Thịt bò rang, also known as caramelized ground beef is one of my favorite dishes growing up in Vietnam. My mom used to feed me this with Jasmine rice while I ran around and played in our front yard. It’s normal to see young kids get feed by their parents while playing outside.
Initially, I made this dish for my son to get him to try a new protein. He’s not a huge meat eater, especially when the meat comes in big chunks. So anytime I can break it up into little pieces and mix it with rice, he’s willing to try it. My friend Pat also makes thịt bò rang (caramelized ground beef) for her nieces. I believe it’s popular among kids because of its simplicity. Also the fact that there is no big meat pieces for them to bite on. As my son will tell you, his teeth are too tiny for big chunks of meat 😂.
Ingredients needed for caramelized ground beef
You can use either ground beef, ground pork or even ground chicken. The ground beef was on sale so that’s what I went with 😊. You don’t have to splurge on the super lean ground beef because you’re going to drain the fat anyway.
If you’re making this for the little ones, just use salt, pepper, chopped garlic, chopped shallot, brown sugar and fish sauce. However, if you’re making this for adults, in addition to those ingredients, you can add chopped green onions, crushed red peppers and garlic chili sauce to add another depth of flavor.
This is a super simple and quick dish to make. The key to making this dish is to brown the ground beef and discard as much fat as possible. The cooked ground beef is returned back into the hot pan on low heat to keep it from burning. Then seasonings are added. That’s it, the dish is ready to be served.
How to serve caramelized ground beef
Traditionally this dish is served with Jasmine rice and sliced cucumbers and/or pickled daikon radish and carrots (đồ chua).
However, when my husband ate this for the first time, he immediately thought of wrapping it in a tortilla 🤣. Since he’s been on this low carb kick, this pairs perfectly with the low carb tortilla we have at home.
This also would be great wrapped in butter lettuce with pickled daikon radish & carrots, topped with crushed peanuts then dipped in homemade spicy fish sauce.
Storing left overs
This dish is great to make in bulk and freeze for when you’re short on time and not sure what to make for dinner. Whenever I place food in a Ziploc bag to freeze, I will use the baggy holder to help me place the food in the bag without spilling things everywhere. This is a plus since no one wants to do “extra” cleaning up.
Frozen thịt bò rang (caramelized ground beef) will come in handy because it’s a versatile dish in that you can eat as is, serve it with Jasmine rice, serve it with pasta, as “taco meat” with tortillas, or you can further transform it by wrapping it inside a puff pastry, similar to my savory meat pie (bánh pate sô) recipe.
Thịt Bò Rang (Caramelized Ground Beef)
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp chopped garlic
- ½ white onion chopped.
- 2 tsp brown sugar.
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1 fresh stalk of green onion chopped.
- 1 tbsp crushed red pepper (optional) omit if making it for kids.
- 1 tbsp garlic chili sauce (optional) omit if making it for kids.
Instructions
- Place the ground beef into a hot pan along with the salt and pepper. I did not add any extra oil. Not to worry, the meat will not burn because as the meat browns, it will produce fat. Be sure to break the ground beef up as it cooks so you can get that minced look.
- After the meat browns, separate the meat from the fat and discard the fat.
- Put the cooked ground beef back into the same pan and turn the heat to low.
- Add the chopped garlic, chopped white onion, brown sugar and fish sauce.
- Mix well to combine all the ingredients. Give the mixture a taste and adjust the saltiness or sweetness accordingly here. If you're making it for the little ones, you can stop here. Otherwise, continue on.
- Add chopped green onion and garlic chili sauce. Mix well to combine.
- If you're looking for more heat, add crushed red pepper and give it a stir and it's ready to be served.
If your child is a picky eater like mine and you want to introduce them to a new protein, give this recipe a try, and mix it with rice. I normally do a 2:1 rice to meat ratio, and he loves it.
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