Vietnamese Grilled Lemongrass Pork Belly (Ba Chỉ Nướng Sả)

Ba Chỉ Nướng Sả is pork belly marinated in Vietnamese-style lemongrass marinade and grilled to juicy perfection. This tasty pork could be served with rice, rice noodles, or Vietnamese Bánh Mì. Super easy, super versatile!!

❤️ Your Easiest Vietnamese Pork Belly Recipe

Pork is a staple ingredient in Vietnam, appearing in almost Vietnamese dishes (even more so than fish sauce).

We use ground pork in Vietnamese egg omelette, pork belly in Thịt Kho Tàu, pork hock in Bún Bò Huế. People even use pork to cook Pork Phở in Nha Trang, my hometown.

🥩 Ingredients

Ingredients for Vietnamese Grilled Pork Belly are quite simple.

• Pork Belly: Of course, we need it, but I prefer removing the pork rind from the pork belly. I just forgot to do it this time, and it’s quite annoying when eating. I cut my pork belly into strips about 0.4 inches (1cm) thick.

• Seasoning: Fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and sweetened condensed milk. Yeah, Vietnamese people love marinating meat with sweetened condensed milk.
• Aromatics: lemongrass, scallion and garlic. Scallion/Green onion is a popular herb in marinating meat in Vietnam. I’m not sure why but for me scallion create a “Vietnamese flavor” that onions or shallots just can’t match.

📝 Instructions

Marinating:

• In a blender, combine lemongrass, scallions, garlic, and a few tablespoons of water. Blend until smooth. You could mince the ingredients with a knife but using a blender saves me time, and I don’t like the uncomfortable lumps in the marinade.
• Marinate the pork belly with this mixture along with fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and sweetened condensed milk. You could marinate the pork belly for at least 1 hour, or ideally overnight. Before cooking, take it out of the fridge for 30 minutes.

Grilling:

I live in a small apartment, so I often grill the meat with a pan or an air fryer. You could also use an oven; however, the open flame always yields the best flavor for grilled meat.

Pan-grilling:

• Heat your grill pan over medium-low heat.
• Pan-fry each side of the pork belly for about 7-9 minutes.

Air-frying:

• Place the marinated pork belly in the air fryer basket and air fry each side for 10 minutes at 390°F (200°C).

🥢 How to serve

There are many ways to serve this Vietnamese lemongrass pork belly:

• With steamed rice for an easy daily meal; I even have a quick and easy recipe for Microwave Jasmine rice.
• As a filling for Vietnamese Bánh Mì or as an element for a Banh Mi charcuterie board. Of course you shouldn’t forget Vietnamese mayo & liver pâté . This version of Bánh Mì is called Bánh Mì Thịt Nướng.
• As a topping for your Bún Bowl (rice noodle bowl). The rice noodle with grilled pork is called Bún Thịt Nướng. In addition to the pork, you can add some Đồ Chua (pickled carrot & daikon), Mỡ Hành (scallion oil), and pour on some Nước Chấm to make it complete.
• A perfect dish for any Vietnamese or Asian gatherings, such as Tết (Lunar New Year), Easter, or Thanksgiving.

🥛 What to do with leftover sweetened condensed milk

If you love coffee and have a sweet tooth, Cà Phê Sữa Đá (Vietnamese iced coffee) and Bánh Flan (Vietnamese flan) are perfect for you. Besides, in Vietnam, we have many dishes with sweetened condensed milk, both sweet and savory.