Introducing Bun Cha, the famous caramelised pork meatballs from the streets of Hanoi. Traditional Vietnamese food – made at home!
This is an easy Vietnamese recipe that anyone can make that’s fresh and full of flavour. Load it up with your vegetables of choice!
Bun Cha – traditional Vietnamese street food!
Any self respecting foodie visiting a new country will be armed with a list of “Must Try Foods!!“. And for visitors of Vietnam, Bun Cha should be right up there, alongside Pho, fresh rice paper rolls, and Banh Mi, to name a few favourites.
During the RecipeTin Family foodie trip to Vietnam a few months ago, it was one of the first foods we hunted down. A top-priority!
These are photos of a Bun Cha speciality place in Hanoi that we visited. The Bun Cha was as great as we expected, and I’m happy to report the stools held up for the whole meal. (Flimsy plastic stools are the norm everywhere, and we were seriously concerned every time we planted our butts down on them)
What is Bun Cha?
Bun Cha is a traditional Vietnamese pork dish that’s a speciality of Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. Seasoned pork patties (I call them squished meatballs) and caramelised pork belly slices are served in a broth alongside rice noodles, fresh vegetables and herbs.
How to eat Bun Cha – The idea is to use the broth for dunking the noodles, vegetables and herbs. So you dunk, slurp noodles, bite into juicy pork, try to cram in a few sprigs of herbs – and that moment when you succeed, when you get a mouthful with a bit of everything…
THAT my friends, is a big, fat mouthful that epitomises all that is great about Vietnamese food. That perfect balance of fresh, savoury, sweet, herb, citrus, tender noodles, and that juicy caramelised pork….. YES!!!
About this Bun Cha recipe
This Bun Cha recipe I’m sharing today is a simple home version that’s a style more familiar to those of us outside of Vietnam. On point with flavour, but presented differently.
To make this a simple dinner recipe, I’ve skipped the pork belly and made noodle bowls with the sauce for spooning over, rather than serving it “soup” style. This Noodle Bowl way of serving Vietnamese food is increasingly popular here in Sydney, especially with the work lunch crowd.
How to make Vietnamese Meatballs
You’ll love how you won’t need to take a trip to an Asian store for this! You’ll also love how versatile this recipe actually is.
The Vietnamese (squished) meatballs are just made with pork, garlic, sugar, fish sauce*, salt, pepper and scallions/green onions. Fish sauce is the key seasoning here, and the touch of sugar that makes the surface beautifully caramelised.
The Vietnamese Sauce is a version of Nuoc Cham, a version of which is served with “everything” in Vietnamese cuisine (and that’s no exaggeration).
The sauce for Bun Cha is made with fish sauce*, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, sugar, garlic and chilli (hot or not hot, or even skip it). It’s diluted with water to make it more like a soup broth. In a nod to the authentic way Bun Cha is served, the idea with this recipe is to use lots of sauce. You need it, to slurp up the noodles!
* I know there are people who aren’t a fan of fish sauce. But fish sauce is as Vietnamese as Banh Mi, so I really do urge you to use it if you can. This recipe is in no way “fishy” tasting like some Vietnamese foods. It’s just a savoury seasoning that has more depth of flavour than soy sauce.
Essential Sides
To complete the bowl, these Vietnamese Meatballs are served traditional Bun Cha style with noodles, fresh vegetables and herbs.
The noodles are rice vermicelli noodles, found “everywhere” nowadays in Australia. Simply soak in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then drain.
Fresh vegetables and herbs are an essential part of Vietnamese food, and you’ll get large bowls served alongside almost every meal. Bean sprouts, mint and coriander/cilantro are the most common, as well as pickled vegetables.
But this is the sort of recipe that’s terrifically versatile that will work well with many types of vegetables. Shredded cabbage or lettuce, or other leafy greens. Finely sliced cucumber, green beans, red radish, cherry tomatoes, even asparagus. Most fresh vegetables will work great in this!
In today’s recipe, I’ve also provided a quick Asian pickled vegetables recipe which is ideal to serve with this Bun Cha recipe. But pickling is optional.
