Nem Nuong With Charred, Bouncy Pork Skewers You Eat in Lettuce

It is 6:30 on a Friday, the grill pan is heating up and the whole kitchen is about to smell like caramelized garlic. This nem nuong takes about 38 minutes from the first mince to the first bite, and you eat it with your hands, wrapped in lettuce, and no one can stop you.

Sweet, salty, a little scorched, and meant to be messy.

Nem nuong is the Vietnamese grilled pork skewer, and the appeal is in the contrast: a sticky glaze, a few charred edges, and a cool bundle of lettuce, mint and cucumber to wrap around each bite. It asks for a bowl, a pair of wet hands and a hot pan, and it gives you a dinner that tastes like a night out and feels like a game.

How to make it

1. Rinse 1.5 cups jasmine rice and cook according to package directions (about 15-20 minutes). Keep warm.
2. Mince 4 garlic cloves and 2 shallots, finely chop 2 green onions, separate leaves from 1 head butter lettuce, pick ½ cup fresh mint leaves, and slice 1 cucumber into rounds (about 8 minutes).
3. In a large bowl, mix 1.5 lb ground pork with the minced garlic, minced shallots, chopped green onions, 2 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp granulated sugar, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp vegetable oil, salt, and black pepper until sticky and well combined.
4. With wet hands, shape the pork mixture into 12 small sausage-shaped logs and thread each onto a skewer (or shape into oval patties if you do not have skewers).
5. Heat a grill pan or outdoor grill to medium-high. Grill the skewers 3-4 minutes per side until browned, lightly charred, and cooked through (internal temp 160 F).
6. Rest the skewers 2 minutes. Serve over the jasmine rice with butter lettuce leaves, mint, and cucumber slices for wrapping.

Notes

Cooked leftovers keep three to four days refrigerated, per USDA FSIS. Keep the leftover nem nuong skewers and the fresh lettuce, mint and cucumber in separate containers, because the herbs wilt quickly once they have been stored beside warm pork. Reheat the skewers in a hot pan until steaming, and add the fresh things only at the table.

Sugar and honey brown quickly, so the line between charred and scorched is short with this recipe. Stay near the grill, and if the outside darkens faster than the pork cooks through, move the skewers to a cooler part of the grill or turn the heat down a notch. Fat helps here: very lean ground pork can turn out dry, so if you have a choice, use a mix with a little fat in it.

If you are using wooden skewers, soaking them in water for a while beforehand may help keep the exposed ends from scorching. Metal skewers need no soaking.

We have not tested freezing the cooked skewers. They would likely survive it, but the lettuce, mint and cucumber would not hold up, so plan to make those fresh.

Butter lettuce, mint and cucumber are exactly the sort of fresh things that disappear from a list the moment you are in a hurry. Swipe the dish into your week and the agent keeps hold of them, so you do not meet the grill pan with a bare crisper drawer.

Swaps that actually work

The fish sauce, sugar and honey are the point of nem nuong. Together they make the sweet, savory, deeply browned flavor that defines this dish, and they are the reason a bite of it tastes different from a plain pork patty. Cut the sugar and honey and you have cooked a meatball with regrets.

Ground chicken or turkey can replace the pork, though poultry needs to reach 165°F instead of the 160°F that ground pork needs, and it can come out drier, so choose a mix that has a bit of fat in it. Brown sugar can stand in for the granulated sugar, and a little extra honey will not hurt.

For the wraps, romaine hearts or leaf lettuce can stand in for butter lettuce, though butter lettuce is softer and cups the pork neatly. Basil or cilantro can join or replace the mint. Sliced radishes or carrots can go in with the cucumber for extra crunch.

If you do not have skewers, shape the mixture into oval patties, as the recipe allows. They cook in the same pan, and nothing is lost except the pleasure of eating from a stick.

The swap that costs you the dish is skipping the char. If you cook the pork in a pan over low heat so that it steams instead of browning, you will have something tasty but not the smoky edge that makes this so good. Get the pan properly hot.

If it goes wrong

The pork fell off the skewer or fell apart. The mixture was not worked long enough, or it was too wet. Keep mixing until it turns sticky and well combined, shape with wet hands, and press it firmly around the skewer. If a skewer breaks on the grill, turn it with a wide spatula and finish it as a patty.

The outside is burnt and the inside is pink. Charming on the outside, not ready on the inside: you have met this type before. The heat was too high or the logs were too thick. Move the skewers to a cooler spot, lower the heat and cook them until they reach 160°F inside before you serve them.

It is dry. It stayed on the heat too long, or the pork was very lean. Take the skewers off as soon as they are cooked through and rest them for 2 minutes. If they are already dry, a spoonful of dipping sauce and a wrap of lettuce cover a lot of ground.

The pork sticks to the grill. The pan or grate was not hot enough when the meat went on, or it was not oiled. Let the pork release naturally before you try to flip it, and use a thin spatula to loosen it.

It tastes flat. Usually it wants salt or a bit more fish sauce, and next time you can fry a small test patty before you shape the rest. A squeeze of lime and a few chilies in a dipping sauce will also lift it at the table.

What to serve with it

The default is the skewers over jasmine rice, with the butter lettuce, mint and cucumber alongside for wrapping.

The better version of the default is a small bowl of dipping sauce made from fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, water and a little chopped chili, so that each wrap gets something tart and salty. A pile of pickled carrots or daikon is the other thing that earns its place on the table.

The thing in the fridge that lifts it is roasted peanuts scattered on top, which add crunch and a nutty note to the sweet pork. A few extra herbs are welcome too.

Nem nuong makes a very good lunch the next day: slice the cold or reheated skewers into a bowl with rice, cucumber and herbs.

Why this one earns its place

Some dinners are for refueling and some are for enjoying. Nem nuong is the second kind: sticky fingers, bright herbs, and a table that slows down because each person is busy building their own wrap.

It is also easy to set up for company. Put everything out, let people assemble their own, and the dinner gets lively without any extra work from you.

If you like the flavors, banh mi thit uses a similar sweet-savory pork in a crusty sandwich. Bun thit nuong puts grilled pork over noodles and herbs, and chicken satay is another skewer dinner worth swiping into the same week.

More like this: all Vietnamese recipes in Crave Corner.