Easy Crispy Thai Pork Bites with Sticky Sweet Chilli Sauce

Crispy Thai Pork Bites with Sweet Chilli Sauce

4.92 from 24 votes

Easy Crispy Thai Pork Bites with Sticky Sweet Chilli Sauce

Recipe video above. This is the sort of dish you find at modern Thai restaurants - golden cubes of pork tenderloin, crispy on the outside and succulent inside, tossed in a sticky limey, sweet chilli sauce.

6 ingredients. Gluten free. No deep frying. All the flavour. None of the fuss! Dinner on the table in 20 minutes.

PS Haven't tried air frying but confident it will work great!

Prep Time10

Cook Time10

Total Time20

Course: Main

Cuisine: modern thai

Keyword: crispy pork bites, crispy thai, pork tenderloin recipe, sweet chilli crispy pork, sweet chilli sauce

Servings:

Calories: 376cal

Author: Nagi

Ingredients

Crispy pork bites:

600 g / 1.2 lb pork tenderloin , cut into 2cm/0.8" cubes (Note 1)
1 tbsp fish sauce (Note 2)
1 1/2 tbsp + 1/2 cup cornflour / cornstarch
> 1 cup neutral flavoured oil , 0.5cm / 0.2" depth (canola, sunflower, vegetable, peanut oil - not olive oil)

Sweet chilli sauce:

1/2 cup sweet chilli sauce (Note 3)
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp fish sauce (Note 2)
2 garlic cloves . finely grated

Garnish and serving:

Coriander/cilantro leaves , roughly torn by hand, optional
Lime wedges , optional
Jasmine rice , or other rice of choice

Cups - Metric

Instructions

ABBREVIATED RECIPE

Toss pork with fish sauce and 1.5 tbsp cornflour, then coat in 1/2 cup cornflour, shake off excess. Cook in 2 batches for 3 min until golden, remove from oil. Simmer sauce 3 min, toss to coat pork, serve.

FULL RECIPE

Toss the pork with the fish sauce, then the 1 1/2 tbsp cornflour. The coating should be a bit sticky.
Crispy coating - Sprinkle over the 1/2 cup of cornflour and toss with fingers to coat each piece, separating pieces stuck together. Give each piece a light squeeze in your fist to make the cornflour stick - you can do 2 or 3 pieces at a time in each hand. Drop into a colander, then give it a shake to remove excess cornflour - important step. (Note 4)
Heat 0.5 cm / 0.2" oil in a non-stick pan or large pot over high heat - dip a piece of pork in, it should sizzle straight away.
3 minute cook - Spread half the pork in the oil. Cook for 1 minute undisturbed until golden. Flip then cook for another 2 minutes (3 minutes in total, including time it takes to flip) or until golden and crisp. Don't overcook - tenderloin is lean!
Drain - Remove with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel-lined tray to drain. Cook remaining pork. Taste-test one "just to check" crispiness! ;)
Sauce - Pour out all the oil (strain and re-use, it's very clean). Return the pan to medium heat. Add the Sauce ingredients, stir and let it simmer for 2 minutes until it thickens into a syrupy consistency.
Quick toss - Add pork, toss quickly to coat.
Serve immediately over rice, sprinkled with a little coriander and a lime wedge. I like to serve it classic Thai street-food style with plain tomato and cucumber wedges (no dressing) - the freshness is great with this dish!

Notes

1. Pork cuts - tenderloin is ideal here for neat cube shapes that are easy to cook evenly, and also it cooks super quick (3 minutes) and is a tender cut of pork. Loin, chops, scotch fillet (pork neck) and other lean quick-cooking cuts can also be used (but the pork is not quite as tender).

Slow cooking cuts - Shoulder (butt) and shank will also work but needs to be tenderised (like in Sweet and Sour Pork). Mix pieces with 3/8 tsp baking soda (bi-carbonate soda) and the fish sauce, marinate 12 - 24 hrs. Then toss with the 1.5 tbsp cornflour, proceed with recipe.

Other proteins - Chicken, fish or prawns would be amazing! Also for a slightly more authentic Thai fish version, see Chilli Lime Fish (based on pla tort sahm rot).

2. Fish sauce brings more depth of flavour than soy sauce into this otherwise simple sauce, but can be substituted with light or an all-purpose soy sauce (don't use dark soy, way too intense).

3. Sweet chilli sauce - The cheap and cheerful kind from regular grocery stores (like Trident, Ayam) with a syrupy consistency and lots of fierce looking red chilli bits in it but it's actually not spicy, it's all show, it is sweet and even kid friendly.

4. Shaking off excess coating is key for all crunchy fried things, but especially with shallow frying since the extra cornflour doesn’t sink like it does in deep frying, so burnt bits cling to the food. Also, excess cornflour is powdery.

Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days and though the surface is not as crispy, there are still some crispy edges so you still get the eating experience, and it certainly didn't stop me from enjoying them (I was picking at it cold!! Shameless ;)). Having said that, this is of course better freshly made because of the crispy crust. To scale down, tap/hover on Servings and slide down, and use a smaller pan/pot so the smaller amount of sauce doesn't spread too thin in the pan.

Nutrition per serving assuming 4 servings, excluding rice. Assumes 3 tablespoons of oil is consumed (estimate based on oil leftover in the pan and absorbed by the paper towels).

Nutrition