Here’s a super fast pork stir fry made with pork mince (ground pork) infused with flavours from the streets of Vietnam. With just a handful of ingredients you probably already have, it’s sweet, salty, beautifully caramelised and absolutely irresistible. It’s the quick and easy version of Vietnamese Caramel Pork, a famous Vietnamese food speciality!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Vietnamese stir fry – Pork Mince recipe
Ground pork – which we call “mince” here in Australia – is extremely good value.
It’s also just about the least sexy protein I know. Don’t you think? A dry aged piece of New York strip is sexy. Quail is gourmet. Oysters are….well, we’ve all heard that oysters are an aphrodisiac, right? 😉
Mince is…well, it just isn’t fancy. And yet, it makes it into my shopping trolley every single week because it’s such good value and so versatile. Sure, there are the usual suspects you can make with mince. Bolognese, meatballs, burgers, Meatloaf, Shepherds Pie – to name a few of the more common ones.
But sometimes, it’s nice to do something a little different. Like this Vietnamese pork stir fry.
The crazy thing about this pork mince recipe is that the ingredients list is so short. Chili, garlic, ginger, sugar and fish sauce. That’s it. Seriously!
Can I make this pork stir fry with chicken or beef mince?
Yes! This is fabulous made with chicken, beef and turkey!
“This is a terrific ground pork recipe that tastes and sounds so exotic…. yet it’s so easy!”
The secret to this ground pork is the caramelisation. It is rare to see recipes made with ground meat that are cooked this way so the meat is caramelised.
But those golden brown bits you see – they are the crowning glory in this recipe that takes it from a rather unappetising pale brown-grey colour to a golden brown pile of deliciousness that you will want to eat with a spoon straight out of the skillet. (Go on – you deserve it – cook’s privileges!)
What you need
Short list – see? I didn’t exaggerate!!
Lemongrass is optional – it’s not a pantry staple and also it’s not an ingredient in traditional Vietnamese Caramel Pork. But lemongrass flavour is certainly at home in this dish!
How to make this Vietnamese pork mince stir fry
This pork mince stir fry comes together as quickly as any stir fry. Once you start cooking, you’ll be done in 6 minutes flat.
Authentic Vietnamese roots
I am not 1000% sure that this is strictly authentic Vietnamese but the combination of ingredients I use most certainly are and it is my replica of dishes I have tried at Vietnamese restaurants here in Australia. It is an adaptation of the marinade I use in my Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Bowl and essentially the quick version of Vietnamese Caramel Pork, a famous Vietnamese food speciality.
How to serve it
Serve this pork stir fry over rice and eat it with a spoon! This pork mince recipe doesn’t have a sauce, but you don’t need it because the flavour is intensified and the pork mince mixes all through the rice which flavour it.
To complete your meal, try these:
A fresh side salad like this Asian Slaw;
Add a side of cucumber and tomato wedges, pictured (very classic South East Asian way to add vegetables to a meal); or
Shredded lettuce, cucumber and carrots which makes it more like the classic Vietnamese Noodle Bowls.
Make my Vietnamese Chicken Salad but without the chicken for a fresh, slaw-like salad side.
Hope you enjoy! – Nagi x
PS For a healthy low carb option try Cauliflower Rice – 77% fewer calories and 87% less carbs than rice.
Watch how to make it
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
Get your Vietnamese fix!
Vietnamese Caramel Pork – and the Chicken version!
Lemongrass Chicken – one of my favourite things to grill!
Browse all Vietnamese recipes
More quick pork mince recipes
San Choy Bow (Chinese Lettuce Cups)
Egg Foo Young (Chinese Omelette with Pork)
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Vietnamese Caramelised Pork Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tbsp cooking oil (I use peanut oil)
- 1/2 onion , finely diced (brown, white or yellow) (~1/2 cup)
- 2 tsp ginger , grated or minced
- 2 garlic cloves , minced (2 tsp paste)
- 1 birds eye or Thai chili , deseeded and finely chopped (can omit, Note 1)
- 500g / 1 lb pork mince (ground pork) (Note 2)
- 5 tbsp (tightly packed brown sugar (don't skimp, else won't caramelise)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
Serving:
- 1 green onion stem , finely sliced
- Jasmine rice or other rice for serving
- Sliced red chilli, tomato, cucumber (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat.
