Chairman’s Red braised or red cooked pork belly (红烧肉)is one of the most famous Classic Chinese dishes from Hunan cuisine. It is extremely comforting because of the strong flavor and bright red color.
In china, there are different variations of red braised pork belly. The most popular two versions are Shanghai style red cooked pork belly(苏氏红烧肉) and Maoshi red cooked pork belly. The former version usually colored with soy sauce and sugar with a pure savory and sweet taste. However the later version is colored with sugar only with a naughty spicy savory and sweet taste. Mao style re braised pork belly(毛氏红烧肉) belongs to Hunan cuisine with a spicy and savory taste. I think that you have gotten that Mao style red cooked pork is named after Chinese chairman Mao zedong.
In addition to regular braised pork belly, dried long beans, turnip, hard boiled eggs and other side vegetables can be also add in red braised pork belly.
The original color is coming from caramelized sugar other than dark soy sauce. We call this type of coloring as sugar coloring (糖色). Sugar color can be made either water or oil. Caramelized sugar not only brings color but also great unique flavors.
How to make sugar coloring
1.Add 3 tablespoons of oil in wok and then place smashed rock sugar in. Continue frying over medium fire until the sugar melts and turns into amber.
2.Pour hot water quickly, be carefully as the liquid may splash. Let it simmer for another minute.
Instructions
1. Prepare a pan and fry the pork rind until slightly browned. This helps to hold the shape and remove the odd taste. Then wash the pork rind well.
2.Cut the pork belly into cubes around 2 cm and the. Add some clean water in a wok, add 1 tablespoon cooking wine and green onion sections. Cook for 5 minutes after the water boils. Transfer out and drain well.
3.Place the pork belly in a pan and sauté until the surface becomes slightly brown. This helps to remove extra oil and also hold the shape after cooked by hardening the surface.
4.Get a stew pot, add dried chili pepper, star anise, ginger slices and garlic slices to stir fry until aroma.
5.Place the cooked pork in. Only pork cubes, discard the oil. Add 4 tablespoon of sugar color and 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce. Mix well.
6.Pour in boiling water and simmer for around 1 hour. Use high fire to thicken the sauce.
Red Braised Pork Belly
Ingredients
Braised pork belly
- 800 g pork belly
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 4 tbsp. sugar color
- 1 tbsp. cooking wine
- 1 inch root ginger sliced
- 3 garlic cloves , peeled
- 2 star anise
- 1 small piece Chinese cinnamon
- 4-6 dried chili peppers
- 2 scallion sections
- 2 bay leaves
Sugar coloring
- 3 tbsp. oil
- 1/4 cup smashed rock sugar
- 1.5 cup hot water
Instructions
Sugar color
- Add 3 tablespoons of oil in wok and then place smashed rock sugar in. Continue frying over medium fire until the sugar melts and turns into amber.
- Pour hot water quickly, be carefully as the liquid may splash. Let it simmer for another minute.
Braised Pork Belly
- Prepare a pan and fry the pork rind until slightly browned. This helps to hold the shape and remove the odd taste. Then wash the pork rind well.
- Cut the pork belly into cubes around 2 cm. Add some clean water in a wok, add 1 tablespoon cooking wine and green onion sections. Cook for 5 minutes after the water boils. Transfer out and drain well.
- Place the pork belly in a pan and sauté until the surface becomes slightly brown. This helps to remove extra oil and also hold the shape after cooked by hardening the surface.
- Get a stew pot, add dried chili pepper, star anise, ginger slices and garlic slices to stir fry until aroma.
- Place the cooked pork in. Only pork cubes, discard the oil. Add 4 tablespoon of sugar color and 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce. Mix well.
- Pour in boiling water and simmer for around 1 hour. Use high fire to thicken the sauce.
Nutrition
I have a question for the cook. How much boiling water should be added in step 5? Also, should you use shui dian fen to thicken the sauce?
Hi Tyler,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
In step 5, add boiling water to just cover the pork belly.
For the second question, we do not use shui dian fen to thicken the sauce. Just turn up the fire to evaporate the extra water after the pork belly is cooked. For most of the meat dishes, we do not use shui dian fen. It is commonly used in soup or veggie stir-fry recipes.
I hope the information can help.
Nice day!
Tried it and it was pretty good! I wonder how restaurants make it this ‘perfect red’ though.
Marie,
In fact there are many ways for cooking red braised pork belly. I am using the simplest way in this recipe. Some requires large amount of sugar and stir fry the sugar to a red color, while others use red fermented bean curd for coloring. Besides there are restaurants using Red yeast rice powder or even monascus pigments for the bright color. Soy sauce with crystal sugar cannot bring such a red color.
Recipe doesn’t mention some of the ingredients listed and when to add. I play it by ear and it worked quite well. Personally, I think 1.5 cups of water to make sugar water was too much and diluted colour. I’ll tweek next time.
Just a quick question:….Do you remove the tough outer skin first?
I enjoy your food!
PAulM
No Paul, we treasure the pork rind in most of our Chinese dishes. They will become quite yummy when well cooked, even better than the meat. But it is ok to remove them if you do not like to deal with the hair.
How much white sugar do you use?
What is the last bullet point?
Hi Corey,
I believe that rock sugar should be match better than white sugar for this recipe.
Great recipe! I love this dish and have always wanted to cook it well. Thanks for posting
Hi, Justin
Thanks for kind comment. May you like it!
Hi Elaine, your page is fantastic, i’m learning so much. I especially love the hunan and sichuan kitchen, cause i love hot food with a lot of chili peppers . Here in Germany it is quite hard to find a real chinese restaurant, so i’m very glad i found your page 祝福你一切顺利并在…方面成功 and thank you very much ! Best regards Richard
Thank you, Richard.
Hi Elaine, what do you recommend serving this dish with?
Jack,
Since pork belly contains lots of oil, I usually serve this with some refreshing salad and vegetable soups. I highly recommend you try this bok choy and tofu soup and healthy vegetable stir fries or salads.
The six steps in the pictures don’t agree with the six steps in the printable recipe. The recipe doesn’t mention adding sugar and cassia. (Step 5 in the picture.) Star anise is two steps after garlic and ginger in pictures, but same step in printed recipe? Which should I do?
Thanks so much for your recipes, I really enjoy them!
Hi Elaine – I’m excited to see this recipe and I’m looking forward to trying it!
I have a question, though. What is the pork rind that we are supposed to fry? Is that a separate item to purchase? Or is it trimmed from the pork belly?
Thank you!
Eileen
Eileen,
To make braised pork belly, we need to keep the rind. Fried it firstly can help to keep the shape and make the rind more aromatic.
I have used at least three Mao pork belly recipes before this one and all were good, but this one is the best so far. This is even though I overcooked it a little–first warning, do not forget about step 6, the pot on the stove! A couple of comments for anyone considering this. The recipe says to wash the pork rind after browning it in step 1, but I washed (and dried) the belly before browning it. The recipe says “add some clean water” in step 2, and since I used a carbon-steel skillet instead of a wok, I filled it only to the height of the cubes in the pan. Finally, be prepared for lots of sputtering and splattering! But don’t worry, it’s only the sound of good cooking.
Good job Pam 💗