Caramelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef encompasses all that we love about Vietnamese food! Shredded beef tossed in a lemongrass sauce then pan fried until golden, it’s savoury, sweet and garlicky. But let’s be honest. It’s those crispy golden bits that we go bonkers over!
This is a quick recipe that evolved to use up leftover cooked beef, such as after making stock. So I’ve used repurposed beef here but don’t worry, it can be made from scratch too!
Caramelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef
Caramelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef is a recipe that was born as a way to use up leftover cooked brisket used to make the broth for Pho soup. Leading up to publishing the recipe, I made it quite a few times and found myself with an alarming stockpile of cooked brisket in my freezer.
Very easy to give away Pho take-home packs.
Not so easy to give away “really tender cooked brisket, like, totally shreddable! But it doesn’t have much flavour cause it’s been sucked out into the broth.”
Doesn’t sound very appetising does it?! 😂
So what do we do? We just inject a ton of Vietnamese flavours, then give it an extra wow factor by pan frying to get all those crispy golden bits!
Don’t worry if you happen not to have leftover cooked beef in your fridge. It’s VERY simple to make this from scratch.
Type of leftover cooked beef to use
This Caramelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef recipe is ideal to use with leftover beef picked off meaty bones when making broth, or large pieces of meat like brisket used in Pho or similar where the beef meat has been simmered for hours so the beef flavour leaches into the broth.
It can also be made with any type of cooked beef – it doesn’t even need to be shreddable – as long as it’s relatively neutral OR Asian flavoured so the Lemongrass Sauce flavour doesn’t clash.
The idea with this recipe is to repurpose beef scraps after making stock and to transform it into something amazing!
What to do if you don’t have leftover cooked beef
Just simmer raw brisket or chuck for 2.5 – 3 hours with a few basic flavourings (onion, garlic) until it’s shreddable. We don’t need to add flavour to the beef when braising because the Lemongrass Marinade does that job. But by adding some basic flavour into the braising liquid, you will be able to use that broth for another purpose (anything that calls for beef broth!).
Vietnamese Lemongrass Marinade
The flavour added to the beef is my “go-to” Vietnamese marinade recipe. I use it to marinate whole pieces of chicken (thigh, breast, wings, drumsticks) which I serve as is, or make Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Bowls. I marinate and grill or bake chicken wings, pork chops, tofu (yes really!), or prawns/shrimp (try this Vietnamese Shrimp Salad).
It’s a secret weapon marinade because of its versatility and how simple it is – just a mix of:
-
lemongrass – finely chopped fresh OR lazy paste
-
garlic – plenty!
-
sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce and lime – for classic Asian sweet/savoury/sour flavour balance
If you serve it hot off the stove then I think you’ll find you need nothing more than perhaps a quick squeeze of lime to finish it off, and a big dollop of chilli sauce or paste wouldn’t go astray either.
However! If you want to really go all out, make up some Nuoc Cham, the chilli-garlic-fish sauce-lime sauce that is served with everything in Vietnam. And that’s no exaggeration! There’s tons of variations, from lighter flavours so it’s used almost like a soup such as with Bun Cha (Vietnamese Meatballs), in my Vietnamese Chicken Salad to stronger sauces used for dipping Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls.
Use the Nuoc Cham dipping sauce in this Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken recipe, it’s the version best suited for this Caramelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef.
If you make this Caramelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef to use up the beef after making Pho, you’ll love how the toppings and sides are basically the same ingredients! Lime wedges, a big pile of bean sprouts, fresh herbs (coriander/cilantro is ideal, Thai basil also fantastic, mint also great – or a combo of these).
A little fresh chilli if you can handle the heat and for some extra bedazzle, a little sprinkle of peanuts.
Boom.
Hard to believe this bowl of amazingness is made with scrappy leftover beef from making stock, isn’t it?? ☺️ – Nagi x
PS I’ve made this using leftover chicken too, such as after making homemade Chicken Noodle Soup from Scratch. It’s really terrific! Just use a touch extra oil.
Caramelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef
Watch how to make it
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Caramelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef
Ingredients
- 500g / 1lb (3 cups) leftover cooked brisket or other beef , shredded or chopped (Note 1)
- 1 - 2 tbsp oil , for cooking
Marinade:
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce , light or all purpose
- 2.5 tbsp (packed) brown sugar
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp lemongrass paste (Note 2)
Serving:
- Rice or noodles
- Lime wedges OR Nuoc Cham (Note 3)
- Fresh coriander/cilantro leaves and/or finely sliced green onions
- Finely sliced red chilli, sliced cucumber, crushed peanuts*
Instructions
- Mix Marinade in a bowl.
- Add shredded beef and mix. Set aside 5 minutes.
- Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add about half the beef and spread out in single layer.
