Grilled Pork Chop Recipe. Vietnamese Style,Outrageously Good.

This is a delicious recipe for a grilled pork chop. The savory flavors will have you begging for more. I love this pork chop. It is best served on a bed of rice. I perfer brown rice for the added benefits. For added flavor you may saute' some chopped green onion in a little olive oil and spread a spoonful on top of the rice before you lay your delicious pork chop on top. On the side have a bed of green leaf lettuce with tomato and cucumber slices and a few unsalted peanuts. Make sure to add the Nuoc Mam for the final finishing touch. What you have is a truly mouth watering dish. It is so good and good for you.

First of all if you are not familiar with Vietnamese cuisine, you will need to go to your local asian store to pisk up some essentials. Not too many grocery stores will carry what you need. Trust me, once you try this you will make it again and again. You are going to need a bottle of Fish Sauce. This is an anchovie based sauce. It is light brown in color. It is not thick, but very liquid. It has a strong fish odor, try not to let this deter you. It is a staple in the Vietnamese diet. It is very yummy and I use it as a secret ingrediant for a lot of the dishes I make. Next you will need a jar of chopped Lemon Grass. It comes in two varieties. One is just plain chopped Lemon Grass, the other has chili in it. If you perfer a little kick in your food then get this one. The rest of the ingredients for the marinade you should have at home. You will also need a bottle of Shiracha chilli pepper sauce. This stuff is so good. It has a nice kick. We eat it like ketchup.

I actually make these for my family. I am the grill chef. My partner is Vietnamese. This is how I learned how to make these incredible pork chops. Now you might see different recipes. Someone might make them different then the way I do it, that's OK. There are several different ways to make them. This is how I do it.

In a large ziplock baggie place your pack of thin cut pork chop, bone in. The chops usually come 4 to a pack. Next, you are going to want to add about three and one half tablespoons of the fish sauce. Then add about two tablespoons of sugar. I like to add fresh ground pepper so I will put about two teaspoons of ground pepper. This will also give the pork a nice taste. Last, I add about two teaspoons of garlic powder. Make sure you use garlic powder, not garlic salt. You do not want these to be too salty, Now you massage the marinade onto the pork chops in the large zip lock baggie. I like to let them marinade overnight. These can also bemade in advance and then frozen. Then all you have to do is grill them. I like to have my grill on medium high heat. You want to cook slowly at first to cook the meat then sear them a bit to add the crispness.

After your chops have grilled you will then assemble the plate. As I mentioned earlier, these are best served over a bed of rice with a spoonfull of saute'd green onions on top. Lay the chop on top of that rice. Make a nice bed of greenleaf lettuce with thin slices of tomato and cucumber. Sprinkle some chopped unsalted peanuts on the salad. Then ladle the Nouc Mam on both the chop and salad.

Nouc Mam Recipe:

Juice from 4 limes

2 cups of sugar (best if you disolve in a little warm water first )

1/4 cup of fish sauce

1 teaspoon of chopped garlic. ( I use the already chopped garlic in the jar, water not oil)

1 1/2 teaspoon of shiracha hot pepper sauce.

Add a little more water at the end to blend the flavors nicely.

This will make a fairly large amount of sauce.

These are the basics of Nouc Mam, I actually adjust by taste. You add the ingrediants to a lagre bowl and stir completely. Taste will be slightly sweet, with a hint of the lime and the fish sauce. If it is too bitter add alittle more sugar. Not enough citric, add one more lime juice. Add a dash of fish sauce if you can not taste it.

I hope everyone enjoys this delicious pork chop dish. We have this often in the summer. This marinade is also great on chicken. You can bake these on non stick tin foil in a shallow pan so they will get a little crisp. You can broil them in the end of the baking so as not to dry out the chops.