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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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?
Hi Nagi! As always, you did not disappoint with this recipe. This has shot up to the top of our go-to list. Any suggestions we should follow on doubling the recipe for company?
Followed step by step an turned out perfectly, however did add some grated ginger at start!
Nagi, you never disappoint. This recipe was amazing. I made it exactly as it was written and will make a lot more. So savory and delicious. If I could give it 10 stars, I would. Thank you!
This dish turned out exactly as I was hoping- sweet, savory, and oh-so-tender! Paired with some broccoli and garlic rice, it was a meal enjoyed by my whole family!
Would pork loin work for this recipe? Thank you!
Nope, too dry
The flavor of this was amazing.. It did take longer than 1.5 hours for the liquid to cook off and wasn’t quite what I would consider caramelized but the pork was tender and flavorful.
I cooked the Vietnamese Carmelized Pork recipe for the first time two days ago and we all LOVED it!! I could not get over how tender the pork was after all that time simmering. It is another one of your freakin’ amazing recipes – and so easy to put together! Thank you for another spectacular dinner choice!
Hi Nagi,
I made this recipe low carb / keto by replacing sugar with 1 tsp of ketchup Manis. Was delicious, just a hint of sweetness. Love your recipes. I can make most things by eliminating the sugar and it still tastes good. In this case it did need just a little sweetness to keep true to the recipe. Cheers Bella
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
omg, everyone needs to make this recipe…yesterday. like others, I was a little skeptical while cooking evfen by the time the sauce was more gravy (~20 minutes to go), I could tell it was going to be amazing. In fact, I was tempted to leave it saucy (which tasted absolutely delicious) but decided to keep going as the recipe intended, and I’m so glad I did. It tastes like some grilled magical delight straight from the brazier of a top restaurant.
The recipe is incredibly simple with astoundingly few ingredients, but wow it’s incredible. I think it’s one of the few times I haven’t added a single thing (or quantity) to a savoury recipe.
I served it with a quick-pickled carrots & shallots mixture and sauteed cauliflower rice, garnished with green onion & cilantro. I’m already plotting cutting up the rest of the large pork shoulder this came from to make another batch to top my work lunch salads all week.
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