The length of the list of ingredients is actually quite deceptive because there’s a handful of repeat ingredients. So don’t be turned off just because this isn’t a 5 ingredient recipe. 🙂
It’s worth it, I promise. If you love Vietnamese food (and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t!), this one will really hit the spot! – Nagi x
Get your Vietnamese fix!
-
Lemongrass Chicken – one of my favourite things to grill!
-
Vietnamese Caramel Pork – another iconic Vietnamese food! Also see the Chicken version.
-
Vietnamese Caramelised Pork Bowls – the super quick version of the above
Bun Cha – Vietnamese Meatballs
Watch how to make it
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Bun Cha - Vietnamese Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 250 - 300 g/8 - 10 oz pork mince (ground pork)(Note 1)
- 1 tbsp fish sauce (Note 2)
- 2 tsp white sugar
- 1/3 cup finely chopped green onions / scallions
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- Pinch of white pepper and salt
- 2 tsp lemongrass paste or fresh finely chopped , optional (Note 4)
- 1.5 tbsp oil , for cooking
Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dressing / Sauce - Note 2):
- 3 tbsp white sugar
- 3 tbsp fish sauce (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1/3 cup (85 ml) water
- 1 birds eye chilli , seeded and finely chopped (Note 3)
- 3 cloves garlic , finely chopped
Serving (Note 4):
- 100 g / 3.5 oz vermicelli noodles , dried
- Big handful beansprouts
- Few lettuce leaves , folded or shredded
- Julienned carrot and white radish (daikon), optional quick pickle (Note 5)
- Handful of coriander/cilantro sprigs , mint
- Sliced red chilli , lime wedges (optional)
Instructions
- Sauce: Mix ingredients. Set aside 10 minutes+.
- Noodles: Pour over boiling water and soak per packet directions. Drain, set aside.
Meatballs:
- Mix all ingredients except oil until combined.
- Shape into 6 mini hamburger patties with your hands.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add patties and cook for 2 1/2 minutes or until golden. Flip, cook 2 minutes then remove.
Assemble Bowls:
- Place noodles in bowl. Top with a handful of beansprouts, wedge in lettuce, carrots and radish in.
- Place meatballs on top, top with coriander and mint.
- Spoon over a generous amount of Sauce (it's supposed to be like a soup broth), eat and be happy!
Recipe Notes:
8. Adapted from a few Vietnamese cookbooks, including My Vietnamese Kitchen by Uyen Luu and Hanoi Street Food by Luk This and Tom Vandenberghe. 9. Nutrition is for meatballs and sauce only, assuming all sauce is consumed.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Title says it all – this is the Life of Dozer.
Yum! This is our fourth time making this recipe and it gets better each time. A family favorite, for sure. Thank you for sharing it!
I’m so glad you Loe it Tammy!!! N x
Another great recipe – thanks Nagi! I did though add some finely chopped coriander root & coriander leaves plus added a splosh of sweet chilli sauce as well (only put in 1 tsp sugar which). Rolled 500g pork mince into 12 balls and cooked in my air fryer for 10 mins x 180 degrees. Perfectly cooked and a little caramelized on the outside. Going to have these in a wrap with the pickled veges tomorrow. Hubby “taste tested” one of the meatballs and gave them the thumbs up!!
Planning to make this tonight. Is broth served room temperature or should it be heated?
Hi Mary, no need to heat up – it’s just served at room temperature 🙂 N x
Thanks for the great recipe, which I think will be a new staple in our house. We loved the combination of flavors and were surprised about making the meatballs without any binding agent like breadcrumbs or egg–it worked! My husband called them “fluffy” even. I couldn’t find bean sprouts or mint, so I subbed with English cucumber and basil. Both were excellent. I pickled the cucumbers with the carrots and added the scallion whites. I didn’t have fresh lemongrass but used dried, and that seemed to work just fine. I also didn’t have red chili, so I subbed with Vietnamese garlic chili sauce in the nuoc cham. Delicious! I haven’t made nuoc cham in forever, and apparently I just need to make a big jar and keep it in the fridge. 🙂
Absolutely loved this recipe and its versatility. Added additional vegetables that we needed to use up as suggested. Once I julienned them, the kids had no idea they were leftovers and ate them with gusto.
