Pork belly lovers, today is your lucky day! I am sharing the recipe of one of the most popular pork belly dishes in China, the braised pork belly.
It has a perfectly balanced sweet and savory flavor. The texture of the slow-cooked pork is soft and could almost melt in your mouth. My mouth is literally watering as I am writing about this dish right now.
Start with ingredients, I used about a pound of pork belly and cut them into 1-inch cubes. Besides the pork belly, I also prepared ginger, star anise, bay leaves, rock sugar, dried chili peppers and seasoning sauce in advance.
In the recipe “Sugar-brasied chicken wings“, I introduced what is rock sugar. It is commonly used in Chinese cooking and can be easily found in Asian grocery stores. It looks like a crystal rock and tastes slightly less sweet than the cane sugar. If you can’t find rock sugar, it is perfectly fine to use cane sugar to make this dish.
The first step is to pan fry the pork belly. I used a non-stick pan and didn’t add any oil. Because I know pork belly will release a lot of fat later when cooking.
When the pork belly has browned, I added the sugar into the pan first and waited until the sugar has melted before adding everything else into the pan for stir-frying. After that, I moved the dish into a clay pot to get ready for braising. I added water into the clay pot and braised the pork belly for about a hour until the sauce has thickened.
The pork belly in this dish is tender and full of flavor. I like to top with some toasted sesame seed when serving this dish.
Below is how I made this dish step-by-step. The total time needed is about 60 minutes!
I hope you enjoy making this mouth-watering braised pork belly at home. If you like this recipe, please leave a rating and share it with your friends!
- 0.8 pound pork belly with skin, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon rock sugar or cane sugar
- 2 slices ginger
- 2 star anise
- 2 bay leaves
- 1-2 dried chili pepper, optional
- 2 cups hot water
- 1 touch of toasted white sesame seeds for topping
- For the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon cooking wine
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- Mix cooking wine, soy sauce and dark soy sauce in a container for later use.
- Heat a non-stick pan, stir in the pork belly, pan fry under medium-low heat for about 5 minutes until browned, stir occasionally.
- Toss in the sugar, carefully stir to help the sugar melt, add in the ginger, star anise, bay leaves and dried chili pepper, sitr fry for about 2-3 minutes.
- Carefully pour in the sauce and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
- Move all the ingredients into a clay pot or a slow cooker, add in the hot water and simmer for about 50 minutes under medium-low heat until the sauce has almost gone.
- Top with the toasted white sesame seeds and serve.
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