Chinese Red braised pork belly is considered the “big dish” for family tables and parties. This dish is also named Hong Shao Rou (红烧肉) in Chinese. “Hong” indicates the lovely red color; “Shao” refers to the braising method. This post will introduce the basic steps of making it perfectly at home.
About the “red braising” cooking method
Red braised cooking, also known as hong shao, is a popular Chinese cooking method in which food either protein or vegetables is braised in a mixture of aromatics, soy sauce, sugar, and sometimes spices. Hong Shao dishes are usually savory and sweet in flavor. Among all of the long list of red braised dishes, red braised pork belly is the most famous one.
This cooking method usually involves a long time simmering over a slow fire so the seasonings have time to penetrate the ingredients. Following are some of the other red braised dishes.
💭About the versions
There are several different versions of red braised pork belly
- Chairman Mao’s red braised pork belly, which is popular in the center part of China use spice, commonly star anise and dried chili peppers to enhance the flavor and remove the odd taste from pork. So this version has a very light hint of hot.
- Shanghai-style red braised pork belly – this version uses a very large amount of soy sauce and sugar. No spices are used, only aromatics.
- Homemade shortcut version – through everything together and let the sauce combine itself in the cooking process.
We love pork belly in Chinese cooking
If you are returning visitor to this blog, you may find that we have lots of lovely pork belly recipes here. Pork belly is one of the most popular cuts in Chinese cuisine. It is named “wuhua” or “three lines” in different areas. Following are some of the popular Chinese pork belly recipes.
- Crispy Pork Belly Recipe (Siu Yuk) is a Cantonese roasted pork belly recipe with a crispy shell.
- Twice cooked pork belly (回锅肉) is a popular Sichuan dish. It gets its name from the two-step cooking process: first deep-frying, then simmering in a sauce.
- Pork belly can also be braised until super soft and then match with bread or mo, like Roujiamo.
- Chinese salted pork belly is a type of Chinese cured meat. It is made from pork belly that has been salted and then sun dried.
- Pork belly can be cut into smaller pieces before braising to make Lu Rou Fan, which is a Taiwanese style of braised pork bellies over steamed rice.
- Pan-fried pork belly is a super easier way of getting the crispy shell by pan-frying the pork belly after simmering.
I hope all of the ideas give you some inspiration about how to cook pork belly.
🐖 Ingredients
- Pork belly – Choose the well-marbled pork belly
- Cooking wine – also known as Shaoxing wine, to help remove the raw taste from pig
- Sichuan peppercorn – highly recommend this ingredient in the blanching process. No numbing feeling is created, works a similar role to cooking wine. But completely optional.
- Rock sugar – recommend using yellow rock sugar since it creates a thick sauce texture and avoids overwhelming sweet flavor.
- aromatics (ginger, scallion, and green onion) – can rich the flavor.
- black vinegar – adding a very small amount of black vinegar can help the flavors combines better without applying only a sour taste to the pork cubes.
- light soy sauce – adding the umami flavor to this dish.
Since we cook the sugar at the beginning to get the amber color, no dark soy sauce is used here. Dark soy sauce is used primarily for adding color to the dish, but in most cases, it is dark red color.
Cook’s Note
- The original lovely amber color of this recipe is coming from caramelized sugar other than dark soy sauce. We call this type of coloring sugar coloring (糖色). Sugar color can be made with either water or oil. Caramelized sugar not only brings color but also great unique flavors. Some of the easy home versions may suggest skipping making caramelized sugar because once burnt, it may bring a bitter flavor. I prefer the caramelized version. Caramelized sugar generates hundreds of new and different compounds, with richer flavors and dark colors. However, be careful with the process and turn off or leave the heat once the sugar turns amber.
- Searing the skins at the very beginning can help to remove odd taste or any hair if removed from the skins and endow a better texture after cooked. But be careful and don’t get yourself burnt.
- If possible, get some yellow rock sugar instead of regular white sugar or white rock sugar because it contains more flavors and at the same time has a more acceptable sweetness.
Instructions
Prepare the pork belly
1. Heat wok or pan until hot, then place the pork belly in, skin downside. Use hand to move the skin on the surface of the wok until the skin is almost seared. Wash carefully to clean the seared part completely. Then cut the pork belly into 2 cm cubes.
