Mookata Recipe (Thai BBQ)
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This authentic mookata recipe shows you exactly how to recreate the Thai BBQ experience at home, from marinating the meat and making the soup base to choosing vegetables and serving everything with homemade dipping sauces.
If you’ve never made this before, don’t worry. I’ll walk you through each step so you can confidently host your own Thai barbecue. Make sure you don’t skip the homemade mookata sauce!
What is mookata?
Mookata (also called mu kratha) is a popular Thai barbecue where a dome-shaped grill sits in the middle of a pot of simmering broth. Meat cooks on top while vegetables, glass noodles, and seafood cook in the soup around the edges.
It’s one of Thailand’s favorite ways to eat and drink with family and friends because everyone cooks together at the table.
Unlike Korean BBQ, mookata combines grilling and hot pot in the same pan. The juices from the meat drip into the broth below, giving the soup even more flavor as the meal goes on.
Before you start
If this is your first mookata night, this recipe might look like a lot of work, but it’s actually much easier than it seems.
The biggest mistake I see is people trying to prepare everything once the charcoal is already hot. In Thailand, we always prep first. Slice the meat, marinate it, wash the vegetables, mix the dipping sauces, and make the broth before lighting the grill. Once everyone sits down, all that’s left is cooking and eating together.
My best tip is to slice the meat as thinly as possible. Thin slices cook in less than a minute and absorb the marinade much better than thick pieces.
Don’t stress about buying every ingredient either. Every family has their own version of mookata. Sometimes we have seafood, sometimes only pork, and sometimes we add chicken or beef. As long as you have good meat, fresh vegetables, flavorful broth, and a dipping sauce you love, it’ll taste like a proper Thai BBQ.
Praew ♡
Learn Thai cooking step by step
My cookbook is a combination of authentic Thai recipes and Western dishes cooked with Thai flavors and ingredients. It’s a great starting point if you’re new to Thai cooking or want to cook it more often.
What you’ll need & ingredients explained
Mookata has four parts:
- Marinated meat for grilling.
- A light soup base for cooking vegetables, noodles, and seafood.
- Fresh vegetables and glass noodles to add to the broth.
- Dipping sauces to tie everything together.
Preparing each one before grilling makes the experience much more enjoyable.
Recommended grilling tool
Don’t have a traditional mookata grill? A Korean BBQ grill with a hot pot moat works well, or you can use a tabletop grill alongside a separate pot of broth.
Meat and marinade
This marinade keeps the meat juicy, even when people accidentally leave it on the grill a little too long.
- Meat: Thinly sliced pork is the classic choice, but chicken, beef, shrimp, and squid all work well.
- Golden mountain sauce: If you can’t find it, soy sauce works, but the flavor won’t be quite the same.
- Oyster sauce: Adds savory flavor and helps the meat caramelize on the grill.
- Palm sugar: Gives a gentle caramel sweetness without making the marinade taste sugary.
- Sparkling water & baking powder: This is one of my favorite Thai restaurant tricks. Together they help tenderize the meat, keeping it juicy on the grill.
- Egg: Helps the marinade coat every slice evenly.
- Sesame oil and sesame seeds: Added for aroma and a little nuttiness.
Soup base
- Rosdee seasoning powder: Gives the broth its savory Thai flavor. Knorr bouillon powder works too.
- White radish: Adds natural sweetness.
- Garlic & celery: Build the base of the broth.
- White pepper: Adds gentle warmth without making it spicy.
- Water & salt: Adjust to taste.
Vegetables and noodles
This is the part every family does differently. I almost always include Chinese cabbage, glass noodles, and morning glory, then add whatever vegetables look good at the market that day.
- Glass noodles
- Chinese cabbage
- Morning glory
- Enoki mushrooms
- Oyster mushrooms
- Thai basil
- Water spinach
Dipping sauces
I always serve at least two:
- My homemade mookata sauce for grilled meat.
- Nam jim talay for seafood.