- Sauté – Add the onion, ginger, garlic and chili and cook for 2 minutes.
- Cook pork – Add the pork mince and cook for 2 minutes or so until white all over, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon.
- Add sauce & caramelise – Add the sugar and fish sauce. Stir, then leave it to cook without touching until all the juices cook out and the pork starts caramelised – about 2 minutes. Then stir it and leave it again, without stirring, for around 30 seconds to get more caramelisation. Repeat twice more until caramelised to your taste.
- Serve over jasmine or other rice, or vermicelli noodles, garnished with sliced green onion. For a low carb, low cal option, try Cauliflower Rice! I like to have chunks of plain cucumber and carrots on the side which is a classic way of making Vietnamese bowls.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published November 2015. Updated September 2019 with new writing, some new photos, brand new video and most importantly, new Life of Dozer section added!
Life of Dozer
Dozer on the wrong side of the counter at the pet shop!!!
(PS yes you spy cat treats, buying a present for a friend!)
I used just 1Tbs Brown sugar and 1 tbs Kecap Manis – also added some Vietnamese mint. This is a great and simple recipe – thanks Nagi your stuff is great – plus i have the book – also great!
Went super well with friends. Hubby loves it. They all have second helping. They even asked for your recipe. Definitely cook it again and super easy.
Huge hit in my house. We make this regularly. My son (11 yrs old) is obsessed. We have made this with turkey and impossible (fake) meat. It works well with all but ground pork is our fav.
My husband and I LOVE this recipe. We have it frequently and instead of rice we have it on farro with 5-spice seasoning. It is excellent.
To lighten up this dish (and I know it’s not authentic to do this) I like to add a few small shrimps, some blanched green beans and throw in some mung bean sprouts just before serving.
I serve some rice (with a little sesame oil) in the middle, surround it with the pork mince, and then surround it all with shredded lettuce.
Doing it this way means you can halve the amount of pork required if you (like me) are trying to eat a little lighter.
Tasty! Not as richly flavored as I was expecting, but still very good and I will be making it again. I halved the brown sugar based on other reviews and it was perfect.
It does seem to take a lot longer to caramelize than the recipe says; even on high heat as directed, it still took about 4 minutes between each stir.
I don’t feel like the single, de-seeded chili added anything (neither heat nor flavor), so I may try two next time, or add it nearer the end, or keep some seeds in. I also used lemongrass paste but again may need to add it near the end of cooking to taste it.
I served the pork with jasmine rice, cucumber and tomatoes. I ate it as-is and it was very good, but pouring a bit of nuoc cham over the top would have made it perfect.
I love this recipe. My only complaint is it doesn’t say how much lemongrass paste to use. I’ve been using a heaped teaspoon as I don’t even know how much one stalk would be.
I have done plain as-is with rice, and also added some small chopped veg at the point when the meat is browned prior to the sugar/fish sauce/lemongrass which I added into rice noodles, and both have been great. Will keep making this one!
3 of your recepi´s made in 3 days and already looking forward to the next one, mega easy to make and tasty too, thanks Nagi and ofcourse Dozer too, hope you both have a good weekend! x
One of my favourites, on rotation. Quick and tasty. Thank you. 🙂
Delicious! I loved this simple and delicious recipe. I wanted to try it with the lemongrass but my grocery store didn’t have it and I didn’t feel like going to another store. I’m happy to report that it’s delicious just as written. I still may try it with lemongrass at another time because I will definitely want to make this again! Thanks for the recipe!
I’m awful at cooking so my pork barely caramelized, but it was still great. I hope I get better at it with time haha
I have never had a negative comment on your recipes over the years I have been using them. However, if you are going to mention using lemongrass in the *Notes* it really should be in the ingredient list too!
