Red Braised Pork Belly
红烧肉
A classic Shanghainese dish featuring tender, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly pieces braised in soy sauce, rice wine, and rock sugar until richly caramelized. The pork is first pan-fried to render fat, then slowly simmered in a savory-sweet sauce until glossy and succulent.
Servings
2-3 people
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
60 minutes
Spice Level
Not Spicy
Ingredients
Instructions
Choose Pork Belly with skin, wash thoroughly, changing the water several times until no blood seeps out. Drain well, preferably pat dry with kitchen paper towels. Cut into mahjong tile-sized pieces.
Tip: Start boiling a kettle of water now, as you'll need hot water for braising the meat later.
Heat the pan first without adding oil, then add the Pork Belly pieces. Try not to overlap them, ensuring each piece touches the bottom of the pan.
Don't rush to flip them, cook on low heat slowly until oil starts to render, then you can start turning them.
Keep on low heat, use chopsticks to flip each piece of meat until the surface is slightly golden brown and the fat is rendered out.
But don't fry too long, or the meat will become tough.
Next, add Rock Sugar, placing it where there's more oil. Stir-fry on low heat for a moment, then stir-fry together with all the meat.
Use small pieces of Rock Sugar; if using large chunks, break them into smaller pieces first, otherwise they'll be difficult to melt.
When the Rock Sugar has mostly melted, add Ginger Slices, Star Anise, Bay Leaves, and Dried Chili. Stir-fry a few times.
Pour in Chinese Rice Wine. Then add Dark Soy Sauce and Light Soy Sauce. Stir-fry until all meat pieces are evenly colored.
Next, pour in Boiling Water, making sure it at least covers the meat. Note that it must be boiling water, never add cold water.
After adding the boiling water, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low heat, cover with lid and simmer slowly for 40 minutes to 1 hour.
After simmering for the required time, taste for saltiness and check the meat's texture. Then you can remove the lid and turn to high heat to reduce the sauce. When reducing the sauce, pay attention to stirring.
When the sauce has reduced to the right consistency, finally remove from heat, plate, and sprinkle with some sesame seeds.
Note：
- When reducing the sauce, pay attention to stirring, as the sauce contains sugar and will thicken. The more sugar you add, the thicker the final sauce will become.
- Note that reducing the sauce doesn't mean burning it dry, and you shouldn't burn it dry anyway. If you actually burn off all the moisture in the sauce, only oil will remain, turning it into fried meat, and the meat will become dry and tough. So you need to distinguish that there's still soy sauce-colored sauce in the pan. Don't burn off all the sauce - just reduce it to the right consistency.
- As long as you simmer it for enough time, Red-Braised Pork will naturally be rich but not greasy, plump and delicious. The fatty parts will be tender and bouncy without being greasy, and the lean meat won't be tough either.
- The specific ingredient ratios are just approximate and for reference only. Different Rock Sugar and Soy Sauce brands have varying sweetness, saltiness, and coloring effects. Taste as you cook - if you prefer sweeter, add more Rock Sugar; if you like it saltier, add more Soy Sauce. Note that after reducing the sauce, it will become even saltier, so don't make it too salty at the beginning. If using red-braised Soy Sauce, you can combine the Light Soy Sauce and Dark Soy Sauce into just the specialized red-braised Soy Sauce.
- If you want even less oil, after rendering the fat from the meat at the beginning, you can pour out most of the oil (it's great for stir-frying vegetables), leaving only a little in the pan for the subsequent steps.
- Spraying a little Vinegar before serving is an excellent method.
- When braising the pork, you can use Beer instead of Boiling Water. Beer contains enzymes that naturally help soften meat fibers. It's recommended to use light Beer, otherwise it might become bitter.