Bún Nem Nướng - Vietnamese Grilled Pork Meatballs & Rice Noodles
Savory, flavor-packed grilled pork meatballs over noodles, with a medley of aromatic herbs all married together with a balanced Vietnamese fish sauce. And it's easy to make!
- Prep time
- 15 min
- Cook time
- 30 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1 pound pork (20% fat)
- 1 pack dried rice noodles (small or medium thickness)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons potato starch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 tsp single-acting Alsa baking powder
- 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp water
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 teaspoons chopped garlic (finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder))
- green or red leaf lettuce (shredded)
- mint – (rau thơm)
- Vietnamese perilla – (tiá tô)
- Vietnamese balm – (kinh giới)
- cucumbers (sliced)
- pickled carrots and daikon radish đồ chua
- wilted scallion in oil mở hành
- crushed peanuts
- 4-6 egg rolls (chả giò)
- fish sauce-based dipping sauce (nước chấm)
Instructions
- 1
Combine all seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix. It will bubble from the baking powder.
- 2
After everything is dissolved, add the pork and mix well.
- 3
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night, or freeze for about 1 hour or until slightly firm. The purpose is to thicken it up.
- 4
If you chose to freeze your meat, start washing your veggies, prepare the garnishes, and cook the dried rice noodles according to package instructions. If you fridged it overnight instead, begin this prep 1 hour before you pull the meat from the fridge.
- 5
Although the butcher ground the pork four times already, blend your chilled meat mixture one final time in a food processor after marinating so it becomes stickier and easier to form shapes with.
- 6
Form into desired shapes--usually balls about 1.25" in diameter or larger logs for speed, or to add to rolls.
- 7
Steam for about 10 minutes so the shape holds before the final cooking stage. It should not be cooked all the way through at this stage. The final temp would be 145° F, so pull it well before this after it seems like it's holding its shape. Use a thermometer to check.
- 8
Deep fry or grill to brown the meat r and finish cooking.