These Vietnamese lemongrass pork chops are full of sweet and savory flavors and infused with lemongrass fragrance. Simply marinate them for a few hours, throw them on a grill and you are all set! Cooking them on a grill gives the pork chop extra crispiness and smokiness but it also increases the HCA content of your food, so this flavor comes at a price.
A note on lemongrass
It is important to choose some fresh lemongrass as it makes a huge difference. You can probably pick some up from the supermarket but those are often dried out and the fragrant is pretty much gone. Avoid stalks that are dried out, have visible bad spots, or are brown at the top. Lemongrass freezes well too — either the whole stalk, or shredded.
A note on the grill
The grill I am using is a Scanpan stove top pan. I bought it from Wing On department store at the beginning of the year and it works super great with meat. I love making satay, steak, and korean BBQ on it! It’s a bit pricey (around HKD 1,800) but it is definitely worth it if you are a meat lover.
Ingredients
For the Marinade
- 2 stalks of lemongrass
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot
- black pepper
- 4 pcs thin-cut pork chops
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
Method
1) Peel off the outer layer of the lemongrass. Minced the white and light green part of the stalk.
2) In a mixing bowl, combine all the marinade ingredients and mix well.
3) Marinate the pork chops with the marinade you prepared and stick them in the fridge for at least 3- 4 hours.
4) Remove the pork chops from the fridge and preheat the grill on high heat. Brush a layer of canola oil over the grill. Shake off the aromatics on the pork chops and grill the pork chops for a couple of minutes on each side depending on the thickness of the pork chops.
5) When the pork chops are almost ready, brush a layer of honey on each side of the pork chop and grills them for another 10 – 20 seconds.
