Red-braised Meat | 红烧肉

in

Meat only:

  • 1 teaspoon canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 1/2 lb pork belly
  • 4 slices of ginger
  • 3 green onions
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 3 whole star anise
  • 1 teaspoon whole sichuan peppercorns
  • 1 dried Thai chili (optional)
  • 1/2 cup rice wine 
  • 1/3 cup dark soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup light soy sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

To turn into Taiwanese pork belly buns:

  • 1 package folded steamed buns
  • Hoisan sauce
  • Julienned green onion
  • Sliced cucumber 

Slice pork belly into small slabs. Preheat dutch oven over medium heat. Chop up garlic and cut green onions into segments. Set aside. Coat dutch oven with oil and add sugar. If it starts to smoke quickly remove from heat so sugar doesn't burn. It should slowly turn a caramel brown.

Add pork belly in batches to brown in the caramelized sugar. Throw in ginger, green onions, garlic, star anise, sichuan peppercorns, and chili. Stir around a bit and then add the rest of the ingredients for the meat portion of the recipe. Add water so that meat is barely but completely submerged. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, checking every so often to make sure the liquid has not completely cooked off. If the liquid becomes very low just add a little more water. In the end, the water should cook off to a thick sauce at the bottom while the meat transforms from steps 1-4, as pictured. If your meat has too much liquid in it, simply cook without the lid on for a while or turn the heat up. When you try the pork belly, it should be very tender. If this is not the case just cook a little longer. 

To make Taiwanese pork belly buns, steam buns and create small pork belly sandwiches, with a small amount of cucumber, green onion, and hoisin sauce inside. 

Did any part of this recipe confuse you? For detailed instructions, click here.