I often save or print recipes and when I want to make something I shop off the ingredient list. Imagine my disappointment to begin assembling my mis en place’ and realize I have no lemongrass to add!
Calm down Diane Beck!
This recipe has been worn out by my home for many meals and it is incredible with OR WITHOUT lemongrass. To make an abrasive comment like yours..mmm..makes me think about the starving and how superficial you come across.
Amy – chill – the comment was legit and a good piece of constructive feedback. Sheesh!
But,. It’s just a suggestion. The recipe is beautiful as is. Don’t be nasty with an author providing a free recipe because of your poor reading comprehension skills. Entitled!
I made this last night, and my husband swooned. It was pure comfort. That said, I did have to add a little salt to cut the sweet. I’m wondering whether my fish sauce had a different composition. As much as I wanted to make it exactly as written the first time, I had to add a dash of oyster sauce and some salt to balance the flavor so it wasn’t strictly sweet. Nevertheless, it is a welcome change from teriyaki. We will be making this often. Thank you!
The caramel pork was the star of our vermicelli salad bowls. We don’t like sweet much, so I only used 2T brown sugar. I through in some dried tien tsin chilis for heat. ….and served with chili crisp. Yum, yum, YUM! I think I will try in lettuce wraps next.
I have made this dish about 20 times since I found this recipe. I use 3lbs of pork since it goes so fast. I use 10T of brown sugar and 7T of fish sauce. It’s the perfect balance of sweetness and saltiness. I use 2 thai chili with seeds and 2 without. My son LOVES this so much. Made some last night and he finished it by today. I think I’ll try it with beef just for variation. Not sure it’ll come out the same.
Great recipe ! I was looking for something different to use pork/beef mince up and this was a great recipe. Paired with rice and an Asian slaw. Very nice. I did cook the mince slightly longer than suggested (also drained fat)before adding sugar/fish sauce because I noticed others struggled to get the caramelisation.
This was terrible 🙁 no flavour and no textures except rice and mince which is the same we WILL NOT be making this again which is a shame cause we usually live your recipes
There’s 5TBS sugar and 2 TBS for 500g pork. How can it NOT have flavour?
Unless you like things very salty and sweet. I’ve had some terrible recipe proportions for various mince recipes. This is not it. I am not even defending because I am biased. I actually find Nagi’s food very flavourful when I follow her recipes but actually make mine with
es of whatever she wrote.
Texture? You fried off the meat right and not stew it. It has to have the charred almost popping look.
Annie,
Sounds like a case of operator error or a rank beginner.
Specific instructions produces a flavour bomb with great texture and additional variants
I find that my preference for saltiness and flavor tends to be on the high side, so with these sort of recipes I usually add a bit more fish sauce or salt than stated. You kind of play around right to get the right level. But like the commenter above said, you also have to caramelize it to the point of almost burnt, it should end up a dark brown color.
Either you didn’t follow the recipe or you didn’t caramelize the pork properly which was my crime on first attempt. You literally have to almost burn it lol. This is hands down my favourite recipe and I’m forced to cook it weekly. I use steamed jasmine rice for a bit of stodge as it’s a dry dish. A bit of soy and sriracha and it’s divine..please give it another go sometime
Absolutely adored this recipe. Hubby fell in love with it and polished it off in minutes. I’d love to know how you got it so gorgeously caramelized, Nagi! I cooked it for about 25 minutes and it was still not as brown as yours and had some liquid. Any tips??? I served it over rice with cucumber and topped it with fresh coriander and fresh Thai basil. YUM!!!!! Thanks for this!
I made this with mince beef for dinner last night, the family loved it! I used 1/2 the sugar, it still caramelised beautifully.
I was so tempted to add oyster sauce or soy sauce or a 3rd element as per habit, coz… just fish sauce and sugar? Really?
But as usual, u were right Nagi, it was delicious!
Served with low GI rice and a crunchy slaw of shredded carrots, cucumber and red cabbage, yummy… will definitely make this again, thanks Nagi!
All I can say is Meat Candy. It’s so good.