Instant Pot Thit Kho
When I started this blog, Thit Kho Trung (Braised Pork with Egg) was one of the dishes that were top of mind for me to learn. I grew up eating Thit Kho and my kids now love it too. However, it’s always my mom or an aunt that makes it for us because it’s one of those recipes that has haunted me for some time.
Let me explain. Way back when Keith and I first started dating, I wanted to impress him by cooking authentic Vietnamese food. I asked him to purchase me *brown* eggs, which are my favorite part of this dish. However, after cooking and peeling the eggs, I was extremely confused (and also for a moment annoyed) that the eggs were white on the inside. Turns out, at 24, I thought that my mom bought special brown eggs for this dish and only learned then that the sauce is what turns the eggs brown. For Keith’s part, this explained a lot as to why I insisted he find me brown eggs. I don’t even remember how the dish tasted that night but the embarrassment prevented me from cooking this dish again for more than 10 years.
When I decided to attempt Thit Kho again recently, I struggled to find an authentic recipe that could be cooked in a reasonable amount of time and wasn’t going to induce heart attacks. Most recipes I found online call for pork belly, which ended up being way too fatty and not at all reminiscent of my childhood eating. My mom was somewhat helpful, but as with most asian mom’s, she does a lot of her cooking by sight and taste so her verbal instructions for me were too vague and imprecise to execute correctly. After a few failed attempts, I asked my aunt (Chef Teresa) for help and she so generously took the time to type up her recipe, which helped me in zeroing in on the key steps and measurements. The first try at her recipe still didn’t totally hit the mark so I made a few adjustments based on my mom’s original instruction and also feedback from my family.
Many rounds of Thit Kho later, I now have the perfect recipe and I’m confident this is going to be a staple in our house going forward (even if my family is begging for a break right now). This dish became so easy once I leveraged the Instant Pot and got the measurements exact. The total cook time can seem alarming but most of it is inactive. As with many Vietnamese dishes, marinating the meat is a key step, and here, it’s recommended to marinate the pork for at least an hour. Active cook time (chopping, sauteing, pushing buttons, etc) however is only about 30 minutes. And best of all: the ingredients are super minimal! This makes it the perfect Sunday night dinner where I can do a bit of cooking between arts and crafts or playtime. It also makes plenty of leftovers for another meal in the week or several lunches.
Hope you enjoy!
Instant Pot Thit Kho
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 dozen eggs
- 2-2.5 lbs pork shoulder for carnitas Whole Foods has this cut, which allows me to skip the step of trimming and cutting up the pork. If not available, get 2.5 lbs of pork shoulder or pork butt, trim away large chunks of fat, and cut into 2 inch cubes.
- 2 shallots (minced)
- 1/2 medium yellow onion (minced)
- fish sauce
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/4 tsp store bought caramel sauce or 2 tbsp homemade caramel sauce
- 1.5 cans Coco Rico coconut soda
Instructions
- Parboil pork: boil for 30 seconds – 1 minute in salted water. Then rinse thoroughly with cool water.
- In a mixing bowl, add 4 tbsp fish sauce, 1/2 tsp ground pepper, coconut caramel sauce. Mix well, toss the pork, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Cook eggs in a steam basket for 12 minutes then submerge in ice water. Peel and set aside. See recipe notes for tips on cooking/peeling eggs as well as Instant Pot method.
- Turn on instant pot to Saute mode. Saute shallots and onion until golden brown. Add pork (set leftover marinade aside) and saute for another 2 minutes until thoroughly combined. Then add leftover marinade.
- Add eggs, Coco Rico soda, 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp fish sauce. Contents should be at least 2/3 submerged. If not, some water can be added (I usually add half a cup of water because I tend to end up with more meat).
- Select Manual/Pressure Cook for 15 minutes. When done, do Quick Release. Switch to Saute mode and cook off for another 10 minutes or more to reduce liquid.
Notes
- Eggs cooked directly in the Instant Pot: place eggs in a trivet/steamer basket. Add about 2 cups water. Select Manual/Pressure cook for 4 minutes. Quick Release, remove, and drop into ice bath. I did not go this route because I prefer to use the egg cooking time to prep my other ingredients. Also, I’m not convinced this actually saves a lot of time given the Instant Pot warm up time.
- No parboiling. When I initially skipped this step, I found the dish to be gritty. It didn’t affect the taste but it looked a lot less appealing. When I asked my aunt about it, she says that she sometimes rubs the pork with salt and then rinses with cool water.
- Whole onion (vs. 1/2 cup). Adjusted for personal taste.
- 1/2 cup of fish sauce (vs. 1/3 + 1 tbsp) in step 5. Personally, 1/2 cup resulted in a way too salty dish. When I tried 1/3 cup, I thought it was perfect but my cousin and husband thought it should be saltier.