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!
LIFE OF DOZER
Still his favourite toy. I swear, I can feel the attitude reverberating off him every time I see him bounding around in the backyard with this toy.
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Obsessed with this pork, holy moly. Served with rice and a side of sesame ginger garlic veggies from your (incredible) cook book. Thanks a bunch, Nagi
Thank you Nagi for another hit, I made this last week it is soooo good, I’ve followed the instructions to the T and nothing to see nothing impressive up until the last 5 minutes when magical happened and looks as good as it tastes, this is a keeper. Thx
I have to be honest, for the first hour and 25 minutes it smelled awful and looked just as bad to the point my fiancé said it looked like dog food and wasn’t eating it. But, true to word it all came together in that last 5 minutes and it looked amazing, and tasted amazing! The real bonus is that we all liked it and it will be cooked again!!!🤤
This recipe is like magic. I know it’s stated in the recipe that it doesn’t look impressive while it’s cooking, but boy, I still worried. Not browning the meat first didn’t feel right to me, and not going to lie, I didn’t like the smell for the first hour. And it just looked like… I was boiling meat. Quite unappetising.
But then in the last 5 minutes it just transformed as Nagi said. And it was delicious. I cook a lot and I’ve made really elaborate dishes, and this was a massive hit in my house even though it was so simple to make. I’m in love! I served it with steamed veggies with nuoc cham as suggested (my first time making that too, so easy and so good!) as well as some steamed white rice. It was perfect. I cannot praise this recipe enough. Everyone should try it.
Made last night easiest dinner. Super delicious. Going to do chicken next
Absolutely delicious. Came together in the last 5 minutes like you said. I made it along your jasmine rice recipe an Asian slaw. All 3 were fantastic.
This looks delicious, just wondering, it doesn’t actually state when to add the coconut water, do I do this at the start along with the tap water & sugar. Or maybe I’ve missed seeing it? 🤔
Sorry ignore this, just re-read the recipe better 😄
Hi Nagi, I’m planning to make this, but I only have coconut milk. Do I replace it 1:1 with the coconut water?
Yes 1:1 is fine but you will find the colour is different to the coconut water version! N x
Made this yesterday. Never made anything Vietnamese before. We really enjoyed it. Will make it regularly.
It’s soooo easy and a great one for last minute meals! N x
can we sub something else for coconut water, like oat milk or water? 😀 I know it’s kind of off but I personally don’t like to drink coconut water by itself and I don’t really want to buy it just for 1.5 cups for this dish. Thx!
Not in this one Megan – sorry! They do have small bottles at the grocery stores here that would not result in any wastage. Maybe see if you can find one of those! N x
You can’t taste coconut. It’s a wonderful recipe
I’ll admit to some trepidation with this recipe’s method – no pre-browning the pork, no sauteing the onions and garlic before chucking it all in the pan to simmer? Not what I’m used to! But I was excited to try this easy method and the result was excellent. Nice texture, lovely flavor. Can’t wait to try the chicken version next
Can i skip the fish sauce since I do not have any? Or is there a substitute?
IMHO, there really is no substitute for fish sauce. It has this umami that really can’t be replicated. I suggest ordering some (it really does not go bad) off of Amazon (if in the US). Red Boat is a really good brand.
Omg Nagi, yesterday Moth and I went to Fat Noodle, BrisVegas. The 1st person we saw was Luke Nguyen. I was star-struck and I dumbly pointed at him and my mouth wide open. He later came over to our table and spoke to us for about 10mins. At first I could hardly speak to him bumbling my words.
Gosh, he’s a nice bloke.
I mentioned RTEs to him and he knew what you were about.
He’s in my top 2 of celebrity chefs. We’re going to Cornwall in Aug, i can’t imagine how I’d react if we bumped into Rick Stein.
Oh wow Barb that is great!! I get totally star-struck like that too when I see my fave chefs!! N x
ABSOLUTELY DELICOUS!
My husband also did love it.
I made it with pork neck.
First I was afraid, it would turn out hard. but I made a little bit more liquid and let it simmer lower and longer, it was soft, tender and OMG the taste!
I love your clear and exact instructions, the help me with my ADHD to come to wonderful results and not burning down the kitchen, thank you so much for it!
I am very happy that you didn’t burn down your kitchen Katrin!! N x
This is such a cool recipe. The first time I made it, I made it with coconut milk and added a chilli for some spice. Overdid it a little but, it was very spicy but very nice nonetheless. I’m actually making it atm, no chilli this time and I’m using coconut water. Hopefully it works since I didn’t have any shallots and I think i might have put too much coconut water. Lats time I was using this recipe there was a link to crunchy cucumber and carrot salad, can’t find it now. anyways, huge fan of this blog. I tried the Mediterranean pasta salad as well – very nice!
Hello, have you ever used palm sugar instead of brown sugar for this recipe?
No but that’s definitely the more traditional ingredient for Vietnamese foods so go for it! N x
Shouldn’t you add water into the bowl (besides vinegar, sugar and salt) for the pickeld vegetables? See note 4
Hi
Would this recipe work if I simmered in chefs pan in the oven rather then stove top
Ta
I don’t think so Lisa – it needs to evaporate quickly. N x
Thank you for reply
This is amazing. I used pork belly and used it as a filling for rice paper rolls with noodle and pickle. It was so delicious. Another brilliant recipe!
Oh that sounds SOOOOO good Renee!!! N x
Ah, Nagi – you never fail me! I adapted this to my All In One cooker tonight (pressure cook then saute till caramelised) and it was absolutely amazing. The taste, the tenderness, the sweet deliciousness of it. And served with the suggested quick pickle. Thank you!
How long did you pressure cook the pork?
Amazing recipe. It’s a must eat dinner in our house every week. I would like to make it for 10 people so would x5 of ingredients in one pot work or should I use several pots?