2.In a large pot with enough water, place the pork belly cubes in. Add scallion, smashed ginger, cooking wine and Sichuan peppercorn. I highly recommend you trying to use Sichuan peppercorn in the process of blanching meat, it is such an odd taste killer. Bring to a boiling and then continue cook for 5 minutes. Transfer the pork belly out and wash if necessary. I wash it in the boiling water in the video. Set aside and drain.
Fry the pork belly
In a wok, sear the pork belly cubes for 4-5 minutes. Where will be a layer of oil at the bottom. Transfer the pork belly cubes out. And leave only 1 tablespoon of oil in wok, save the extra oil for other vegetable stir fry.
Slow down the fire, add the smashed yellow rock sugar in. Continue fry with very slow fire. The sugar firstly melts, then it turns into yellow and finally amber.
Slowly cook to get flavors
Once it bubbles, add the pork belly cubes in. Quickly mix. Pour in hot water to cover the pork belly, add light soy sauce, scallion and smashed ginger.
Cover and simmer for 1 hour using middle fire. Check the softness at the stage. Then turn up the fire, remove the lid and thicken the sauce. Pick up and discard scallion and ginger. They have finished their tasks. Optionally but highly recommend adding around 1/2 tablespoon of black vinegar or lemon juice in. This add extra aroma. No sour taste at the final dish.
It is ok that the pork belly seems to be quite plain now. Continue heating and the sugar will turn the pork cubes into something very good looking. Continue pushing and moving the pork cubes to avoid over-heating partially in the last minutes. It is done when pork belly is well colored and the oil at the bottom begins to turn transparent. Serve hot!
How to reheat HongShaoRou
Regular re-heating is not a good choice. I recommend steaming with a cover. This can keep the flavors and texture as much as possible.
Hong Shao Rou—(Red Braised Pork Belly)
Ingredients
- 500 g pork belly , cut into cubes around 2 inches
Blanching the pork belly
- 1 tbsp. cooking wine
- 1 piece ginger , smashed
- 4 scallion sections
- 10 Sichuan peppercorns , optional
Frying and Simmering
- 1/4 cup yellow rock sugar , broken if you have large pieces
- 3 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 2 scallions , cut into sections
- 4 green onions , 1 finely chopped for garnish and the left into long sections
- hot water to cover the pork cubes , as needed
- 1/4 tbsp. black vinegar or apple vinegar , optional
Instructions
Treat the skin
- Heat wok or pan until hot, then place the pork belly in, skin downside. Use hand to move the skin on the surface of the wok until the skin is almost seared.
- Wash carefully to clean the seared part completely. Then cut the pork belly into 2 cm cubes.
Blanch the pork
- In a large pot with enough water, place the pork belly cubes in. Add scallion, smashed ginger, cooking wine and Sichuan peppercorn. I highly recommend you trying to use Sichuan peppercorn in the process of blanching meat, it is such an odd taste killer. Bring to a boiling and then continue cook for 5 minutes. Transfer the pork belly out and wash if necessary. I wash it in the boiling water in the video. Set aside and drain.
Sear the cubes
- In a wok, sear the pork belly cubes for 4-5 minutes. Where will be a layer of oil at the bottom. Transfer the pork belly cubes out. And leave only 1 tablespoon of oil in wok, save the extra oil for other vegetable stir fry. Slow down the fire, add the smashed yellow rock sugar in. Continue fry with very slow fire. The sugar firstly melts, then it turns into yellow and finally amber. Once it bubbles, add the pork belly cubes in. Quickly mix.
Simmering
- Pour in hot water to cover the pork belly, add light soy sauce, scallion and smashed ginger. Cover and simmer for 1 hour using middle fire. Check the softness at the stage.
Thick the sauce and get the color
- Then turn up the fire, remove the lid and thicken the sauce. Pick up and discard scallion and ginger. They have finished their tasks. Optionally but highly recommend adding around 1/2 tablespoon of black vinegar or lemon juice in. This add extra aroma. No sour taste at the final dish.
