These meatballs are what you would find in Asian noodle soups, hot pot, or grilled on a stick! Even though they are readily available at many Asian stores, the homemade version contains no added chemicals AND taste better. And it's not hard at all! In the recipe I'll also share an easy, tasty dipping sauce Thai people love to eat with grilled meatballls!
Tip: Forming the Meatballs Quickly
Commercial meatballs are made by machine, but back in the day they used to be made by hand. In the video tutorial I show you how to do the classic hand squeezing technique that creates smooth round balls, but if you don't care much about how smooth and round they look, you can simply form them into lumps with two spoons.
For even sizes, you can also use a small disher to portion them out and drop them directly into the water.
If you are struggling with squeezing, you can watch this video of me forming the meatballs for 7 straight minutes so you can watch the technique over and over without having to rewind!
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Substituting Other Meats
In Thailand pork is the most popular kind of look chin, hence this recipe. But you can use the same recipe and make beef or chicken meatballs instead. For the pork ones I'm using lean ground pork because fatty ground pork yields meatballs that are too soft.
But if using beef, do not use lean or the balls will be too firm as I discovered myself. Beef is a chewier meat so it needs a bit more fat to help tenderize. I have never made them with chicken, but I suspect that you would need to use lean chicken because chicken is a tender meat.
What to Use Look Chin For?
These are SO versatile! Here are some ideas:
- You can put them into noodle soups. You can even use the cooking liquid as the base for your broth.
- Skewer and grill them. You can find these skewered look chin at many open air markets in Thailand. See recipe for the dipping sauce.
- Eat them straight up like appetizers (think cocktail wieners), you can use the dipping sauce in the recipe provided.
- Add them into any soups, stews, or curries.
- Use them in stir-fries.
- Put them in a hot dog bun and dress it like you would a regular hot dog. I have tried this, it's awesome!
- Can't use them up? Freeze them!
Watch The Full Video Tutorial!
All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video below to ensure success - and if you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!
Homemade Asian Pork Meatballs (look chin moo)
Description
Classic Asian style meatballs that are used in many Asian noodle soups. This homemade version is easy, has no added chemicals, and tastes even better!
Ingredients
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Look Chin
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 5 cloves garlic
- 500g lean ground pork
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce, or sub gluten free soy sauce if needed
- 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp tapioca starch
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 100g ice cubes
Dipping Sauce for Look Chin (Nam Jim Look Chin)
Instructions
- Grind peppercorns in a mortar and pestle into a powder, then add garlic and pound into a fine paste.
- Add the garlic paste and all remaining ingredients, except the ice cubes, into a food processor.
- Process the pork until very smooth, adding ice cubes gradually as the machine grinds. Stop to scrape 2-3 times to make sure everything is evenly ground.
- Once the pork looks very fine (about 5 minutes on my machine) transfer into a bowl.
- In a large pot, add water so that it's about half full. Heat the water on high just until there is steam coming off the top but there is no bubbling in the water. Once this is reached, turn heat down to low to maintain the temperature.
- Using the technique shown in the video, form the meatballs and place them into the hot water one at a time until you have finished. If you want to see the technique over and over again without having to rewind, watch this 7-min video of me just squeezing meatballs! Keep an eye on the temperature to make sure the water isn't bubbling. If you don't need them to be round, you can just use two spoons to form a lump and plop them into the water, or you can also use a small disher.
- Once all the meatballs are in the water, let them cook for another 10-15 minutes until the last meatballs are cooked through. TIP: Make the last few meatballs a bit misshapen so you can easily identify them and use them to check doneness.
- Once done, remove them with a slotted spoon. They're now ready to use!
- Save the cooking water to make soup because it's now very flavourful. I usually just season it more and use it to make noodle soup which I serve with the meatballs I've just made.
To make grilled, skewered meatballs (look chin ping)
- Soak the skewers in water for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.
- Skewer the meatballs.
- Grill on medium heat, flipping them as needed, until browned on both sides. Alternatively, place them under the oven broiler (high setting) until browned, then flip to brown the other side. To prevent the skewers from burning under the broiler you can cover the exposed part of the skewers with foil; if grilling you and place a sheet of foil under the exposed skewers.
- Serve with look chin dipping sauce.
- For the dipping sauce: Combine sweet chili sauce and sriracha, starting with the ratio of 2 parts sweet chili sauce and 1 part sriracha. Taste and adjust to your taste.
Honee says
I have been making these for Tom yum noodle soup and keep them in the freezer for quick ramen addition, thank you!
Maryse Leclerc says
Just being making up for Pho... (beef). It's awsome!!! Thank you ''Pauline''!!! :)))
Lyle says
Thanks so much for this recipe! I can't find porkballs where I live in Canada.
When I lived in southern Thailand, I ate a lot of noodle soup and alot of pork balls. As stated nobody makes them homemade. They are available everywhere premade for less than a dime a dozen. Unfortunately, sometimes they tasted horrible. I'm guessing, these must've been the cheapest possible.
Anyway, I was never a fan of the weird rubbery texture of the traditional pork balls. I figured they were just made that way so tons of fillers could be added. I honestly never met a westerner who did like the texture. So I decided to try this recipe without whipping the meat into the paste, I just skipped that step. I also didn't have tapioca starch, so left it out too. Oh and only could get my hands on regular ground pork. Everything else I did per the recipe.
I have to say, these are by far the best tasting pork balls I've ever had by a massive margin! For that reason, I question how authentic these are. Haha As for how they turned out texture wise, they were amazing! They held together perfectly and were like real meatballs! My wife HATED all pork balls, fish balls and chicken balls in Thailand. But she loved these, my 6 year old daughter even loves them! I even froze them and they thawed perfectly and were amazing. I highly recommend the recipe, leave out the tapioca starch and don't grind the meat if you want a more western texture. If you don't have lean pork, regular worked fine for me.
Enjoy!
Lyle says
Oh quick addition, since I didn't whip the meat, I was able to just roll them into balls the normal way. It was very easy and simple.
Bev says
I usually make fish balls and I was wondering whether pork would be just as tender when I tried your recipe - YES INDEED!!! I love it in hot pots and will try grilling them just like what you’d find in Thai street stalls. Thank you, Pailin!
Andrea Eickelmann says
I want to make a large batch to be able to pull them out for moo gatat or suki. Are these better frozen raw or cooked?
Lyle says
I cooked mine in the barely boiling water as shown in the video until just done with a meat thermometer. I let them cool, portioned and vacuum packed them. I thawed them in the pack in cool water before adding to noodle soup. They were perfect, couldn't honestly tell they weren't fresh made.
Connie says
Better than shop bought. Love them. I was craving for these and they tasted perfect to my taste preference. Thank you and carry on the great work!
Michael says
Today I tried to make this meatballs. With Pai's "squeezing" instructions it was super easy.
The meatballs are very tasty.
Personally for me - it was garlic-heavy a little so I'll use only 2 or 3 cloves next time.