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I have made this Red Braised Pork Belly (Hong Shao Rou) a few times now and it never disappoints. With only a few ingredients it yields a flavoursome, meltingly tender dish that is fit for a celebratory dinner party or a casual Saturday evening family meal.

Red Braised Pork Belly or Hong Shao Rou is a well known dish from mainland China and this recipe is a homestyle Shanghai style version by Betty Liu. I served the Red Braised Pork Belly with these Spring Onion Flower Buns I posted a while back, torn open and stuffed with the belly, bao bun style. Absolutely delicious! You can also serve it with steamed white rice and wilted pak choi. As real Chinese cuisine is a style of food I am not too familiar with I did not make any changes to the recipe. However, I did not have rock sugar so used standard granulated sugar and I just used light soy sauce. This dish loves it low and slow so don’t try to rush the cooking process, you want all that flavour to build over time. I hope you enjoy this recipe for Red Braised Pork Belly (Hong Shao Rou). Enter your email address below to receive new recipes as they are published :

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Red Braised Pork Belly

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Ingredients

750 g boneless pork belly
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tablespoons 60g rock sugar – 2 tablespoons finely crushed with a mortar and pestle, 2 tablespoons left whole
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
250 ml chicken stock or water
60 ml light soy sauce
60 ml cup Shaoxing cooking wine
3 whole star anise
2 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
4 spring onions 3 cut into 2-inch segments, one chopped

Instructions

Bring about 5 cm of water to a boil over high in a large pot
Add the pork belly and boil for 3 minutes, adding more water to cover the pork if necessary
Drain and set aside
When cool enough to handle, cut the pork into 4-cm cubes
Heat the oil in a well-seasoned wok on low, until wisps of smoke curl up off the edges
Add the crushed rock sugar and stir until the sugar melts and dissolves
Increase the heat to medium and, working in two batches if necessary, gently slide in the chunks of pork belly. Brown all sides of the pork (a splatter screen can help keep the splattering oil contained)
Stir only occasionally, so that the pork can caramelize and brown
Add the dark soy sauce and fry for an additional minute
In the wok or cast iron casserole dish, combine the browned pork with the stock, light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, remaining rock sugar, star anise, ginger, and scallion segments
The mixture should come three- quarters of the way up the side of the pile of pork, if not, add more stock or water
Bring to a boil over high, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting and simmer, partially covered, for at least 3 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking
The longer the pork simmers, the more tender and flavourful it will be
It is ready when it’s soft enough to slip a chopstick in with ease, but you can go up to 2 hours longer to build the flavour even more
Add more stock or water as needed as it should never be dry
When nearly ready to serve, remove the lid, increase the heat to high, and boil until the cooking liquid becomes a thick, dark, glistening sauce that covers the pork bell
If the pork belly has begun to break down (the lean meat is separating from the fatty portion), use a slotted spoon to remove the cubes before cooking down the sauce, and add the cubes of meat back in at the end
Adapted from Betty Liu