Slow Braised Taiwanese Sticky Pork Belly
If there is one dish that everyone will love, it is Slow Braised Taiwanese Sticky Pork Belly. Tender, savory, and packed with flavor, this recipe takes an extra step of turning the spiced soy braising liquid into a yummy glaze that clings on to each bite of pork belly. This pork belly is one of my favorite childhood recipe, and it will soon be yours too! Get your rice ready because you will be licking your bowl and craving for seconds.
Family Recipe Sticky Pork Belly
Today we are making my easy Sticky Pork Belly that I grew up eating. It is not too heavy and pairs perfectly with rice. There are so many Sticky Pork Belly variations from around the world, such as Filipino Adobo, Vietnamese Thit Kho, and Shanghai-Hong Shao Rou. Even within Taiwan, so many variations exist. Over the next few months, I will be showing you different variations of braised pork belly because each version has a secret technique that makes it unique.
In Taiwan, we like to pair it with Taiwanese Cucumber Salad and Chinese Pickled Cabbage since savory and sweet pairs perfectly with sour!
Sticky Braised Pork Belly Ingredients
- 2.5 lb Pork Belly
- 4 slices Ginger thin slices
- 10 cloves Garlic smashed
- 2 Green Onion
- 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorn
- 2-3 Bay Leaf
- 3 Star Anise
- 5 Red Whole Chili optional
- ½ cup Soy Sauce
- ¼ cup Dark Soy Sauce
- ⅛ cup Oyster Sauce
- 4.5 tbsp Brown Sugar or Rock Sugar
- 3 tbsp Chinese Cooking Wine optional
- 2 cups Water
How To Prepare Pork Belly
A super important tip when making sticky pork belly is to blanch the pork first. I always blanch the pork belly first to eliminate the pork’s scum and smell. I also add green onion and Sichuan peppercorn, which helps reduce the naturally gamey pork flavor. It also allows the sauce to be purer and the pork belly to absorb all the flavors better. Once you finish blanching the pork belly for 3-5 minutes, rinse with cold water. A simple step makes a world of difference, trust me!
Spiced Soy Braise
The key to all this flavor in the pork belly is that spiced soy braise. This spice mix includes green onion, star anise, whole red chili, bay leaf. This mix gives the braised pork belly that fragrant, slightly spicy herbal flavors that is extra appetizing. Then, you add in soy sauce, dark soy sauce, brown sugar, Chinese cooking wine (optional), and water to add in that sweet-savory flavor into the pork. At the end of cooking, we turn the heat on high to turn this yummy braise into a thick glaze thanks to the brown sugar!
How To Make Sticky Pork Belly
- Cut the pork belly into 1.5-inch pieces. Add the pork belly to a pot filled with water and turn the heat to medium-high. Add in Sichuan peppercorn; let it cook for 10 minutes and rinse with cold water. Drain the pork belly and set it aside
- In a pan, turn the heat to medium-high and add Pork belly, ginger, and garlic. Pan fry for 2-3 minutes or until pork belly is slightly golden brown.
- Next, add green onion, star anise, whole red chili, bay leaf, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, brown sugar, Chinese cooking wine (optional), and water.
- Bring everything to a simmer, turn the heat down to low, and put the lid on for 30 minutes. Keep an eye out to prevent it from burning.
- After 30 minutes, turn the heat up to high and simmer on high heat for 5 minutes; this should thicken the sauce. Make sure to keep stirring to avoid it getting burned.
- Pair with rice and garnish with green onion.
Save Time with Instant Pot
If you want to save time, you can also check out my Instant Pot Braised Pork Belly, which is super delicious and quick to make at home. Instant Pot cuts the cooking time in half, and the pork belly comes out extra tender every single time. This is a great dish to make for weeknight dinners as you toss it all in, and you don’t have to worry about it until you are ready to eat!
If you have extra time, add in hard boil egg and let it simmer for an additional 30 minutes for the braised egg.
Do you want more Taiwanese recipes? Here are some of my go-to recipes that you will LOVE!
- Instant Pot Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
- Taiwanese Milk Mochi (4 Ingredients ONLY!)
- Pork Chops (Bento Box Style!)
- Dan Bing – Classic Taiwanese Egg Roll (15 Minutes!)
Sticky Pork Belly
By Tiffy Cooks
Ingredients
- 2.5 lb Pork Belly
- 4 slices Ginger thin slices
- 10 cloves Garlic smashed
- 2 Green Onion
- 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorn
- 2-3 Bay Leaf
- 3 Star Anise
- 5 Red Whole Chili optional
- ½ cup Soy Sauce
- ¼ cup Dark Soy Sauce
- ⅛ cup Oyster Sauce
- 4.5 tbsp Brown Sugar or Rock Sugar
- 3 tbsp Chinese Cooking Wine optional
- 2 cups Water
Instructions
- Cut the pork belly into 1.5-inch pieces. Add the pork belly to a pot filled with water and turn the heat to medium-high. Add in Sichuan peppercorn; let it cook for 10 minutes and rinse with cold water. Drain the pork belly and set it aside
- In a pan, turn the heat to medium-high and add Pork belly, ginger, and garlic. Pan fry for 2-3 minutes or until pork belly is slightly golden brown.
