Tender, gelatinous and aromatic, Chinese red braised pork belly is scrumptious and comforting. This recipe shows you how to cook it effortlessly.
A dish popular nationwide in China
A popular cut of meat, pork belly is treasured by many great cuisines around the world. Containing a high percentage of fat, it needs to be cooked in a particular way to reduce its greasy taste. In China, the most loved pork belly dish has to be Hong Shao Rou (红烧肉), known in English as red braised pork belly or red-cooked pork belly.
Pork belly chunks are braised with soy sauce, rice wine, sugar and spices to create a complex taste: salty, sweet, aromatic and umami. The skin and fat become gelatinous, not greasy and melt easily in your mouth.
Variations in regional cuisines
Apart from the desired taste and texture, braised pork belly also stands out for its red-brownish shine. That’s where the word “red” in its name comes from. Among many varieties of this dish from different regional cuisines of China, there are two classic ways to achieve this effect.
The famous Hunan style is believed to have been Chairman Mao’s favourite dish (Hunan was his home province). Rock sugar, in this version, is melted in hot oil to a caramel colour to give the meat an appetising appearance. Another popular variety from Shanghai cuisine involves dark soy sauce which plays a key role in colouring the pork.
The famous Hunan style is believed to have been Chairman Mao’s favourite dish (Hunan was his home province). Rock sugar, in this version, is melted in hot oil to a caramel colour to give the meat an appetising appearance. Another popular variety from Shanghai cuisine involves dark soy sauce which plays a key role in colouring the pork.
Why you should try this easy version
Over the years, I’ve made braised pork belly numerous times using different seasonings and methods inspired by various versions of this dish. Eventually, I settled down with a recipe that’s super easy, yet delivers a great result.
There is no frying involved (leaving you a greaseless kitchen) thus no extra oil needed (there’s enough fat in the pork belly already). And you don’t have to master the skill of caramelising the sugar properly. Yet the finished dish is more than satisfying. It’s totally novice-friendly. I promise!
What ingredients do you need
The ingredient list is short and simple. Here are some tips on sourcing them that you might find useful.
- Pork Belly
The star ingredient of the dish, pork belly is the fattiest yet the tastiest cut of pork. It’s not recommended to use skinless one. After cooking, the skin becomes super tender and gelatinous. You’ll love it for sure!
I usually cut it into 2-3 cm cubes (about 1 inch). You could use bigger chunks if you wish. Make sure they’re more or less the same size and extend the cooking time if necessary.
- Shaoxing Rice Wine
A type of Chinese cooking wine, Shaoxing rice wine (绍兴酒) lends an aromatic, rich flavour to the meat. It also seems to minimize its greasiness.
Unlike in many other recipes which call for only a spoonful of Shaoxing rice wine, for this dish I recommend you use at least 250ml (about 1 cup) for 600g (1.3lb) of pork belly. In fact, you could increase the quantity and use only rice wine (without water) as the braising liquid.
Commonly available in Chinese/Asian stores, Shaoxing rice wine can often be found in the world food section of mainstream supermarkets (eg. Tesco, Morrisons, etc. in the UK). It definitely deserves a place in your pantry if you’re keen to master Chinese cooking.
- Soy Sauce
I use two types of soy sauce: light soy sauce (生抽) and dark soy sauce (老抽) for this dish. The former acts like an aromatic salt. The latter, which tastes less salty but offers a caramel overtone, is the key ingredient for giving the pork a beautiful brownish-red shine. So I don’t recommend that you substitute it with regular soy sauce.
- Aromatic & Spices
Three simple ingredients, ginger, star-anise and bay leaf, are often found in classic Chinese braised dishes. They help to reduce the gamey taste of the meat as well as enhance its aroma.
- Rock Sugar
A type of refined, crystallized sugar, Rock sugar is traditionally indispensable in Chinese pantries. Less sweet than white sugar, it’s believed to add shine to braised dishes. However, please feel free to replace it with regular sugar if you wish.
Three simple steps to follow
It does take a while to cook this dish to the desired texture, but the process is simple and hassle-free. Here are the three steps:
Step 1: Blanch the pork
Blanching is a required procedure when cooking Chinese-style braised meat. It’s for removing blood and other impurities from the muscles and bones thus achieving a less cloudy broth and a less gamey taste.
Put the pork belly cubes into a pot filled with cold water then turn on the heat to high. As soon as it starts boiling, you’ll see froth appearing on the surface. Use a spoon to remove most of it. Then drain and rinse the meat under running water.
Step 2: Braise the pork
After blanching, put the pork into a clean pot then pour in Shaoxing rice wine and hot water (barely cover the meat). Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger, star anise and bay leaves.