- Once most of the liquid is gone, slow down the fire. Continue pushing and moving the pork cubes to avoid over-heating partially in the last minutes. It is done when pork belly is well colored and the oil at the bottom begins to turn transparent. Serve hot with scallions sprinkled.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
gonna have to give this a try
That will be a paying off choice, John. Good luck and happy cooking ahead.
My red braised dishes (made with dark soy) are always brown (like the soy) and not red. Do you know why? Would cartelizing the sugar and using light soy be red?
Hi Jmk,
For a brighter red color, using sugar and light soy sauce. Dark soy sauce will spoil the color.
I’ve tried a few different 红烧肉 recipes and this one is the best! The caramelized sugar with soy sauce creates the perfect sauce for the pork belly. Each piece was tender and deep red, just like the photos. I can’t wait to make this again! Do you have any suggestions for how to make crispy pork belly without an oven? I read your Crispy Pork Belly recipe and by the end my mouth was watering, but then I realized I needed an oven. Any ideas? Thanks for the authentic recipes and helping me improve my Chinese cooking!
Hi there, tried your recipe except that I halved the ingredients. At about 25 mins mark while simmering the sugared pork belly, the pork belly got charred n tasted tough. I had to forgo the whole dish as it was too burnt (and dark). Any idea what could have gone wrong? One thing that cross my mind could be too much brown sugar used.
Hi Rei,
In order to prevent the pork belly getting burnt, you will need to stir them occasionally especially in the later half time. And remember to use the slowest fire.
I had the same problem. Used low fire & stirred it every 10 min. but it got burnt at about 25 min mark.
Hi Chua,
I believe it might be caused by the amount of hot water. 1 cup might be not enough.
Hi, do I need to transfer green onion, ginger and oil from the wok into the clay pot when cooking the pork? Im a bit confused with step 3
Thank you
Sorry Jessica,
I do not make myself understood. Firstly you need to heat up a clay pot with green onion and ginger slices on another stove.
Hello Elaine
I just found your site!!!! ……
I have been making Asian food for many years now….( I am Irish-American ) …However your recipes sound/taste so authentic that I will most likely end up as round in the belly as Buddha !
Thank you as many times as there are stars in the sky….. May you have good luck and prosper…… and a special thank you to your Mother & Grandmother….as I learned how to cook from both of my Grandmothers ….I have found that they are the most important ingredient in any good cooks pantry!
Sincerely PaulM
That’s rule. I own all my yummy dishes to my mother and grandmother. They told me so many important tips in their daily cooking and more importantly motivate me to enjoy cooking and food creation.
I am glad that you love this Paul. Happy cooking!
We made this recipe yesterday and oh! was it yummy! We added some cinnamon, star anise and chili to the sugar as we had seen that in some other recipes.
I think this sentence is a little hard to understand: “Put the brown sugar in wok to stir fry until all the sugar melts and you can see large bubbles. Keep stirring during the process. Pour hot water to cover the pork cubes. Mix well!”
Maybe someone else also has some problems so here is my interpretation: “… Let the brown sugar caramelize and keep stirring during the process. Add the hot water you used for cooking the meat into the wok so that it will cover the pork cubes you’ll add later. Mix well!” Hope that I understood it correctly. For us it worked this way 🙂
Next project: Gua Bao (Taiwanese Pork Belly Buns). Already looking forward to it!
Thanks Janina for the wonderful feedback. I hope you like Gua Bao too. Gua Bao will be much easier after a successful Hong Shao Rou.
I followed the recipe and after 1 hr, there was still way too much water. Is there a rule of thumb regarding how much of the pork to cover with water or is 2 cups always necessary. Thanks,
Hi Dewey,
The water evaporation depends on lots of factors including the cookware and the heat. When you open the lid and turn up the fire, the evaporation process will speed up. If there is still too much, you just need to slightly lengthen the process.
Usually I keep the pork cubes around 4/5 covered. I hope this helps. Happy cooking!
Wonderful edition to fried rice, I made this in preparation for the fried rice I was making and it came out beautifully tender, a few tips for the ingredients I found was instead of saying 4 tablespoons of soy sauce you could say 1/4th cup it takes less time to measure out also instead of 500g you could say 1lb or 16oz, not that it matters that much just thought it would be easier to follow, thank you for the delicious recipe!
Looks so delicious.. Thank you for sharing this mouth watering recipe.