Northern Thai Herb Sausage (Sai Ua)
Coarse pork sausage packed with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf and a hand-pounded chili paste, grilled over coals until the casing is deep gold and lightly charred. A Chiang Mai classic, best eaten warm with sticky rice.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Prepare the casings
Soak the hog casings in warm water for 30 minutes, then run water through the inside of each piece to rinse out any salt and check for holes. Keep them submerged in a bowl of water until you are ready to stuff.
- 3 m hog casings
✅ Done when: the casings feel soft and pliable and no longer smell strongly of salt
Pound the herb paste
In a mortar and pestle or food processor, pound or blend the lemongrass, , garlic, shallots, soaked chilies and cilantro roots with a splash of water until you get a fine, fairly smooth paste. Pounding by hand gives a better texture, but a processor works too; just scrape down the sides often.
- 6 stalks lemongrass
- 30 g
- 8 cloves garlic
- 6 shallots
- 10 dried red chilies
- 3 cilantro roots
✅ Done when: the paste is smooth with no long fibers left and smells intensely of lemongrass and chili
Season the pork
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Stuff the sausages
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Rest the sausages
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Grill until charred
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Serve warm
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Prepare the casings
Soak the hog casings in warm water for 30 minutes, then run water through the inside of each piece to rinse out any salt and check for holes. Keep them submerged in a bowl of water until you are ready to stuff.
- 3 m hog casings
✅ Done when: the casings feel soft and pliable and no longer smell strongly of salt
Pound the herb paste
In a mortar and pestle or food processor, pound or blend the lemongrass, , garlic, shallots, soaked chilies and cilantro roots with a splash of water until you get a fine, fairly smooth paste. Pounding by hand gives a better texture, but a processor works too; just scrape down the sides often.
- 6 stalks lemongrass
- 30 g
- 8 cloves garlic
- 6 shallots
- 10 dried red chilies
- 3 cilantro roots
✅ Done when: the paste is smooth with no long fibers left and smells intensely of lemongrass and chili
Season the pork
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Stuff the sausages
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Rest the sausages
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Grill until charred
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Serve warm
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The Story Behind the Dish
Sai ua belongs to the Lanna kitchen of the old northern kingdom centered on Chiang Mai, where cooks have long favored fresh herbs over heavy sauces. The sausage grew out of a simple need to preserve and stretch pork, bulking it with the lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaf that grow abundantly in the hills around the city.
It became a fixture of markets and temple fairs, grilled over charcoal by vendors who coil the sausage into a flat spiral so it cooks evenly and is easy to tear into shareable pieces.
⭐ Why It's Famous
It is the signature street food of Chiang Mai: intensely aromatic, gently spicy, and completely different from the sweeter sausages found further south in Thailand.
💡 Fun Fact
The name means simply 'stuffed intestine', a reminder that the dish was built around the casing itself, long before chili pastes and herbs made it famous.
Chiang Mai and the Lanna region, northern Thailand
18.79°N, 98.99°E
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