I’m sharing with you how to make an easy, delicious authentic Vietnamese dish called Bun Bi – a dish that melds vermicelli noodles with narrowly cut roasted pork, shredded pork skin, fresh vegetables with a delicious sweet and sour fish sauce drizzled over it.
Bun Bi is a classically traditional Vietnamese dish that can easily be replicated at home. If you have ever tried this dish at a Vietnamese restaurant, I’m sure you can agree that the different textures of this dish along with the flavorful punch of nuoc mam provides a delicious and scrumptious treat!
Bun bi has many names when translated to English. This includes shredded pork skin, thinly sliced pork skin noodles and it’s even called pork skin shredded with vermicelli noodles.
Overall, the concept is the same. You prepare vermicelli noodles, add roasted pork meat on top, followed by shredded pork skin, a spoonful of roasted rice powder, fresh veggies on top, and then drizzle nuoc mam right over it.
The conclusion is a wonderfully fresh dish that is great anytime of year, but especially during the hot summer months! It’s a wonderfully aromatic dish that uses the basis of other dishes to bring out the flavor that stands on its own.
What is Vietnamese Bun Bi?
Vietnamese Bun Bi is a dish that has one main star followed by two supporting actors. Bun Bi is made with shredded pork skin and roasted pork.
The main star of this show is the deliciously, crispy pork skin. The two supporting actors are the audacious pork belly and the very subtle, quiet toasted rice powder.
Bun bi is also known as bi heo. If I had to translate Vietnamese recipe names, here’s what everything means: Bi means skin, heo means pig, bun means noodles.
Is Bun Bi Healthy for you?
Shredded pork skin may sound unhealthy, but it is actually quite delicious and good for you. The vermicelli noodles topped with crispy pork skin, roasted pork, and fresh herbs and vegetables like mint and cilantro make it a all around great meal. It’s under 500 calories per serving and is a great dish especially during spring and summer months.
Special Ingredients to Get At the Asian Grocery Store for Making Bun Bi
As in most recipes, here I’m going to list some of the ingredients that you might need to go to a specialty asian supermarket in order to get the ingredients.
Frozen, Cooked Pork Skin
Most asian grocery stores carry this in either the freezer or refrigerated section. You’ll need to ensure that the pork skin thaws completely before using. When you are looking for it, it looks like a bunch of noodles frozen together. I would not recommend getting the dehydrated pork skin. In generally, bi is a mixture of both pork skin and meat.
Roasted Rice Powder
Roasted rice powder can be purchased in asian grocery stores. However, this is a really easy recipe for toasted rice powder that you can make right at home.
Pork Belly
You can find this in the meat section of an asian grocery store
Ingredients to Make Vietnamese Bun Bi – Shredded Pork Skin Vermicelli Noodles
1 bag of frozen, cooked shredded pork skin
1 pound of pork belly
1 bag of ground roasted rice called “thinh” (you can make your own using this my authentic roasted rice recipe)
cup of vinegar
cup of white cooking wine
1/2 tablespoon of sugar
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, divided
1 tablespoons of minced garlic
3 tablespoon of roasted rice powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
Accompaniments:
mint
cucumber, sliced narrowly
cilantro
sprouts
Instructions on How to Make Vietnamese Bun Bi
Step 1 – Thaw and Prepare Frozen Pork skin
Defrost the frozen pork skin, rinse well under cold water.
Next, soak the thawed frozen pork skin in the vinegar and cooking wine in order to get rid of the smell of the skin. Soak it for about 15 minutes.
Rinse it again. I would recommend using a salad spinner to ensure that the pork skin is completely dry. If it isn’t completely dry before combining in the next steps with the pork belly and roasted rice powder, the skin will clump. Using a salad spinner will help get rid of the excess water and does an incredible job. If you don’t have a salad spinner, just use paper towels and do an extra careful job of ensuring that the skin is completely dry.
Step 2 – Boil the Pork belly
In a medium pot, fill the water enough so that it will cover up the pork belly. Bring the water to a boil, add the pork belly into the pot. Add a 1/2 tablespoon of sugar. Boil it for about 45 minutes until the meat is no longer pink.
Pork belly provides a very much flavorful taste to this dish.
Step 3 – Sear the Pork belly
Remove the pork belly from the pot. Using a paper towel, pat it down completely dry. Next, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil into a pan and add the pork belly. Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side until all sides are brown.
Remove from the pan and let it cool. Once cool, cut it into 1/4 inch to 1 inch strips of pork.
Step 4 – Cook the Pork Skin
In the same frying pan, add an additional tablespoon of cooking oil. Add in the minced garlic and allow it to turn golden. Next, remove it from heat and combine the pork skin and sliced pork belly.
Step 5 – Prepare the Pork Skin and Pork Belly Together
In the frying pan, add in pork belly and the pork skin and combine them thoroughly together. They key to do this dish is both the pork skin AND the rice powder. Add three tablespoons of roasted rice powder and mix it in thoroughly.
Roasted rice powder is one of the secret ingredients in many asian dishes from Vietnamese to Lao foods that cannot be overlooked. The rice powder provides texture that can’t compete with any other spice.
A little rice powder can go a long way.
Just make sure you don’t add too much, else you end up with a really gritty texture (no one wants that)!