Set up your table
Before lighting the charcoal, have everything ready:
- Mookata grill
- Charcoal or burner
- Marinated meat
- Soup base
- Vegetables
- Glass noodles
- Dipping sauces
- Chopsticks
- Small bowls and plates
- A few cold beers (optional)
Once the grill is hot, dinner moves quickly. Having everything within reach means everyone can relax instead of getting up every few minutes.
How to make Thai BBQ
1. Marinate the meat: Mix the marinade ingredients until the sugar dissolves. Add the sliced meat and coat every piece well. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, but overnight gives the best flavor and texture.
2. Make the dipping sauces: Prepare your sauces before guests arrive so they’re ready as soon as the first meat comes off the grill.
3. Make the soup: Simmer the soup ingredients over low-medium for about 20 minutes until aromatic. Keep warm.
4. Prepare the vegetables: Wash, trim, and arrange all the vegetables, herbs, seafood, and noodles on serving platters.
5. Heat the grill: Light the charcoal or preheat the grill. Fill the outer moat with broth, leaving a little room so it doesn’t boil over. Rub a fatty piece of pork over the dome before cooking. This is exactly what many restaurants in Thailand do, and it naturally prevents sticking.
6. Cook and enjoy: Grill thin slices of meat on top while cooking the vegetables, glass noodles, and seafood in the soup broth around the edges.
Dip everything into your favorite sauce and enjoy together.
Mookata Recipe (Thai BBQ)
Equipment
- Mookata grill or Korean BBQ grill with a hot pot moat
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- Large mixing bowl
- Stockpot for the soup base
- ladle
- Tongs or chopsticks
Ingredients
Meat & marinade
- 1.3 kg thinly sliced meat, pork, chicken, beef, or a combination
- 4 tbsp oyster sauce
- 3 tbsp golden mountain sauce
- 1½ tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 200 ml sparkling water
Soup broth
- 2 l water
- 2 tbsp rosdee seasoning powder
- 1 white radish, sliced
- 1 handful Chinese celery, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 tbsp salt
Vegetables
- 500 g mixed vegetables, Chinese cabbage, morning glory, mushrooms, Thai basil
Optional additions
- 140 g glass noodles
- 500 g seafood
Sauce
- mookata sauce
- nam jim talay
- sweet chili sauce
Instructions
- Marinate the meat: Combine the marinade ingredients until the sugar dissolves. Add the thinly sliced meat and mix until evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.
- Make the soup broth: Add the water, rosdee seasoning, white radish, Chinese celery, garlic, white pepper, and salt to a pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.
- Prepare the sauces: Make the homemade mookata sauce (or your favorite dipping sauces) before heating the grill.
- Prepare the vegetables: Wash and cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
- Set up the grill: Fill the outer moat of the mookata grill with the hot broth. Light the charcoal or preheat the grill. Rub a piece of fatty pork over the dome to help prevent sticking.
- Start cooking: Add vegetables, glass noodles, seafood, or other soup ingredients to the broth. Grill the marinated meat on the center dome, turning frequently until cooked through.
- Serve and enjoy: Dip the grilled meat into your favorite sauce and enjoy with the vegetables and noodles from the broth. Refill the broth with hot water if needed throughout the meal.
Notes
- You can choose a variety of meats such as chicken, beef, pork, seafood, and cut them into thin slices.
- If you’re making mookata for the first time, I recommend pork, Chinese cabbage, morning glory, glass noodles, and homemade mookata sauce. That’s the combination I make most often at home.
It’s good recipe and cook for easy to me thank you very much
I’m glad you liked the recipe!
I’ll try this this evening at home and I’m so excited because there is no moo kata in Switzerland :(. So thank you so much for these recipes !! I have a question though, why do we need to put sparkling water for the meats ?
Hey there! I wouldn’t be able to live without moo kata, haha. The carbonation in sparkling water works to break down meat fibers, this makes the meat tender. The bubbles also help carry flavors deeper into the meat.
I’m a bit late but that was delightful, thank you so much for this recipe !!! And thank you for your response 😀 Big love from Swiss <3
Thank you so much for letting me know! I’m glad hearing you liked the recipe.