Bún Chả Hanoi (Vietnamese Grilled Pork with Noodles)

About This Recipe

Bún chả is the signature lunch dish of Hanoi, a city where on every corner you can smell the unmistakable aroma of pork being grilled over charcoal in the late morning. The dish has three components served separately and assembled by the diner: smoky char-grilled pork (a mix of seasoned ground patties and thin marinated belly slices), a warm dipping broth of fish sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic, chile and pickled green papaya or carrot, and a heaped plate of room-temperature rice vermicelli with a forest of fresh herbs — Thai basil, mint, perilla, cilantro and butter lettuce. To eat it, you dunk a tangle of noodles and a handful of herbs into the broth bowl, fish out a pork patty with your chopsticks, and slurp the whole construction. The dish was put on the global map in 2016 when Anthony Bourdain shared a plastic stool at Hanoi's Bún Chả Hương Liên with President Obama, but Hanoians have been eating it daily for at least a century. What makes a great bún chả is the char — the pork must touch real flame and pick up real smoke — and the balance of the broth, which should taste of fish sauce first, then sweet, then sour, then a slow chile burn at the end.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 400 gpork belly, thinly sliced 3 mm thick
• 400 gground pork shoulder (not too lean — 25% fat ideal)
• 5 tbspfish sauce (Red Boat or Three Crabs), divided
• 5 tbsppalm sugar or brown sugar, divided
• 6shallots, finely minced (divided 4 for marinade, 2 for broth)
• 8garlic cloves, minced (divided)
• 1 tbspground black pepper
• 60 mlrice vinegar
• 1carrot and 1 green papaya (or daikon), thinly shaved into pickle slices
• 2Thai bird chiles, sliced; juice of 1 lime
• 400 gdried rice vermicelli (bún)
• 1 large bunch eachThai basil, mint, perilla (tía tô) and cilantro
• 1 headbutter or red leaf lettuce

Instructions

1. 1

   Marinate the pork

   In two separate bowls (one for belly slices, one for ground pork), combine each with 2 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, half the minced shallots, half the garlic and 1 tsp black pepper. Massage in thoroughly and rest 30 minutes at room temperature (or up to overnight refrigerated). The sugar helps caramelize on the grill.

2. 2

   Form the patties

   Shape the ground pork into small, loose patties about 5 cm wide and 1 cm thick — flatten them so they char quickly. Wet your hands to prevent sticking. You should get about 16 patties.

   Hanoian cooks don't add any binder — the patties are deliberately loose and crumbly, not like burgers.

3. 3

   Pickle the vegetables

   Combine the shaved carrot and green papaya with 1 tbsp sugar and a generous pinch of salt. Massage 1 minute, then rinse and squeeze dry. Cover with the rice vinegar and let sit 20 minutes — the pickles should be tangy but still crunchy.

4. 4

   Make the dipping broth (nước chấm)

   Combine 350 ml warm water, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, the juice of 1 lime, 2 tbsp pickle vinegar from the carrots, sliced chiles, 2 minced garlic cloves and the reserved shallots. Taste — it should be balanced: salty, sweet, sour, hot. Add a tablespoon of pickle vegetables to each serving bowl.

5. 5

   Cook the noodles

   Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add bún and cook 4–5 minutes until just tender, then drain and rinse thoroughly under cold water until the strands are slippery and cool. Drain very well and divide into 4 small mounds on a serving platter.

6. 6

   Grill the pork

   Light a charcoal grill (essential — the smoke is the soul of the dish) or use a very hot cast-iron grill pan. Grill the belly slices 90 seconds per side and the patties 2 minutes per side until deeply charred at the edges and just cooked through. Internal 71°C / 160°F. Work in batches so the pork sears rather than steams.

7. 7

   Serve and assemble

   Drop the hot grilled pork directly into the bowls of warm dipping broth — the broth should warm the pork further and the pork should perfume the broth. Serve immediately with the noodles, the platter of herbs, and torn lettuce leaves. Each diner dunks noodles and herbs into the broth bowl and eats with chopsticks.

Variations

• •

  Bún chả nem — add crispy fried Vietnamese pork spring rolls (nem rán) to the assembly, sliced into bite-sized pieces.

• •

  Lemongrass version — add 2 tbsp finely minced lemongrass to the pork marinade for a more southern Vietnamese flavor.

• •

  Vegetarian — use grilled marinated tofu and king oyster mushroom strips with a vegetarian fish sauce substitute.

• •

  Bún chả Obama — add a side of bia Hà Nội (Hanoi beer) as Bourdain and Obama did in 2016.

Storage

Components keep separately: marinated raw pork up to 24 hours refrigerated; grilled pork 2 days refrigerated, reheated under a broiler 90 seconds; dipping broth 3 days refrigerated; noodles best fresh but acceptable refrigerated 1 day; herbs are eat-the-same-day. Freezing not recommended for any component.

Frequently Asked Questions