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Pork leg stew on rice, or kao ka moo, is the quintessential Thai street food. You can find this all over the streets of Thailand and in any food courts. It's beloved by everyone especially kids because it's not spicy and it's got that salty-sweet flavour kids love. Served with boiled eggs and some pickles, and it's just the most comforting dish. Takes a little time, but it's so worth it! You can now bring the flavours of Thai street food to your home!
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Slow-Braised Pork Leg on Rice ข้าวขาหมู (kao ka moo)
- Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
The Pork Stew
- 1 pork leg, or other cuts of stew-friendly meat e.g. beef shank, lamb shank, dark meat chicken (see note)
- 1 pork foot (optional)
- 1 tablespoon Golden Mountain Sauce (or sub soy sauce)
- 3-4 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3-4 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoon black soy sauce (or use dark soy sauce)
- 75 g palm sugar or rock sugar
- 6-8 cilantro roots (or ½ cup of roughly chopped stems)
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 star anise
- 1 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon white peppercorns, cracked
- 10 slices galangal
- 2 shiitake mushrooms
- 4-6 medium boiled eggs (boil for 8 minutes)
- Pickled mustard greens or another pickled vegetable such as sauerkraut, pickled beans, or pickled carrots
- 200 g. dark leafy greens, blanched or steamed (optional, see note)
- Jasmine rice for serving
Chili Vinegar
- 2 spur chilies, or you can use any other kind of medium-to-mild chilies such as jalapenos, serranos, or fresno. For extra spicy vinegar, you can add Thai chilies or use habaneros.
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- A pinch of salt
- White vinegar, ¼-½ cup as needed
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Instructions
If the pork leg still has some hair on it, burn it off with a blowtorch or shave it off with a razor. Wash and dry thoroughly.
Optional step: Sear the pork leg in a wok to brown the skin on all sides. The oil will splatter quite a bit here so if you have a splash guard, use it! If you don't, you can skip this step.
Add the pork leg and foot into a large stock pot, cover with water. Add Golden Mountain Sauce, 3 tablespoon soy sauce, 3 tablespoon oyster sauce, black soy sauce, and palm sugar. Simmer for 45 minutes.
Skim off any scum that has floated to the top, then add cinnamon, star anise, Szechuan peppercorns, white peppercorns, shiitake mushrooms, cilantro roots, garlic, and galangal. Cover and simmer for 2.5 hours or until the meat is fork tender. 20 minutes before the pork is done, add the eggs and the pickled mustard greens and simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove the pork, mustard greens, and eggs. Using a mesh skimmer, scoop out all the herbs and spices and discard; alternatively, strain the sauce through a sieve. Taste and adjust the seasoning of the sauce with more soy sauce and oyster sauce. If you want the colour to be darker, add more black soy sauce.
To serve, carve some pork from the leg and cut into bite-sized pieces. Place the pork on top of jasmine rice, along with the egg, chopped pickled mustard greens, and a little bit of blanched gai lan. Pour the sauce generously over the rice, and drizzle with some chili vinegar, if desired.
To make chili vinegar:
Put all ingredients into a blender, starting with ¼ cup vinegar. Blend until smooth, adding more vinegar if needed to help it blend better.
Notes
- Pork legs have a lot of skin, if you don't like too much skin and prefer a lot of meat, you can add extra skinless leg meat or pork shoulder.
- This is just some steamed veggies on the side to balance out the dish. Traditionally we use blanched gai lan (aka Chinese broccoli), but you can use whatever greens you like.
Thomas Inatomi says
Hi Pai,
Thank you for such a delicious recipe! I made your Kao Ka Moo for my family along with your Pad See Ew and Mango Sticky Rice. The Kai Ka Moo was a huge hit with everyone … my brother-in law had three helpings!! I enjoy watching your tutorials. Thank you!!
Jen says
Do you have any instructions if want to do this recipe using an instant pot?
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Not for this recipe, sorry!
Peter says
i was wondering how many liter is the stock pot use in this recipe?
Pailin Chongchitnant says
That's about 6L 🙂
BlakeP says
Hi! I love your recipes!
I’ve seen some versions of Kao Ka Moo use Chinese five spice and no galangal. What is the difference between one version versus the other?
Russell Watts says
You list Golden Mountain Sauce. I have 3 different Golden Mountain Sauces. What one did you use?
Pailin Chongchitnant says
I am not aware of other types of GM sauce other than the one I use. Green and yellow label if that helps. Feel free to send pics using the email on the "contact" page!
Susan says
How many grams approximately is a pork leg? I want to sub this out for chicken thighs. Thanks.
Pailin Chongchitnant says
YOu can probably try 1 kg of chicken thighs and it should work well enough!
Fernzy says
Hi! Wow this looks soo tender and delicious, I must try it!! Can I ask maybe silly question, after buying the pig leg back, is there any special steps to wash it? Or just rinse like normal? And do we need to blanch in hot boiling water for a few minutes for the pig foot before using in the actual cooking (like Chinese soups)? Same question, any blanching needed for the pig leg before searing? Thanks!!!
Pailin Chongchitnant says
NO blanching is needed, just wash and dry. Be careful when searing make sure you have a splatter guard 🙂
Eve says
Gonna make this today and let you know how it was tomorrow. Just your friendly and positive way of presenting this, is such a pleasure to watch! Thank you
Mike says
Subbed chicken thighs (bone in, skin on) and cooked the entire dish in the wok and it was fantastic. If using chicken thighs, I would recommend only about 1-1 and half hours for braising. The braising juices take me back to Bangkok.
Thank you so much!
Susan says
Hi Mike, approximately how heavy was your chicken thighs? In the UK, chicken thighs with bone in comes in packs of 1kg usually. Is that what you used? Or will I have to adjust the amount of sauce accordingly? Thanks.
Stephen Chan says
I do make this once for a while, and every time I make it, I make a big pot that will serve a few meals. You know what, braised food will be even better the next day so it's getting better and better as we eat!
Wenfeng says
Would you please use an instant pot version of this?