Moo Ping: Hot Thai Kitchen’s Grilled Pork Skewers

Close-up of sizzling pork skewers on a charcoal grill, perfect for a delicious barbecue meal.

Written by

Outdoor Cooking King

in

This recipe is taken directly from Pailin Chongchitnant‘s Hot Thai Kitchen — her BBQ Pork Skewers (moo ping) recipe published on hot-thai-kitchen.com. Chongchitnant is a Thai chef, cookbook author and YouTuber whose site aims to demystify Thai cuisine for home cooks, and her moo ping is written to replicate the version sold from street carts rather than the sweeter, mass-produced kind now common in Thailand.

What Is Moo Ping?

Moo means pork and ping means to grill, so the name simply translates to grilled pork, though Chongchitnant calls it “the ultimate poster child of Thai street food.” The pork is marinated in a slightly sweet mixture of umami sauces, herbs and coconut milk, then skewered and grilled, and it’s always served with sticky rice. She notes that many street vendors today buy pre-made moo ping from large suppliers rather than marinating it themselves, using finely chopped pork and evaporated milk instead of coconut milk, which is part of why she prefers to make her own.

Ingredients

  • About 24 bamboo skewers, soaked at least 1 hour
  • 1 1/2 lb pork collar butt roast (or pork shoulder)
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 3 cilantro roots or 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro stems
  • 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons black soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons (35 g) palm sugar
  • 1 tablespoon neutral oil
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 1/4 teaspoon each white and black peppercorns
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • Sticky rice, for serving

Method

  1. Pound the garlic, cilantro roots and peppercorns in a mortar until fine, then add the palm sugar and pound until dissolved.
  2. Stir in the remaining marinade ingredients, except the cornstarch.
  3. Trim any silver skin from the pork, then slice it against the grain into thin, bite-sized pieces, about 5 mm (a little under 1/4 inch) thick; slicing thinly against the grain keeps the muscle fibers short and the meat tender.
  4. Pour the marinade over the pork and mix well. Marinate at least 3 hours, or overnight for the best flavor.
  5. Sprinkle cornstarch over the marinated pork and mix in.
  6. Thread 4-5 pieces per skewer, laying the pork flat and shingled so the pieces stay packed together; chilling the skewers for an hour helps them hold their shape on the grill.
  7. Grill over medium to medium-high heat, 1.5-2 minutes per side, resting exposed skewer ends on a strip of foil so they don’t scorch. Serve with sticky rice.

A Note on Safety

Pork collar butt sliced into cutlets is a whole-muscle cut, not ground meat, so it falls under a different safe-temperature rule than a burger or sausage. The USDA’s Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart puts pork steaks, chops and roasts at 145°F (62.8°C), followed by a 3-minute rest. Chongchitnant’s recipe grills by time and feel rather than temperature, and because these pieces are sliced so thin, a probe thermometer is fiddly to use; a good visual check is to cut into the thickest piece on a test skewer and confirm the center is opaque with no translucence before you plate the rest.

An Everyday Street Food

Chongchitnant places moo ping firmly within everyday Thai street food culture rather than any single restaurant tradition — it’s a dish sold from carts and stalls across the country at any time of day, found equally outdoors and inside shopping mall food courts. She’s candid that quality has slipped as more vendors buy pre-marinated pork from large suppliers instead of mixing their own, which is her reason for sharing a homemade version rather than trying to copy a specific stall.

Getting the Texture Right

Two details in Chongchitnant’s method matter more than they might seem. Slicing against the grain, rather than with it, shortens the muscle fibers so the pork stays tender despite the fast 1.5-2 minute cook. And dusting the marinated pork with cornstarch just before skewering gives the surface a light, slightly sticky coating that helps it caramelize on the grill without drying out the thin-sliced meat.

Keep reading

Sources

More posts