The BEST Thit Kho-Caramelized Braised Pork Belly Recipe!
Watch my Braised Pork Belly recipe reel -here-.
Thit Kho is a glossy and tender, melt in your mouth braised pork belly is cooked in a savory and dark coconut broth. It's an ultimate comfort food that brings me back to my childhood.
Juicy Vietnamese braised pork belly is one of my favorite dishes to make! Today I made it, the way I love it, with a little Taiwanese twist by just adding a few aromatics like fresh ginger, star anise, and Shaoxing cooking wine. The below recipe is my preferred method of making it.
For original Thit Kho recipe, just omit the optional Taiwanese spices below, or click on the below link:
*TIPS
-Caramelizing the pork skin in the caramel sauce will render the pork belly skin a beautiful dark brown/orange color!
-Coconut soda: This is the secret ingredient, there’s no real substitution for this so try to find this can before making this dish
-Maggi/oyster sauce marinade will help add a nice umami and darker color to the pork, marinating it overnight will give you that darker color as well
INGREDIENTS
3 lbs of Pork belly
PORK RINSE
1 tsp salt
2 tbs vinegar
PARBOIL
Pot of cold water (about 8-12 cups water)
1 tbs salt
3 smashed garlic
2 shallots cut in quarters
Juice of 1 lime
MARINADE INGREDIENTS
1 cup Maggi seasoning
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
CARAMEL
3 tbs brown sugar
1 tbsp light extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves smashed & loosely sliced
BRAISING INGREDIENTS
1 tsp black pepper to taste
1 can coco Rico (lighter coconut taste)
8-12 hard boiled eggs, peeled (as much as you want)
2-3 smashed whole garlic cloves
Water (to cover meat)
2-3 dried red peppers or fresh Thai Chili Peppers
1-2 tsp fish sauce (to taste)
Black pepper to taste
Optional Taiwanese spices:
1 Knob of ginger (thinly sliced, optional)
2 Bay Leaves (optional)
3 Star Anise (optional)
1 small piece of dry cinnamon stick (optional)
GARNISH INGREDIENTS
Scallions
Cilantro
Thai red chili peppers
PREPARATION
1. Eggs: Boil eggs or whatever you think will fit into your pot (a nice 7 minute boiled egg is perfect so it won't over cook with the pork). Put eggs in an ice bath and peel and rinse under warm water to remove any shell pieces and set aside.
2. Rinse pork under cold water
3. Rinse/scrub pork skin in a large bowl with salt and vinegar and some water in a bowl. Then rinse under cold water.
4. Scrape pork belly with knife to remove any dirt/impurities
5. Rinse under cold water
6. Pat dry pork with paper towels
7. Cut your pork belly into about 2x2" pieces.
8. Parboil pork to get a cleaner looking stew by bringing a large pot of water on the stove to a boil. Add garlic, shallot onions, and lime juice and the pork to the boiling water and parboil for about 2-3 minutes (at this point you should see a bunch of gritty bubbles to the top, the meat should be a little gray). Dump/and discard the boiled water & onions/garlic. Clean pot.
9. Remove from heat. Drain & rinse pork belly.
10. Marinade pork with Maggi, black pepper and oyster sauce for 30-60 min (for best results, store overnight in fridge is best). I used a large gallon zip lock bag to marinate the meat in.
11. In a large pot (I used a ceramic cast iron pot), heat brown sugar in dry pan until caramelized over low-medium heat. Swirl and mix the mixture until sugar has melted and turned a light caramel color (This should take between 1.5-3 min but be careful not to BURN the sugar, lower heat to low or remove from heat if the caramel starts to really smoke)
(If your caramel burns or you smell a really burnt sugar smell, start over and do not use the burnt caramel) then add ginger (and ginger if you opt to use ginger).
12. Then add 1 tbs oil and pork and cook for 2-3 minutes on medium/high heat. Add all pork belly pieces into pan skin side down and cook 3-4 minutes (medium/high heat) until skin has turned a dark caramel'y/orange/brown color, then flip to bottom and cook 3-4 min until bottoms are browned (be sure to swirl pork in marinade to distribute the brown sauce), then cook sides until they are brown as well.
13. Add garlic and optional Taiwanese aromatics.
14. Set the heat to medium-high, add the rest of the pork marinade and add 1 can of coco rico, and a little water if needed to cover about the pork and add soy sauce. I needed about 1.5 cups of water.
15. Peel eggs carefully under running cool water and set aside.
16. Bring to boil with lid off and then turn down stove to low/med setting for a nice simmer for 1.5-2 hours. After about an hour add your peeled eggs (stir pot every 15-20 min and remove any impurities off top, you can also remove the translucent flat layer off the top as well (just leave a little of the fat for flavor). Take lid off after an hour and a half.
17. After 1.5-2 hours the pork belly should be tender, pork belly skin should also be very soft and tender (not chewy and I like it when it basically melts in your mouth) and the eggs should turn in color. Add fish sauce and black pepper to taste. If it hasn't reached this tender point yet, keep pot on low simmer until you have a tender/soft pork belly and skin.
18. Scoop off any excess pork fat on top of the stew (its a layer of very clear water on top of the darker brown stew water below).
19. Garnish with black pepper, green onions and cilantro. Serve with optional pickled mustard greens, white jasmine rice.