Cambodian beef sticks, known as "sach ko jakak," are a popular cambodian street food and bbq cookout. These flavorful skewers are tender, aromatic, and savory with a good balance of sweet, salty, and tangy flavors. Cambodian beef sticks are often served with rice and pickled veggies.
Start by soaking the bamboo skewers in water for at least 30 minutes or overnight to keep them from burning on the grill.
For the marinade, you’ll need kroeung, Cambodian lemongrass paste. Here I am using
2 medium stalks of lemongrass
3 slices of galanga (about 1 and half tablespoons)
5-7 large kaffir lime leaves
1 large rehydrated red pepper for color
Commonly, we use fresh hot chili peppers
5 cloves of garlic (or half a bulb)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/3 cup of coconut cream or milk
2 tablespoons of honey, palm sugar, or regular sugar
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of chicken bouillon (substituting 1/2 teaspoon msg)
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1/4 cup oil (I’m using olive oil for cooking)
For red coloring, you can use any char siu marinade mix
Taste and adjust to your liking
I like mixing all the ingredients in a bowl first so that I can taste and adjust, and also save the remaining for another time.
For the beef cuts, fatty meat is recommended. As long it’s not lean, you can use any fatty cuts including ribeye, flank, sirloin. Here I’m using about 2 and half pounds of country style rib cut. I prefer thicker slices but folks will recommend thinner slices for faster cooking. Cut any large piece into bite size
Pour in enough lemongrass marinade to coat the meat and massage it into the meat. Add some more marinade as needed but don’t over flavor it. Seal and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or over night to tenderize and infuse the flavor. Save the marinade sauce for other dishes.
While we wait for the beef to marinate, let’s make some cabbage-cucumber pickle for our side. For a serving of four, I’m using a quarter of a large cabbage, 2 carrots, one cucumber, and 3 garlic cloves.
Add in a half teaspoon of salt. Give it a good toss and let it sit for 10 minutes to help keep the veggies crispy. For the dressing, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of distilled or rice vinegar. Pour it in and give it another good toss. Store in the fridge and will last about a week. For mine, I added some hot peppers and shallots.
Now we are ready to Thread the marinated beef slices onto the bamboo skewers. This water became yellow tinted skewer and had to change the water twice.
You can make you beef sticks long or short but should be pushed together tightly with any bamboo showing between the meat. For juicy and tender beef sticks, Allow the meat to warm up to the room temperature before cooking or grilling. Cooking cold meat will give you tough meat.
I love the smell of open grill but you can definitely cook this in the oven, air fryer, and even frying pan. #cambodianfood #beef #skewers
And there you have it, Cambodian beef sticks. Please give me a thumbs up and subscribe if you haven’t. Until next time, have a wonderful and safe one.