork belly too fatty.
I just realised – I call this “fork tender”, but I guess it’s more appropriate to say “chopstick tender”… 😂
The secret ingredient – coconut WATER
There is one ingredient in Vietnamese Caramel Pork that you may not have in your pantry but is sold in all major supermarkets nowadays – coconut water. If you’re into healthy smoothies, you may well have some stashed away!!!
It’s not expensive, $2 – $3 depending on where you get it (Asian grocer stores are cheaper), and it’s essentially the “secret ingredient” for this recipe.
It doesn’t really taste like coconut, it’s sort of salty and sweet. Which makes it ideal to use as the broth for this recipe.
Substitute for coconut water?
Make it with coconut milk! I’ve tried it, and it’s great. A little saucier, a little sweeter, with a slight coconut flavour and smell that you don’t get in the traditional recipe. See the Vietnamese Coconut Caramel Chicken recipe which is made with coconut milk.
How to make this Vietnamese Pork
I promised you this is simple – and it really is, which you’ll see in the video. It goes down like this:
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Put brown sugar and water in a pot, bring to simmer to make a caramel;
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Add pork, fish sauce*, garlic and eschallots**
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Simmer for 1.5 hours until the pork is tender. Then magically, the pot of pale brown meat pieces in a murky liquid suddenly transforms into bronzed pieces of delectable, ultra tender pork that just melts in your mouth.
* NO it will not taste fishy! It’s the Vietnamese version of soy sauce!
** French shallots, shallots, depending on where you live. The baby onions. 🙂
How to serve Vietnamese Caramel Pork
Because the glaze has quite a strong flavour, I like to serve this with plain white rice. Steamed jasmine rice would be on point.
And for a fresh side, a crunchy Asian Slaw would be very fitting – and the fresh flavour will be great to balance the richness of the pork. Or toss steamed vegetables or a garden salad with this Asian Sesame Dressing or the Nuoc Cham in this Lemongrass chicken recipe.
“This Vietnamese pork recipe is a Vietnamese food speciality. One bite, and you’ll understand why!”
I love recipes like this. Forgiving, tastes exotic, kapow! flavours. It sounds and looks exotic, but the flavours are universally appealing.
Asian Food Lovers – this is for YOU! It’s an absolute ripper that I think you’ll love! – Nagi x
Get your Vietnamese fix!
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Vietnamese Coconut Caramel Chicken – the chicken version of this recipe
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Lemongrass Chicken – one of my favourite things to grill!
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Vietnamese Caramelised Pork Bowls – the super quick version of the above
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Browse all Vietnamese recipes
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Vietnamese Caramel Pork recipe video!
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Vietnamese Caramel Pork
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup / 100g brown sugar, tightly packed
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 kg / 2 lb pork shoulder (butt) or boneless skinless pork belly, cut into 3 cm / 1.2" pieces (Note 1a)
- 1.5 cups / 375 ml coconut water (Note 1b)
- 1 eschallot / shallot , very finely sliced (Note 2)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
Garnishes:
- Red chilli and finely sliced shallots/green onions
Instructions
- Place sugar and water in a large pot over medium heat. Stir, then when it bubbles and the sugar is melted (it looks like caramel), add the rest of the ingredients.
- Stir, then adjust the heat so it is simmering fairly energetically. Not rapidly, not a slow simmer (I use medium heat on a weak stove, between medium and low on a strong stove).
- Simmer for 1.5 hours, uncovered. Stir once or twice while cooking.
- At around 1.5 hours, when the liquid has reduced down and the pork is tender, (see Note 3 if pork is not yet tender), the fat will separate (see video).
- Stir and the pork will brown and caramelise in the fat.
- Once the liquid is all gone and it's now stuck on the pork pieces, it's ready.
- Serve over rice, garnished with fresh chilli and shallots. Simple pickled vegetables are ideal for a side because the fresh acidity pairs well with the rich pork.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
DON’T MISS…..
