Thai Grilled Pork Rice Bowls (Moo Yang, 41g Protein)

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Moo yang is Thai grilled pork, the smoky, garlicky, fish-sauce-marinated skewers you smell before you see at a night market. Turned into a rice bowl it makes a fast weeknight dinner that hits 41 grams of protein per serving, built on lean pork loin over jasmine rice. The whole thing takes about 30 minutes once the pork has had a short marinate.

What carries it is nam jim jaew, the toasted rice dipping sauce that goes with grilled meat all over northeastern Thailand. It is sharp and salty and just hot enough, and it wakes up the rice and pork without adding much of anything to the calorie count.

You do not need a grill. A cast iron pan pushed hot enough to smoke gives you the same char on thin slices of pork in a couple of minutes a side.

Why this works

Slicing the pork thin and cooking it hard and fast is the key. Thin strips take on char in about two minutes a side, which means the outside caramelizes before the inside overcooks and turns dry. A thicker chop would need low heat to cook through and would miss the char entirely.

The two tablespoons of coconut milk in the marinade are not for flavor so much as insurance. The fat coats the lean pork and helps it brown and stay tender over high heat, which matters a lot when you are working with loin instead of fattier shoulder. Toasted rice powder in the sauce is the other detail worth doing properly. It thickens the dressing slightly and adds a nutty, popcorn-like backbone that a splash of lime and fish sauce alone will not give you.

Ingredient notes

Pork loin keeps this lean and high in protein, but it is easy to overcook, so pull it the moment it loses its pink. If you want more forgiveness and a juicier result, pork shoulder sliced thin is the traditional cut and only adds a few grams of fat per serving. Palm sugar has a rounder, less sharp sweetness than white sugar; light brown sugar is the closest easy swap. For the toasted rice powder, you can buy it at a Thai grocery, but toasting a couple of tablespoons of raw jasmine rice in a dry pan until deep golden and grinding it in a mortar or spice grinder takes five minutes and tastes far better. If you like the sharp, herby side of Thai food, the same sauce family shows up in my Thai waterfall beef, which leans on the same toasted rice powder.

Thai Grilled Pork Rice Bowls (Moo Yang)

Thin slices of marinated pork charred hard and fast, then piled over jasmine rice with cucumber, herbs and a sharp toasted-rice dipping sauce called nam jim jaew. It lands at 41g of protein per serving and comes together in about 30 minutes once the pork has had a short marinate.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 500

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 1.5 lb pork loin about 680g; sliced across the grain into thin strips a little under half an inch thick. Pork shoulder works too and stays juicier, with a bit more fat
• 2 tbsp fish sauce for the marinade
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp palm sugar or light brown sugar, packed
• 2 tbsp coconut milk the fat helps the pork stay tender and char without drying
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tbsp cilantro stems finely minced; save the leaves for serving
• 1 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 tbsp neutral oil for the pan or grill
• 3 tbsp fish sauce for the nam jim jaew
• 2 tbsp lime juice from about 1 large lime
• 1 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar, for the sauce
• 1 tbsp toasted rice powder khao khua; make your own by toasting raw rice in a dry pan until deep golden and grinding it
• 1 tsp Thai chili flakes start with 1 tsp and add more to taste
• 1 tbsp shallot minced, for the sauce
• 1 tbsp chopped scallion
• 4 cups cooked jasmine rice from about 1.5 cups uncooked
• 1 cucumber thinly sliced, for serving
• 0.5 cup cilantro and mint leaves loosely packed, for serving
• 1 lime cut into wedges

Method

 

1. Mix the marinade. In a bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons fish sauce, the soy sauce, oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon palm sugar, coconut milk, garlic, cilantro stems and white pepper until the sugar dissolves. Add the sliced pork and turn to coat. Let it sit at least 20 minutes at room temperature, or up to overnight in the fridge.
2. Make the nam jim jaew. Combine 3 tablespoons fish sauce, lime juice, 1 tablespoon palm sugar, toasted rice powder, chili flakes, shallot and scallion. Stir until the sugar dissolves and taste. It should read sharp, salty, a little sweet and hot. Adjust with more lime or chili as you like.
3. Heat a cast iron or heavy skillet over medium-high until it just starts to smoke, then add the oil. You want the pan hot so the pork chars instead of steaming. A grill pan or outdoor grill over high heat works the same way.
4. Lay the pork out in a single layer, working in two batches so the pan stays hot. Leave it undisturbed for about 2 minutes to build color, then flip and cook 1 to 2 minutes more until the edges are charred and the pork is just cooked through. Do not crowd the pan.
5. Rest the pork on a board for 3 minutes, then slice any larger pieces. Resting keeps the juices in instead of running out onto the rice.
6. Build the bowls. Divide the jasmine rice among four bowls, pile on the pork, and add cucumber, cilantro and mint and a lime wedge to each. Spoon some nam jim jaew over the pork and serve the rest on the side for dipping.

Tips and storage

This is a strong meal prep candidate because the parts keep well on their own. The cooked pork holds 3 to 4 days in the fridge, and the nam jim jaew keeps a week in a jar, actually improving as the shallot mellows. Store the pork, rice and sauce separately and keep the cucumber and herbs dry until serving so nothing goes soggy. Reheat the pork gently in a hot pan for a minute so it does not toughen, or eat it cold, which is genuinely good over rice with extra lime.

To push the protein higher, add a jammy soft-boiled egg or a scoop of edamame to each bowl. For more Thai on the protein rotation, the herby, no-grill route is my Thai pork larb, and if you want to keep the grilled-meat-over-rice format going, the Korean ground beef bowls are the fastest bowl on the site.