Turn on the heat to bring the liquid to a full boil. Cover with a lid and turn down the heat. Leave to simmer for at least one hour. Poke one piece of meat with a chopstick to check the tenderness. If it goes through without much resistance, you’re ready to move onto the next step.
During this process, remember to stir around the meat 1-2 times. If you notice the liquid becomes too little, add a small amount of hot water to prevent burning (but no need to reach the original volume).
Step 3: Thicken the broth
Turn the heat up to the highest. Add rock sugar (or regular white sugar) to the braising liquid and leave to boil fiercely. As the sugar melts and the water evaporates, the broth will dramatically reduce its volume and become thicker.
During this process, stir the pork cubes from time to time to ensure each piece gains an appetising colour and shine. Remove from the heat when the broth is just enough to cover the bottom of the pot (Over-boiling can burn the sauce). Please refer to the tutorial video in the recipe card below.
A note about the cookware: If possible, use a small-sized pot so you wouldn’t need too much water to braise the meat making the final thickening process shorter.
How to serve this dish
- Most commonly, Chinese red braised pork belly is served as a centrepiece in multi-course sharing meals.
- For a simply all-in-one meal, use it as topping for plain steamed rice, along with blanched vegetables, such as broccoli, bok choy, etc.
- It also makes a wonderful filling for Bing (Chinese pan-baked flatbread) or Gua Bao (half-circle shaped steamed buns).
Braised Pork Belly (Hong Shao Rou/红烧肉), an Easy Version
Ingredients
- 600 g pork belly, about 1.3lb
- 250 ml Shaoxing rice wine, about 1 cup, see note 1
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, see note 2
- 5 slices ginger
- 2 star-anise
- 2 bay leaf
- 20 g rock sugar, or 1 tbsp regular sugar
Instructions
Blanch the pork
- Cut pork belly into 2-3 cm chunks (about 1 inch). Put into a pot then fill with cold water. Boil over high heat.
- Once it starts boiling, you’ll see froth appearing on the surface. Skim it off with a spoon.
- Drain the meat in a colander then rinse under running water.
Braise the pork
- Put the pork into a clean pot (ideally, a small one, see note 3). Pour in Shaoxing rice wine and hot water (barely covering the meat). Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger, star anise and bay leaves.
- Bring the liquid to a full boil. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer over low heat for 1-1.5 hour until the meat is fork-tender (During the process stir the meat around a few times).
Thicken the broth
- Uncover the pot. Add sugar then turn the heat to the highest. Leave to boil fiercely (Stir from time to time) until the broth reduces to just enough to cover the bottom of the pot.
- Serve immediately with plain steamed rice and vegetable dishes of your choice.
Store and reheat
- The cooked pork belly can be stored in the fridge for up to three days or in the freezer for 2 months.
- Reheat in a pot (defrost first if frozen) over low heat. Add a little water to help to heat the pork thoroughly.
Video
NOTES
Hope you feel inspired to give my recipe a try! Leave a comment below or tag @red.house.spice on Instagram if you’ve made this dish. I’d love to hear from you!
N.B. This post was originally published in Feb 2017 and updated with improved information in Jan 2021.
I love reading your blog. Fascinating stories along with such delicious-looking food. 🙂
Very kind of you to say that Heddi. BTW you can find spices like star-anise and bay leaf etc. in Migros or Coop.
Hi Wei. Thank you for this lovely recipe. I have allways wanted to try red pork belly. But you know what it’s like never realy got around to it. But I had just got back from shoping when I read your red pork belly recipe. And YEY I bought some Pork belly this morning. And Wow is all I can say as its yummy yummy cooked up some small new potatoes and Brussel sprouts to go with it. Oh and what a feast my sister and I had. Cheers Peter
You are more than welcome Peter. Glad to know that you and your sister enjoyed it. Have a great week!
The only shaoxing wine available in my state is cooking wine. I never use cooking wine when I prepared european/american food recipes and I assume it’s not recommended in asian cuisines as well. To add insult to injury, my state does not not allow shipment of alcoholic beverages. I use medium-dry sherry for small amounts of shaoxing wine but the taste would be quite different in a recipe calling for one or two cups. Any thoughts on the subject?
Hi Joe! Thanks for visiting my blog. I understand your frustration. I do love the aroma that Shaoxing wine brings to this classic dish. However, many Chinese cooks use only water to braise the meat (with a few drops of rice wine which can be replaced by dry sherry). If Shaoxing wine is not available, please feel free to skip it.
Cam I replaced normal white shaoxing wine rice wine for your red cooked pork belly ? N add a bit black vinegar?
