Taiwanese Braised Pork 卤肉饭

braised pork belly

If you ever see my grocery shopping list, you know I eat pork belly every week. It's the tastiest part of the pig~ I have about 20 different ways of making it. This Taiwanese Braised Pork Belly on rice is the perfect comfort food and you can serve a whole party with it.

Let's start with the ingredient list:

• Skin-on Pork Belly 1600g

• Rice Wine 1 cup

• Huadiao Cooking Wine 1/3 cups

• Light Soy Sauce 1 cup

• Dark Soy Sauce 1/4 cups

• Deep Fried Shallots 100g

• Rock Sugar 120g

• Five Spice Powder 1 tsp

• White Pepper Powder 1 tsp

• Salt to taste

• Pork Bone Broth (Chicken broth) Cover all the ingredients

• Star Anise x1

• Cinnamon Stick x1

• Thai Chili (optional) to taste

• Dried Shiitake Mushroom 2 handful

• Ginger 5g

1. Sear the pork skin in a cast iron pan or iron wok until it's no longer soft. (A torch would work as well)

2. Put pork in a sauce pan and cover with cold water. Add ginger slices into the sauce pan. Turn the stove to high heat to blanch and cook through the pork belly (20 minutes).

3. Clean the shiitake mushrooms and soak them in hot water. Dice the mushroom and set aside, keep the shiitake water.

4. Rest the pork on a chopping board for 10 minutes.

5. Slice and cube the pork to 1cm-width strips

6. Thinly oil the wok. Put the pork strips into the wok and turn on medium-high heat to render out excess lard (can be saved for future usage).

7. Add all the other ingredients mentioned above except broth in with the pork.

8. Once everything starts to boil, add broth and shiitake water and bring it to boil.

9. Simmer for 2-3 hours.

10. Blanch some green veges to serve along everything else.

Two cents from the chef:

Don't be intimidated by the long list. All of the sauces and ingredients will last you a long time and are common things you will need in Chinese cuisine. So it won't go to waste.

There are many ways to get the pork prepped. I prefer to sear the pork skin and blanch the entire piece with water and ginger. This way the skin is seared and the pork skin pores are properly closed and the water cleanses the pork from blood and gross things the filthy animal may carry LUL.

Generally this dish serves with hard-boiled egg. I prefer soft-boiled spice eggs. I will give a detailed instruction on how to make those in another post.

Shortcuts:

• Searing and blanching the pork is optional, can slice and dice the pork right away.

• Shaoxing Wine can replace Rice Wine

• Can use chicken/pork bouillon and water to replace broth

Thanks for reading and enjoy the food. :)