The chicken version made with coconut milk – Vietnamese Coconut Caramel Chicken!
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This was outstanding!! So much flavor for such a small amount of work to make it. Served with rice and the quick-pickled veg and some mint. Love the funk of the fish sauce. Thanks for this wonderful recipe!!
OMG – this dish was sensational. I can’t believe such a brothy liquid with floating pork turns out so caramelised, tender and flavoursome!! I love love love your recipes Nagi – thanks x
The first time in my life, I have purchased fish sauce. It was a big step for me! The flavour of this dish was amazing. I feel as though I added too much liquid (incrementally) as I had more pork than the recipe stated. I tried to get the ratio right but ended up more like a braise. Still delish. Might even use the fish sauce again!
What an excellent recipe. I didn’t believe it would work for me – it looked disappointing …. and then the magic happened. So delicious, everyone in the family loved it, even my fussy teenager.
Such a great go to recipe. And it impresses every time I make it. Such great flavours.
What you cook when you can’t really be bothered. So quick and tasty
I cannot believe how easy this is. And so yum! Works so well with the side of cucumber and tomatoes.
Do leftovers from this recipe reheat well? How would you recommend reheating them?
Wonderful results! Loved the simplicity and amazing taste!
Surprised my wife with this along with the pickled vegetables and Cole slaw with the dressing. Home run!
This was FANTASTIC!!! I had some sliced pork belly I needed to use up.
While it did indeed have a ton of fat rendered while cooking, I simply poured off the excess fat and then caramelized the pieces.
Turned out beautifully!!!
SO GOOD! The slices almost melted in my mouth they were so tender!😋😋😋
I will most definitely make this one again!!!
Easy and delicious! My son took one bite and said “holy sh*t that’s good”! I served it with steamed rice, pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber, spring onions, mint and coriander. I had bought a boned shoulder of pork so removed the skin which I crackled in the oven and served this as well. This will definitely be on high rotation at our place!
Agree – worth the wait. Looks pretty awful until you’re nearly there but turns out great. I used boneless pork leg (cut the skin off) and it was perfect.
had my first Nagi fail tonight :(. I’ve made dozens of recipes (including this one! twice!) from both the website and own the cookbook, and they’ve all been spectacular. Tonight we had some leftover pork belly that needed urgent cooking, so I decided to make one of my favs – this caramel pork. Previously, I’ve always used shoulder.
Followed the recipe exactly, used the same pan I’ve used making this twice before – aaaaaaaaaaand………..disgusting 🙁 my partner pinpointed the issue – so much fat comes out of pork belly that essentially at the end the meat & ‘sauce’ is deep frying itself and burnt horribly. The heat was med-low, again as I always do, but it was just awful. Obviously you’re supposed to have a little burn-y caramelization, but this was nasty.
will I make it again? Absolutely, it was gorgeous the other times I made it. Will I warn every person who reads the comment section never ever ever use pork belly – YUP. You probably wouldn’t anyway, it’s too expensive, but just in case you’re ever tempted as a way to use leftovers – DON’T!!
As a lot of other commenters have said, this recipe smelt quite bad for a good while and did not look appetising BUT the transformation in the last 5 minutes is absolutely amazing! Watching the pork caramelise and become sticky and gooey was when I started to look forward to eating it! Plus this recipe as a whole is super easy to make.
Hi! I made this tonight and it was delicious. It’s so good when you add hard boiled eggs five min before it’s done. I green up eating this.
Hi Nagi what size pot would you suggest please? I’ve watched the video and can’t wait to make it!
Do you think this would work in a crockpot?
Made this tonight and it blew my family away. It was so tender and like the recipe says, it a big question mark until the last few minutes when the magic happens. Definitely will be making this again.
I used pork collar, the fat parts are divine tho the lean parts are too dry. Will try fatter cut next time. Love the recipe and love your cookbook!!!
Hi Nagi, can I use pork leg for the Vietnamese caramel pork recipe?