Cambodian Beef and Pork Belly Skewers Recipe – How to Make Sach Ko Chror Nouch

This Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers recipe makes Sach Ko Chror Nouch. Different to the beef skewers marinated in kroeung which kicked off this Cambodian barbecue recipes series, they’re also called stuffed beef skewers because the beef is wrapped around pork belly or pork fat, and are often served at Cambodian weddings.

Our Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers recipe for Sach Ko Chror Nouch, makes yet another variation of the popular grilled beef skewers that are marinated in the lemongrass-heavy kroeung, an aromatic Khmer herb and spice paste, which launched my series on the best Cambodian barbecue recipes.

Whereas those skewers, which typically come with pickled vegetables and a baguette, are best known as a street food snack in Cambodia, eaten in the late afternoon and early evenings, you’re more likely to come across these Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers at a wedding. They’re also known as stuffed beef skewers because after being marinated, the beef is wrapped around a piece of pork belly or pork fat, before being popped on the skewer.

The Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers recipe is next in our series on Cambodian grilling recipes and follows recipes for smoky grilled pork ribs, marinated beef skewers, grilled eggplant with minced pork, pork spare ribs with star anise, the popular breakfast pork and rice, and a grilled corn on the cob recipe, partly inspired by the Cambodian grilled corn, poat dot.

We’ll be including this in the Cambodian street food cookbook we’re developing, alongside the comprehensive first-of-its-kind Cambodian culinary history and Cambodian cookbook that we’ve been researching, writing and photographing for the last six and half years. We’re still seeking patrons for that epic project on Patreon and you can support it for as little as the price of a cup of coffee a month.

Cambodian Beef and Pork Belly Skewers Recipe – How to Make Sach Ko Chror Nouch

The secret to these Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers recipe is the pork fat. Pork is one of the main sources of protein here and is used more so than Cambodian beef, although locals still love their beef.

The beef is very lean, however, unlike the pork that tends to be very fatty, so the pork fat stops the beef from drying out before it’s cooked through.

You only need to marinate these beef pork belly skewers in the yellow kroeung for an hour or so, as the lemongrass flavour is more subtle compared to the beef skewers that kicked off this series, which I mentioned, which are very herbaceous and require a good few hours. You’ll find the recipe that you need on the link, above.

Kroeung means ‘paste’ in Khmer and it is a freshly pounded herb and spice paste in the same vein as the curry pastes used in Thai cooking. There are four main kroeungs and they all have different uses, from barbecue marinades to soup bases.

You can use a mortar and pestle, which we prefer, to pound the paste by hand. We reckon it tastes better. But you can also make it in a blender.

You could grill your beef pork belly skewers on an outdoor barbecue or grill. Sometimes I’ll do them over the traditional clay brazier on the balcony, but now that we have a decent extraction fan over the stove at the new apartment (and it’s sweltering outside at this time of year), I like to use my stovetop Korean BBQ grill pan.

The pan has a removable grill top and I like to place some crushed charcoal briquettes on the bottom of the pan so when the pork belly fat drips onto the charcoal it creates a bit of smoke.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I really like using these coconut charcoal BBQ briquettes. They’re good long-burning briquettes made from coconut shells. But as I said, only use this method if you have a good extraction system.

Cambodian Beef Pork Belly Skewers Recipe

Cambodian Beef and Pork Belly Skewers Recipe

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This Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers recipe makes Sach Ko Chror Nouch. Different to the beef skewers marinated in kroeung which kicked off this Cambodian barbecue recipes series, they're also called stuffed beef skewers because the beef is wrapped around pork belly or pork fat, and are often served at Cambodian weddings.

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Marinating Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Course: Sharing

Cuisine: Cambodian / Khmer

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 239kcal

Author: Terence Carter

Ingredients

• 400 g sirloin beef
• 50 g pork belly fat
• 3 tbsp yellow kroeung
• 1 tbsp roasted peanuts chopped
• 2 Tbsp palm sugar
• 3 Tbsp fish sauce
• Pickled vegetables to serve

Instructions

• First soak wooden skewers for a few hours to prevent them from burning.
• Thinly slice the beef along the grain and marinate one hour with the palm sugar, fish sauce, kroeung and peanuts.
• Cut the pork fat or the pork belly in short sticks. Roll each pork stick in one marinated beef slice and place several along each skewer. The pork will prevent the beef from drying out during grilling.
• Barbecue on a grill or roast in oven, basting them regularly with the leftover marinade.
• Serve with pickled vegetables.

Nutrition

Calories: 239kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 24g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 64mg | Sodium: 1145mg | Potassium: 418mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 1772IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 42mg | Iron: 2mg

Please do let us know if you make this recipe or any others in our best Cambodian barbecue recipes series. We’d love to know how they turn out for you.