I recently took a trip to Hanoi, Ninh Binh, and Sapa, where I enjoyed Bun Cha several times at different Vietnamese restaurants and street food stalls. It has since become my favorite Vietnamese street food, and I would love to keep enjoying it after returning home. I’m eager to share my version of the Bun Cha recipe with you.

Bun cha (Vietnamese meatballs with vermicelli) has all the classic Vietnamese street food elements. It is prepared with caramelized meatballs and sliced pork, pickles, and noodles dipped in nước chấm.  The bursting Vietnamese flavor is a gastronomical experience that leaves you wanting more.

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Ingredients required to prepare Bun Cha

• Ground pork. Ground pork is used to make the meatballs. The meatballs are juicier if the pork has a certain amount of fat. Therefore, it is better to use minced pork with at least twenty percent of fat.  You can use store-bought ground pork or purchase shoulder loin with some fat to mince it yourself. I asked my butcher to ground for me to save time.
• Pork belly. Sliced pork is best prepared with pork belly. Don’t be afraid that the pork belly is too fatty, as most oil will render during grilling. You can use the pork belly with or without the skin.
• Caramel sauce. The sauce is prepared by using sugar and water. Please refer to the next section for details.
• Seasoning. The seasoning for the pork is made with minced garlic, finely chopped onion (or shallot), oyster sauce, fish sauce, ground white pepper, and more sugar.
• Dipping sauce. It is a mixture of vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, and lime juice with some water.
• Pickles. The pickles comprise daikon and carrot and are seasoned with salt, sugar, and vinegar.

How to prepare Bun Cha – Vietnamese grilled meatballs with vermicelli

a. Preparation

1. Slice the pork belly when it is semi-frozen, as it is easier to cut it thinly. Cut the pork belly into about a quarter cm thick.
2. Finely mince or chop the garlic and onion. Larger pieces of garlic and shallots do not adhere well to the pork and can burn quickly while grilling.
3. To prepare the caramel sauce, place the sugar in a small pot and heat it over medium heat. Stir constantly until the sugar dissolves and the color turns golden. Once it reaches this stage, slowly add hot water to dilute the mixture into a sauce. Be cautious, as the water may splatter when added to the melted sugar. Adding the water one tablespoon at a time is best to minimize splattering. This caramel sauce will add a rich, smoky-sweet flavor and a beautiful caramelized color to the pork.
4. Measure all the ingredients as in the Bun Cha recipe below with the pork belly slices.  Let it sit for half a day to enable the flavor to penetrate fully into the meat.
5. The meatballs are marinated with the same ingredients as the sliced pork. Mix all the ingredients, lift the meat, and repeatedly throw it back into the mixing bowl. This action will change the meatball’s texture, making it sticky and securely holding the shallot and garlic in the patty. It is complete when the meat no longer sticks to the bowl’s side and becomes slightly bouncy. Next, portion the ground pork slightly smaller than a golf ball and flatten it slightly. Let them sit for half a day before grilling.

b. Grill the pork

The pork is best prepared with a charcoal grill, which produces a smokey flavor, but not everyone has the luxury of doing it. Therefore, I use the stovetop grill pan over the stovetop since I live in the apartment.

1. Heat some vegetable oil in the grill pan over medium heat. When it is hot enough, place the pork belly on it, undisturbed, for two minutes on one side to get the grilled mark.
2. Then, flip it over and do the same for the other side until it is nicely caramelized.
3. Next, clean the pan and grill the meatballs. The method is the same, except it takes slightly longer to cook than the sliced pork since they are thicker.

c. Make the dipping sauce

Bun cha is served with a sauce (nước chấm), a dipping sauce used in a wide range of Vietnamese food. This sauce is relatively easy to make. All you need is a combination of sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, and lime juice.  Put the sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, and water in a pot.

1. Heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves. This step involves melting the sugar; therefore, the sauce does not need to be boiled.
2. Let it return to room temperature.
3. Add the lime juice and mix well. (You can substitute it with lemon juice).

You need to add some chopped garlic and red bird’s eye chili to the nước chấm.  Since the garlic should be floated on the surface rather than sinking, it is best to chop the garlic manually rather than using a garlic crusher, resulting in the garlic becoming pasty and tend to sink to the bottom.  As for the bird’s eye chili, remove all the seeds and slice it as thin as you can crosswise.

d. Preparing the pickle

You also need to make some pickles to serve with the Bun cha, although it is not mandatory. The most common ingredients are thinly sliced carrots and green papayas. Cucumbers and kohlrabi are the alternatives to green papayas if unavailable. Since I have some daikon (white radish) at home, I use it to substitute the green papaya, which turns out very tasty. The pickles are usually made fresh rather than preserved for a long time. 

• Cut the carrots and green papayas (daikon for my recipe) into thin slices. Add a large teaspoon of salt to it and mix well. After fifteen minutes, you will notice the salt has drawn out a lot of water from the carrots and daikon. This step will make the pickles crunchier.
• Wash away the salt and drain. Add the vinegar and sugar as mentioned in the Bun Cha recipe. Keep it for at least one hour, and it is done.

How to serve bún chả

Get a small bowl of dipping sauce, add chopped chili and minced garlic, and place the meatballs and sliced pork in the sauce. Next, dunk the vermicelli (rice noodles) and fresh herbs (basil, mint, coriander leaves) into it, and immediately pick up a piece of meat with the herbs and vermicelli, which means you have a mouthful with a bit of everything.

Alternatively, you can put all these in a serving bowl and spoon some sauce to enjoy.

Bún chả is commonly served with the Vietnamese spring roll. You can refer to this recipe on how to make the spring rolls.

Tips to make better Bun Cha

• You can substitute the caramel sauce with molasses or honey. Since both have higher sugar content, the pork will be caramelized quicker and color faster during grilling.
• Some Bun Cha recipes include lemongrass in the recipe, but that is less used in bún chả Hanoi. Instead, it is more commonly used with Bun Thit Nuong, a recipe similar to southern Vietnam’s.
• The exact grill time depends on the stove’s heat, but it is best to use moderate heat for cooking. It is crucial to grill over medium heat, especially for the sliced pork, since it cooks pretty fast, and prolonged cooking will dry out the meat.
• It is best to make the dipping sauce, boil the noodles, prepare the pickles in advance, and grill the pork at the last minute to serve it hot.
• Please note that the amount of each ingredient in this Bun Cha recipe is my preference. You may want to change the ratio of each ingredient based on your preference.  The saltiness of the fish sauce depends on the brand you use; therefore, the quantity can not be fixed unless a specific brand is used. The best way is to do a taste test after the sugar has melted and adjust the taste until you are satisfied with the result.