A traditional German “drink” would be apple cider or juice combined with sparkling water. Nothing is better on a sweltering July day.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 cloves garlic, minced, or more to taste
- 2 teaspoons five-spice powder
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
- 1 ½ pounds pork tenderloin, cut into cubes
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 pounds fresh thick Vietnamese-style rice noodles
- 2 cups bean sprouts
- 1 cup torn lettuce leaves
- 1 bunch green onions, chopped
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
- ¼ cup crispy chow mein noodles, or more to taste
Instructions
- Whisk soy sauce, garlic, five-spice powder, sugar, paprika, and bouillon granules together in a large glass or ceramic bowl. Add pork; toss to evenly coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Remove pork from marinade and shake off excess. Discard remaining marinade.
- Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Cook and stir pork in hot oil until browned, 4 to 7 minutes. Add water; cook and stir until water evaporates and pork is cooked through, about 2 minutes more.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Rinse rice noodles under cold water and gently break noodles apart. Immerse noodles in boiling water until about half-tender, about 30 seconds. Add bean sprouts to water and noodles; continue cooking until noodles are tender yet firm to the bite, about 30 seconds more. Drain.
- Combine noodles and pork mixture together in a large serving dish. Top with lettuce, green onions, basil, cilantro, and chow mein.
- Rice noodles are very easy to overcook. They should be quite firm (al dente). They can be overcooked in just a few seconds, turning soggy and pasty. It is best to use fresh Vietnamese-style rice noodles of about 1/4-inch thickness. If you have not cooked with these before, work it out on your own before planning this dish for guests. Don’t serve this dish with overcooked noodles.
- You can substitute rice paper croutons or broken chicharonnes for the crispy chow mein noodles.
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of the marinade ingredients. The actual amount of the marinade consumed will vary.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 488 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 78 g |
| Cholesterol | 49 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 24 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 373 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 8 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This dish is served with a fish sauce over the noodles topped with raw veggies. Mint is a nice touch to fresh greens. Also have had it with slivered carrot and maybe white radish?. Can you recommend a brand of fish sauce light and fresh tasting, and the marinaded carrot/crisp white veggie mix?
I had to add a lot of soy sauce at the end to increase flavor. I would also use broccoli instead of lettuce if I make this again.
I’ve never had Cao Lau before, so I pulled up recipes on the internet to see what it was supposed to look like when brought to the table. Every recipe had sliced pork instead of cubed, so I sliced it thinly, and every recipe had either a slice or wedge of fresh lime to squeeze over the bowl. I had everything on hand for this recipe except the thick Vietnamese style rice noodles, so I substituted thick spaghetti (Barilla). When the pork came out of the fridge, it had soaked up every little bit of the marinade, but its flavor was fantastic. On the downside, the single thing that suffered most in this recipe was that it was dry, but I think that’s an easy fix. What I’ll try next time is doubling the marinade and adding some pork or chicken broth to the sautéed pork to ramp up the moisture level; probably will add more herbs, too. Other than the dryness issue, I have no complaints (hubby thought there was too much pasta). We liked it, we ate it, and I’ll try again with a few tweaks to suit our tastes.