Replaced with white chinese rice wine
Do you mean replace Shaoxing rice wine with Baijiu (白酒, Chinese white liquor) which normally contains 38–50% alcohol? If that’s the case, you can use a mixture of 10% Baijiu with 90% water. It’s OK to add a little black rice vinegar but don’t over do it.
Oh your blog brings back so many memories! My parents used to make so many of the dishes in your blog when I was growing up. I haven’t had them in a long time since I moved away for college to another state more than 10 years ago. Perhaps I’ll try my own hands at these!
Great to meet you here Kalyn! Food made by parents is the BEST, isn’t it? Hope you’ll enjoy cooking those dishes yourself!
I’m originally from Northeast China (Shengyang) and this just brings back all those childhood memories of celebration with the extended family around new years, and the kids sneaking into the kitchen to nab a pork belly piece before they went out onto the main table!
I just made these as a challenge to myself on NYE, and definitely had to guess on some of the portions since my pork belly was well over 500g, and I had (shamefully) no ginger around the place. Eyeballed ginger powder, and it turned out DELICIOUS! If it weren’t for the fact that we still had a full dinner planned, I would happily sit and transfer every piece of pork belly into MY belly in one go! Thank you so much for creating these amazing recipes, I’m so excited to try more!
My Pleasure Kristina! I understand very well what childhood food means to us who are living away from where grew up. So happy to know you’ve enjoyed the dish. Wish you a yummy year in 2021!
This is amazing. I’ve tried it a few times now and it’s a great and easy dish to impress. I found that leaving the sauce to thicken didn’t always work (not sure why), so I added cornstarch for brown sauce (Maïzena it’s called here), and that worked out great!
What if for some reason you couldn’t find dark soy sauce at the store. Can you just use regular? I love the recipes on here!
If unavailable, you can replace dark soy sauce with regular soy sauce. In this case, the meat won’t look as brown as it’s supposed to be.
Hi Wei..I love your recipes and i am a big fan.It is a little bit difficult for me to find the correct ingredients , as we have only one Asian shop in our area, here in Greece and with very limited products. Keep on cooking !!!!
Thank you Georgios! I totally understand that cooking with limited ingredients can be quite challenging. Let me know if you have questions regarding substitute ideas.
Hello Wei, I have never used bay leaf in red cooking but this version is appealing. I just happen to have pork belly with skin (skin is the best part) and will make this recipe tomorrow. I like your technique and have enjoyed your recipes, I find them very enjoyable.
Yes the skin is definitely the most enjoyable part. Happy cooking!
Wow! This recipe is amazing! The result was so delicious and comforting. Thank you for such great instructions! I’m looking forward to making it again and again.
Very happy to know you’ve enjoyed it!
Hi! This looks delicious! How long should it take for the sauce to boil down and reduce once you add the sugar?
Hi Maggie! It took me about 8 minutes. But the time required may vary due to many factors. For example, the tightness of the lid used during the braising process, the power of the heat, the consistency of the sauce that one prefers, etc.
I am preparing 3 lbs. should I double recipe
Hi Donnie! 3 lbs equals 1360g which is about two and a quarter times of the weight suggested in the recipe. Increase the quantity of other ingredients proportionally but no need to be 100% precise. Hope this helps.
Hi, thanks for sharing .your recipe seems very easy to follow. Do you think I can cook it using an instant pot which might reduce cooking time considerably. Would like your comments please. Thanks.
Yes, you can surely use an instant pot for this recipe. Blanch the meat as usual then braise it in your instant pot. You may slightly reduce the hot water. Set the cooking time suitable for pork. Afterwards, boil down the broth as instructed. Happy cooking!
Hello, thanks for sharing this. I didn’t manage to get bay leaves. Can I skip that? Or is there any substitute? Thanks!
Hi Fangfang! You may simply skip bay leaves. Happy cooking!
Hi,
Can I use Hua Tiao Wine instead of Shaoxing Wine?
Hi Christine! Hua Tiao is a variety of Shaoxing rice wine so you can surely use it for this recipe. Happy cooking!
Can sake be used to replace the wine?
Sake tastes very different from Shaoxing rice wine. Dry sherry would be a better substitute. That said, sake might still work for this recipe but I’ve never tried myself so I can’t be 100% sure.
I made this yesterday and it turned out delicious, but I just guessed on how long to keep the pork in the boiling water during the first step. About how long do you typically blanch it?
Thanks!
Glad that you’ve enjoyed the dish Lorraine! As I’ve described in the recipe, after removing most of the froth on the surface, you can drain and rinse the meat. The idea is to discard any impurities (not to actually cook the meat). Hope this helps.