- Leave undisturbed until golden (about 1 minute). Flip then cook the other side just briefly (about 30 seconds) just to heat and get a touch of golden, then remove.
- Repeat with remaining beef.
- Serve over rice, using either limes or Nuoc Cham as the sauce, and garnishes of choice (I used them all in the photos!)
Recipe Notes:
Life of Dozer
Currently on a mini break with Dozer at Rick Stein’s Bannisters Hotel in Port Stephens! Finally – a great dog friendly hotel!!
Just delicious, we all devoured it! I left out the fresh chilli as my 13 year old doesn’t like it but we added chilli flakes at the table to ours and a squeeze of lime, which I saw on another comment. And served it with rice cooked in coconut milk, shredded lettuce and carrot.
Definitely a keeper and we thought the pork would make awesome spring roll or rice paper roll fillings too.
Perfect Melissa! N x
Hi Nagi,
Sorry to be one of “those” but I must correct you on the locationof Bannisters with your pooch. It’s in Mollymook (my hometown) on the South Coast, not in Port Stephens (which is North Coast) 😊
Recipe was divine too, absolutely smashed the broth.
Thank you
Ash x
Ash! Guess what – there’s one in Port Stephen’s now 🙂 It’s great! It’s the dog friendly one, the Mollymook one is not, unfortunately!! N xx
Hi, I made the broth yesterday and plan on having it for dinner. There is a layer of fat on top. Do you scrape it off or just reheat it?
Hi Georgie, traditional pho does leave the fat in – it turns to liquid when you heat the broth up and gives a lovely mouthfeel. However if you’re not keen, you can remove the fat before serving. N x
Sorry this was meant for the pho recipe page
I made this after making Pho, as suggested, and I can’t decide which I liked better. Such a delicious way to use up the leftover brisket.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Cindy!! N x
Well all I have to say is that this was so friggin delicious!! I made your pho recipe and it was awesome!! Used the leftover brisket for this. Unbelievable how that marinade transformed that leftover tasteless piece of brisket into an incredible dinner… you are a genius! My husband and I couldn’t stop eating this. Loved how all the leftover toppings from the pho can be used in this as well, so no waste of ingredients…
I would just make a piece of brisket just for this dish it was that good.
We had it fully loaded… lol… with bean sprouts, cilantro, green onion, lime, thai basil all from leftover pho toppings, plus added cucumber and julienned carrots. And of course nuoc cham sauce….
Absolutely to die for!
Thanks you for all your recipes…. I am a huge fan, and tell everyone I know about you. Have made lots of your recipes and each one has been incredible.. many have made it into the frequent dinner rotation 😘
Wahoooo, that’s such great feedback! Thanks so much!!
Made this for my mom and it was a hit. We are having the leftovers again tomorrow!! Thank you Nagi 🙂
YES! That’s great!!! N x
Made two of your recipes in one night for visitors- this one and the pad see ew. Both super yum.
I did the beef the night before, just in the basic ginger/garlic stock you mentioned, and we liked that leftover broth so much that we served that as well.
Thanks for some excellent recipes. Will be trying more, for sure.
Perfect Rachel!!
Would this work with mince?
Hi Kristina, try this recipe: https://www.recipetineats.com/vietnamese-caramelised-pork-bowls – N x
Nagi, Thank you so much for the Pho recipe, My husband and I had lived in Houston, Texas all of our lives, until 11 years ago. We had access to some very good and one exceptional Vietnamese restaurants there and frequented them regularly. We moved for retirement 11 hours (by car) north to a small town in the state of Kansas. Not hardly a truly good restaurant in the vicinity, save one steak house. My cooking skills this paste decade was raised a notch or two in making some of the dishes we sorely missed. Couldn’t stand it a moment longer and went searching for Pho recipes. Found yours, took a deep breath and mushed forward. Could hardly believe it was soooo good! We ate Pho 3 nights in a row. And now, I’m attempting the Carmelised Vietnamese Shredded Beef. Thank you for all that you do to provide us foodies with such good, detailed and concise instructions.
Hi Mary, not sure which small town you moved to in KS, but Wichita has a big Vietnamese community. I grew up in Wichita and am now living in north Dallas (lots of ethnic groups here, but not so much Vietnamese per se, although the population seems to be growing so hopefully a real Vietnamese grocer will follow). If you can get to Wichita, you can load up on Vietnamese ingredients or try to grow your own (lemongrass, basil, mint, peppers, etc.).