I even passed the recipe onto a vegetarian friend who wants to try it (minus the meat of course)
Hi Nagi, I have made this recipe a few times and we all really love it, you have nailed the flavours perfectly. One question could I omit the sugar as I’m trying to decrease my sugar intake throughout the day. Thanks again, Monica
I wouldn’t omit the sugar if you’re pickling veggies. Sugar is crucial to the pickling process, plus it keeps the flavor balanced so that you’re not eating something that’s just straight up acidic (not very pleasant). In the meatballs, the sugar helps to caramelize them and add that crunchy exterior. You could probably omit the sugar there, but it kinda defeats the purpose of the texture that this recipe creates. If you don’t want to do meatballs, you can sear ground pork in a pan on high heat without sugar, and it’ll still get crispy. You have to LEAVE IT ALONE before you flip over the chunk of ground pork; don’t start chopping it up with your spatula right away. Let it get nice and golden brown, then flip the whole thing over and let that side brown and sear, too. Once both sides are done like that, you can go in with your spatula and start breaking it up so the uncooked bits in the center can start to cook, too.
Even my picky kids loved this. Thanks so much! I’ll be making it again for sure.
Made it. Loved it! The meatball mixture was very wet, but I felt that’s what kept it moist. I was just careful to make sure to get a good crust before turning and cooked in two batches (500g pork mince).
My kids didn’t like the sauce, but they said it didn’t need one.. very, very, nice, thank you!
Hi Nagi
These look amazing but as things are slowly getting back to ‘normal’ here in Sydney and I am starting to head back to the office I am looking to do some bulk cooking on weekends.
Is it best to cook these before freezing or freeze them and cook when defrosted?
excellent recipe. Followed as is. Easy to follow.
Thanks so much Kathleen!! N x
This recipe is absolutely amazing and so easy! So fresh for a hot night.
Simple ingredients but great flavours.
Nagi your recipes never disappoint.
Thanks so much. Your website is my google for recipes!
This was absolutely delicious! Light and fresh meal with addition of all the veggies and herbs. Thank you very much Nagi.❤
I cooked this tonight – wow! Changed up a coupla things, as I didn’t like the idea of the sauce being cold. Having soaked/heated the noddles (udon – yeah, I know…it was what I had!) I put them in the pan after removing the meatballs and poured the sauce over for a bit of stir fry. Piled it into a bowl with the meatballs on top, coriander, lime wedges, lettuce, cu and homegrown tomatoes. Bonza! I live alone, but do like to cook gourmet every night! This one’s a keeper! Thanks again Nagi xx
Made this and finally got the sauce I’ve been searching for. Made with chicken as I miss read the recipe. Had no bean sprouts but hey, it all worked out. I already had the radish and carrot mixture. Mouthful of flavour. I appreciate you sharing you talents with flavour. Thanks for tasting it all Dozer 😊
Another great, tasty recipe Nagi! I made double for 3 people, pleased i did as we had extra meatballs which were sooo tasty. The fresh coriander & mint made it special. A definate make again!
Quick question: my pork mince is so juicy, I feel the mix is a tad wet. I’ve done this many times, and keep thinking a little pinko may help it stay together? I don’t want to change the magic though. K xx
Sorry, Panko, lol.
Hi Kate, no problems, you’re correct – A little more Panko will help it hold together 🙂
This has become a staple, which means at least one a week or so! And tonight too. We love it! Then we need to use up the herbs and sprouts, so becomes Vietnamese chicken salad, rice paper wraps…etal. SERIOUS YUM!
Thanks Nagi, and hugs to Dozer.
Ditto on the Mike drop. This is a flavor bomb. Hold on to your butts! You’ll want to do this again!!
Dang!!!! MIKE DROP…
YES!!!! I’m so glad you love it as much as I do! N x