Bún Chả Hà Nội (Vietnamese Grilled Pork with Rice Noodles and Dipping Broth)

Bún chả is Hanoi's signature lunch: smoky grilled pork patties (chả) and slices of pork belly dropped into a bowl of warm, lightly sweet and sour fish sauce broth (nước chấm), with cool rice vermicelli (bún), a mountain of fresh herbs and crunchy pickled green papaya and carrot on the side. It is a dish of contrasts, hot meat in warm broth against cold noodles and raw herbs, which makes it as good on a crisp fall day as it is in Hanoi's humid summer. The grilling smell alone is enough to pull everyone into the kitchen.

Street vendors cook over charcoal, but you don't need it. A ripping-hot cast-iron grill pan or an oven broiler gives you the same dark, caramelized edges, because the real flavor comes from the marinade: fish sauce for savoriness, sugar and a little dark soy or Vietnamese caramel sauce for color and char, and plenty of shallot and garlic. Two more details matter. Use fatty ground pork so the patties stay juicy rather than dry and crumbly, and keep the dipping broth mild and warm, not hot or strong, because you eat it by the bowlful rather than dipping sparingly.

Ingredients

For the pork

• 400 g (14 oz) ground pork, ideally 20 to 30 percent fat
• 300 g (10.5 oz) skinless pork belly or pork shoulder, sliced 3 to 4 mm (1/8 inch) thick
• 3 shallots (about 60 g / 2 oz) and 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce or Vietnamese caramel sauce (nước màu)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for the pan
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

For the pickles

• 150 g (5 oz) green papaya or kohlrabi and 1 small carrot (about 80 g / 3 oz), peeled and very thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the dipping broth

• 700 ml (3 cups) water
• 100 ml (scant 1/2 cup) fish sauce
• 70 g (1/3 cup) sugar
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) rice vinegar and 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 garlic cloves, minced, and 2 Thai chilies, thinly sliced

To serve

• 250 g (9 oz) dried thin rice vermicelli, or 500 g (1.1 lb) fresh bún
• 1 head soft lettuce plus a large handful each of mint, cilantro, perilla (tía tô) and Vietnamese balm (kinh giới), or whatever soft herbs you can find

Instructions

1. Make the marinade. In a bowl, stir together the minced shallots and garlic, fish sauce, sugar, dark soy sauce, oil and black pepper until the sugar dissolves. Pour half of it over the sliced pork belly in a second bowl and toss to coat every slice.
2. Add the ground pork to the remaining marinade and mix with your hands for about 1 minute, until the mixture turns sticky and holds together. With wet hands, shape it into 12 flat patties about 5 cm (2 inches) across and 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) thick. Cover both bowls and marinate for at least 30 minutes at room temperature, or up to overnight in the fridge.
3. While the pork marinates, make the pickles: toss the papaya and carrot with the vinegar, sugar and salt and set aside for at least 15 minutes, stirring once or twice. Wash and dry the herbs and lettuce, tearing the lettuce into bite-size pieces, and pile everything on a platter.
4. Make the dipping broth. Combine the water, fish sauce, sugar and rice vinegar in a saucepan and warm over medium heat, stirring, just until the sugar dissolves and the liquid is steaming; do not boil. Taste it: it should be gentle, like a seasoned soup you could sip, not a concentrated dipping sauce. Turn off the heat and stir in the lime juice. Keep warm, and add the garlic and chili only just before serving so they stay bright.
5. Cook the noodles. Boil dried vermicelli according to the package, usually 4 to 5 minutes, until tender but not mushy, then drain and rinse under cold running water until cool. Drain well and arrange in loose nests on a platter. Fresh bún only needs a quick rinse.
6. Grill pan method: heat a cast-iron grill pan or heavy skillet over high heat until it just starts to smoke, then brush lightly with oil. Lay in the pork belly slices in a single layer and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until the edges curl and are deeply charred in spots. Transfer to a plate. Add the patties and cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side, pressing gently, until dark brown with charred edges and cooked through (70°C / 160°F in the center). Work in batches and don't crowd the pan, or the meat will steam instead of char.
7. Broiler method: set an oven rack about 10 cm (4 inches) below the broiler element and heat the broiler to high. Arrange the patties and belly slices on a wire rack set over a foil-lined tray. Broil the patties for 5 minutes per side and the belly for 3 to 4 minutes per side, until charred at the edges. The sugar in the marinade burns quickly, so check often.
8. Ladle the warm dipping broth into four individual bowls, add a spoonful of pickles to each, and drop in the hot pork patties and belly slices as they come off the heat. The meat juices season the broth. Sprinkle with the garlic and chili to taste.
9. To eat, add a tangle of noodles and a few herbs and lettuce leaves to your bowl, or pick them up with chopsticks and dip. Eat everything together in one bite: meat, broth, noodles and herbs.

Tips

• Substitutions: kohlrabi, daikon or extra carrot stand in for green papaya. If perilla and Vietnamese balm are hard to find, use more mint and cilantro plus a little Thai basil. No dark soy sauce? Use 1 teaspoon molasses, or make a quick caramel by melting 1 tablespoon of sugar until dark amber and carefully dissolving it with a spoonful of hot water.
• Fat is flavor here. Lean ground pork gives dry, crumbly patties; if lean is all you have, mix in 2 tablespoons of finely chopped pork fat or 1 extra tablespoon of oil, and don't overwork the mixture.
• Get real char. The pan or broiler needs to be very hot, and the pork should be in a single layer. Don't wipe the marinade off the belly slices: the sugar and shallot are what caramelize into the bittersweet burnt edges that define bún chả.
• Make ahead and storage: the patties can be shaped and marinated a day ahead, or frozen raw for up to 2 months (thaw before grilling). Cooked pork keeps for 3 days in the fridge and reheats well in a hot pan or air fryer. The broth keeps for 5 days in the fridge; rewarm it gently and add fresh lime, garlic and chili. The pickles keep for a week.
• Serve with nem cua bể or ordinary fried spring rolls (nem rán) cut into pieces, the way Hanoi shops do, and iced tea (trà đá). A plate of sliced cucumber and extra chilies on the table never hurts.
• Air fryer option: cook the patties at 200°C (400°F) for 8 to 10 minutes, flipping once, and the belly slices for 6 to 8 minutes, until browned at the edges.

Nutrition

Nutrition information is an estimate only: about 800 kcal, 28 g protein, 45 g fat, 68 g carbohydrate per serving, including noodles and broth.