Thank you, Hang…am in a very small town in SE Kansas. Pittsburg. Some items I have to shop for such as fresh bean sprouts have to be shopped for at a specialty store in Joplin, Missouri…about 50 minutes away. All other items I have actually found here in my small town. Joplin has one fairly new Pho restaurant, but they are not very good. Don’t serve lettuce or other fresh vegetables with the Vietnamese ‘egg rolls’, the Pho broth is inconsistent and sometimes disappointing. I came from Houston and we had a lot of Vietnamese restaurants and also a good many Asian grocery stores. Have siblings in North Dallas and was always disappointed that Vietnamese restaurants were not plentiful when I went to visit. Hoping Joplin will have another, more delicious restaurant eventually. We’ll see! In the meantime, I’ll follow Nagi’s site and practice my Asian cooking.
Thanks so much Mary, that’s so nice to hear!!
Do you think shredded chicken will work
Nagi,
You are hands down my FAVORITE blogger!! I love that I can always find authentic Asian Cuisine & American Fare (or is Australia’s tastes so similar to ours?) I mean Salisbury Steak!! That started out as frozen TV dinners here in the 50s when everyone got a TV! They’d plop themselves, their TV trays & TV dinners in front of those huge Black & White Tubes & eat like they were at the coolest restaurant on their block!!! AMAZING!
If I ever get well enough to travel I’m going down under! I’d pay for a weeks worth of cooking classes if you’d be willing!! Now I just need the powers that be to help heal my legs!
I also need to get over my fear of Australia’s Bugs, Snakes & all your creepy crawlies!!😆
Thanks again for a great recipe!!!
You’re so welcome Lisa!! I’m with you on all the creepy crawlies, I can’t stand all the critters!
Another big success here tonight! Let’s see if we can make it a hat trick with your third appearance on the mealplanner tomorrow. Hubby even had seconds. Thanks Nagi!
Wahoo, can’t wait to hear what you think!!
Another great dish! I need to perfect the crisping of the beef so it doesn’t get too dried out. We used the Nuoc Cham sauce and rice noodles.
Had big plans for Sunday dinner…canceled them all when I received this post in my mailbox. Had to make this. Best decision ever!!! Awesome!!!
🙌 Woot!!
Hi Nagi, thanks for all your wonderful recipes – so much choice I think I have dinner sorted for the next year. With the caramelised shredded beef could you use left over silverside?
In a word AWESOME! I made this for dinner last night using leftover roast beef from a bone in strip loin roast. I cut off slices and then cut the slices into thin strips. I had some lemon grass in the fridge so I had to mince it up very fine. I served it over jasmine rice in pho bowls and topped it with cucumber, fresh crispy bean sprouts, green onion, thin red strips from a hot red pepper and cilantro. When I go to a Vietnamese restaurant, I always order this or it’s chicken equivalent. To be able to make this at home was incredible and it came very close to the restaurant taste. I had sweet Thai Chili and Nuoc Cham on the side. The only thing I was missing is that in a restaurant, this dish comes with one deep fried spring roll, however we were so full, I guess we didn’t need that LOL. We were blown away, this is a keeper! Thank you Nagi.
That’s awesome Judith!!
I made this using the left over brisket from your Pho recipe and both were soo good!
I used it on homemade pizzas and it was amazing.
It’s so good that half of it didn’t even make it on the pizza!
Also had it in the leftover Pho the next day.
Great idea!! I’ll have to try it Jess ❤️
Hi. Just wondering if you have a subbing suggestion for the fish sauce? I am not a fan at all of fish sauce
Hi Deb, nothing really compares to fish sauce – I promise it doesn’t taste fishy at all in the end. You could use 1 tbls oyster sauce or soy if you prefer.
Loved your Pad Thai, Khwetio, and other Thai reccpies. This Vietnamese shredded beef with Lemongrass sauce is, as you say, so easy. It is absolutely delicious. My husband would eat this every day. Will do some Vietnamese Meat Balls next week.
Thanks for all the delicious deliousness you”ve sent recently.
I have a folder with all your recipes and recently made the Chinese Cashew Chicken again. Yum.
Gae Fleming
Thanks Game! Hope you get a chance to make this for your hubby! 🙂 N xx
Nagi. Amazing. I made the pho. And then did the caramelized beef. Not sure which one I like better as both we do delish.
*Screech!* I’m so glad you made the pho, I was dying to hear what people thought. Thank you so much for letting me know Steven! N xx
Nagi, I was wondering what rype of food processor you have? I am looking for a new one and have a family of 5 … so I imagine it would be the same workload between us, with all your recipe testing! It would be amazing if you actually posted a list of kitchen tools and appliances you use!
Enjoy your weekend!
– Chantelle
Hi Chantelle! I promise I plan to, actually, the food processor is one thing I’ve not yet landed on 100%. I’ve been through a couple in the last 5 years or so and not thrilled with any of them! If you want to know about any specifically, just leave a message on any recipe or email me directly by responding to any new recipe email I send out! N x PS Currently a Breville 1000W, preciously a Cuisinart. Don’t get either 🙁