Step 6 – Season
Season with salt and pepper, adjust the seasoning based on your personal preference.
Step 7 – Prepare the Vermicelli, Nuoc Mam, and Vegetable Accompaniments
Prepare the vermicelli noodles based on package instructions. This is the package I use:
Make the nuoc mam to set aside along with the dish. Prepare the mint, cucumber, sprouts and cilantro to set next to the dish.
Step 8 – Serve and eat!
The delicious meld of the warmth of the bi and pork roast along with the coolness of the vermicelli noodles drizzled with cool fish sauce makes this dish an absolute delight.
How to Serve Vietnamese Bun Heo
Similar to other Vietnamese dishes, the accompaniments are the MOST important part of this dish. Adding fresh herbs like mint, cilantro, narrowly cut cucumber, and any other fresh veggies make this dish out of this world.
A drizzle of the delicious chilli garlic fish sauce (nuoc mam) makes it a delectable dish. Bun bi will become one of your favorite Vietnamese noodle dishes outside of the very popular pho soup!
You can dish it up in any order. If you are worried about presentation, start with the noodles first, topped with the protein, and then the veggies.
My favorite way to dish it up is actually with the vegetables on bottom first. It’s not the “prettiest” presentation, but it’s by far the best way to get the fish sauce to meld with the rest of the ingredients.
First, I add in the veggies:
Next, I top it with the cooled vermicelli noodles.
Next, I add the bi and pork on top.
Then, I drizzle the fish sauce on top and add a few sparing mint leaves!
Other Ways to Use Bun Bi in Other Vietnamese Dishes
When you find that the restaurant portions of bun bi are never enough, come back to this recipe and make a large batch of these and it will last you at least 5 days. This dish is absolutely a meat lover’s delight!
What you may also find is that the way you prepare the pork belly, pork skin, and roasted rice powder can be used in a variety of Vietnamese dishes, including the ever popular vermicelli noodles with sliced egg rolls on top.
There’s another amazing dish called com bi cha thit nuong that literally means “rice with pork skin and barbeque meat” that you can use pork skin with.
Bun Bi and it’s ingredients are so versatile, you can really mix up a few other variations of some of the core ingredients and switch up the main carb ingredient to make another dish that is uniquely your own.
Cool vermicelli noodles mixed with mint, cabbage and drizzled with fish sauce along with bi is an absolutely delicious meal that I hope you find scrumptious too!
If you are looking for another asian dish, check out my khao poon recipe that is authentically delicious, especially if you love a light curry noodle dish!
Authentic Vietnamese Bun Bi Recipe
Vietnamese Bun Bi (which is also known as Bi Heo) is an absolutely delicious recipe made with shredded pork skin, roasted pork and accompanied by nuoc mam and fresh vegetables topped over vermicelli noodles.
Ingredients
- 1 bag of frozen, cooked shredded pork skin
- 1 pound of pork belly
- 1 bag of ground roasted rice called "thinh" (you can make your own using this my authetnic roasted rice recipe)
- cup of vinegar
- cup of white cooking wine
- 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
- 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, divided
- 1 tablespoons of minced garlic
- 3 tablespoon of roasted rice powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
- mint
- cucumber, sliced narrowly
- cilantro
- sprouts
Instructions
- Thaw and Prepare Frozen Pork Skin - Defrost the frozen pork skin, rinse well under cold water. Next, soak the dethawed frozen pork skin in the vinegar and cooking wine in order to get rid of the smell of the skin. Soak it for about 15 minutes. Rinse it again. I would recommend using a salad spinner to ensure that the pork skin is completely dry.
- Boil the Pork Belly - In a medium pot, fill the water enough so that it will cover up the pork belly. Bring the water to a boil, add the pork belly into the pot. Add a 1/2 tablespoon of sugar. Boil it for about 45 minutes until the meat is no longer pink. Pork belly provides a very much flavorful taste to this dish.
- Sear the Pork Belly - Remove the pork belly from the pot. Using a paper towel, pat it down completely dry. Next, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil into a pan and add the pork belly. Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side until all sides are brown. Remove from the pan and let it cool. Once cool, cut it into 1/4 inch to 1 inch strips of pork.
- Cook the Pork Skin - In the same frying pan, add an additional tablespoon of cooking oil. Add in the minced garlic and allow it to turn golden. Next, remove it from heat and combine the pork skin and sliced pork belly.
- Prepare the Pork Skin and Pork Belly Together - In the frying pan, add in pork belly and the pork skin and combine them thoroughly together. They key to do this dish is both the pork skin AND the rice powder. Add three tablespoons of roasted rice powder and mix it in thoroughly. Roasted rice powder is one of the secret ingredients in many asian dishes from Vietnamese to Lao foods that cannot be overlooked. The rice powder provides texture that can't compete with any other spice. A little rice powder can go a long way.
- Season with salt and pepper, adjust the seasoning based on your personal preference.
- Prepare the vermicelli noodles based on package instructions. Make the nuoc mam to set aside along with the dish. Prepare the mint, cucumber, sprouts and cilantro to set next to the dish.
- Serve and eat!
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Nutrition Information:
Serving Size: 4Amount Per Serving: Calories: 450Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 48mgSodium: 1477mgCarbohydrates: 35gNet Carbohydrates: 35gFiber: 3gSugar: 10gProtein: 24g
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