Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Chop ( 越式香茅豬扒)

Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Chop ( 越式香茅豬扒)

I am absolutely in love with this lemongrass pork chop recipe. It was a great, delicious way to start my 2014. This will definitely go on my food truck menu if I have one lolol :) I would love to hear from you all. I welcome questions and comments to make this blog a better place for good recipes.

This recipe is easy to make. (Please rate the level of difficulty of this recipe) Time is your biggest helper for this recipe requires overnight refrigeration.

Please feel free to adjust the amount of ingredients in this recipe to your liking.

Ingredients 

• 4 pieces of pork butt chops; they shouldn't weigh more than 1 lbs. If they are more than 1 lb, you will have to adjust the amount of seasonings accordingly ( I personally prefer this cut to regular pork chops because pork butt has a higher fat content and in my opinion are more tender) 
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons of grated garlic  (I love garlic and I tend to put more of it than other recipes out there)
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh lemongrass ( The finer the lemongrass, the stronger the aroma; plus you won't have to split out hard to chew lemongrass pieces later when you enjoy your cooking)
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper   
• Dashes of red chill powder  

Tools

• Meat tenderizer
• Grill pan for the beautiful grill marks
• A otoshibuta (wooden drop lid) / a potato masher

Preparation 

1) Whisk all the seasonings together in a mixing bowl 

2) Tenderize the pork chops with the meat tenderizer. Make sure you pound both sides. Ideally the pork chops should get at least 1.5 times bigger than their original size. This steps makes the pork chop more tender and on top of that this helps the pork chop to absorb all the wonderful flavors from the sauce we combined from step 1.

3) Place all the pork chops in the mixing bowl containing the marinating sauce. Make sure all the pork chops are submerged in the marinade.   

4) Refrigerate overnight. 

5) Let the pork chops stand in room temperature for at least 15 minutes before cooking them. Drain off all excess sauce from the pork chops before putting them on a hot pan. Grease the pan. Your pan is ready when it sizzles with drippings of the marinade.

6) Place the pork chops evenly on the sizzling hot pan. Do NOT flip them until you see the pork chops start to turn white. Meanwhile, drop the wooden lid on the pork chops. This helps the pork chop to cook evenly with beautiful grill marks. If you don't have a wooden drop lid, you can use the potato masher. No matter which tool you use, DO NOT keep pressing the pork chops for this will cause all the juices to drain from the pork chop leaving the pork chops dry and tough. 

7) Open the lid from time to time to observe the pork chops. When the edges of the pork chop on the side facing your is white, flip them. Try to limit your flipping to no more than 4 times.

8) Serve with a side of rice and salad.