- Next, add green onion, star anise, whole red chili, bay leaf, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, brown sugar, Chinese cooking wine (optional), and water.
- Bring everything to a simmer, turn the heat down to low, and put the lid on for 30 minutes. Keep an eye out to prevent it from burning.
- After 30 minutes, turn the heat up to high and simmer on high heat for 5 minutes; this should thicken the sauce. Make sure to keep stirring to avoid it getting burned.
- Pair with rice and garnish with green onion.
Video
@tiffycooks NEW SERIES 🤤 STICKY PORK BELLY #recipes
♬ original sound – TIFFY COOKS 🥟
I’ve wanted to try this for so long. So worth the wait. I wish I had the cucumber for the recommended side dish but I was out. I’d make this again and again
I was so happy to find this recipe! I saw your short on YT and thought I need to try this dish, by any means. I’m off to get star anise and chillies now!
Hey I don’t have an Instant Pot could I use a Crock Pot or just a regular pot and if so how long should I cook the ribs for. Your recipe looks amazing thanks so much for sharing xx
Hi Tiffy, this is a great and easy recipe. Thank you. One thing I would like to let you know that you didn’t mention to put in the oyster sauce on step 3. I kinda confused at the moment because it is listed on your ingredients list. But overall, delicious!! Thank you
It is soooooo bomb!
It was good but didn’t get sticky and dark like yours, I will def make this again. It was super tasty, just would have liked more the sticky component. I even removed some of the liquid at the end to get the sauce a bit thicker.
Delicious and a very straight forward recipe. I am making it a second time in 2 weeks. I made it the first time and everyone loved it. So I’m back at it again. Both times I used the Instant Pot & each time I forgot to add sichuan peppercorns during the blanching of the pork belly. The final product was just as delicious. The only time you watch over it is at the initial sautéing of the ginger, garlic, pork belly. Then dump everything in the pot, close the lid and press pressure cook. There’s leftover sauce from this dish that is liquid gold to drizzle over your rice or noodles for another time (if you have any pork belly left). Make it and you won’t be disappointed!
Very good. Easy to do. I put it in the oven at 300* in a covered casserole after the boiling step. Then uncovered for the last 10 minutes to thicken. Hubby ate it all except for one piece he insisted I taste. Next time I’ll get my share first!!
You wouldn’t be disappointed. Everything Tiffy makes is delicious!! I seen this when you were making it for hubby weekly lunch & I knew I just had to make it. I have since made it 2x now, The first time I kept it the original version but the 2nd time I added shiitake mushrooms. I always have to double the recipe. It was a hit then & still is now. Always a fan favorite in my household!
This is so delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I was wondering if I could replace pork belly with spare ribs for this recipe?
Thank you
Hi Thao! So glad you loved the recipe! You can definitely replace pork belly, but keep in mind pork belly is a LOT fattier than spareribs, so you may have to adjust the amount of oil and the amount of cooking time.
Tiffy
This was DELICIOUS! It was my first time making pork belly and my family loved it!
I want to make this tonight but I’m trying to clarify the blanching instructions. Should the water come to a boil first, before I blanch it for 10 minutes? Chances are if I put the pork in a pot and put it at medium heat, it won’t even come to a boil in 10 minutes.
If your water takes a while to boil at medium heat, then you can still put the pork in the pot as it boils, but just start timing once a low simmer starts.
Tiffy
Delicious, accessible recipe, with a great taste payoff. We’re serving it over ramen-style noodles, along with your cucumber side recipe. If you use a deeper pot (enamel over cast iron), you can dump out the water after boiling the pork belly and use the same pot for the rest, making it a 1-pot recipe.
A few notes….the written directions at the top say to boil the pork 2-3 minutes, then in the numbered directions is says for 10 minutes. I used the 10 minutes in 2 batches (had doubled the recipe).
The directions to simply put the temp up on high heat and boil the already tender meat at the end isn’t great. Better to remove the meat, then simmer the sauce and reduce it (add a touch of cornstarch slurry if necessary). This gives you a chance to check seasonings and make last minute adjustments, then add the meat back and toss. (Mine needed a bit more sweetening, since I used Truvia which wasn’t as sweet).
We will definitely make this again. Thank you for a solid recipe.
This was pretty good. much less involved than some other hong shao rou recipes i’ve tried in the past but still reached the same delicious conclusion. The only thing that I would suggest if you are gonna try this recipe is to reduce the amount of dark soy sauce, or soy sauce in general, that you put into the sauce at the end. Maybe just a tablespoon of dark soy sauce.
This recipe looks so good! I’m trying it tonight. You mention to try to cook it in the instant pot, but there are no instant pot instructions. How long once you sauté everything would you put the pork belly in the instant pot for?
Hi,
Would this recipe work with beef chuck roast cut into cubes instead of pork?
Thank you
I love how the glaze clings to each bite! Definitely a remake recipe
I’ve always loved trying different flavors from around the world, and your tips make it sound so approachable.
Made this with some nice pork belly from the butcher, would do again
Paired this with sauerkraut. Amazing, must try!
Hello I tried this braised pork belly recipe, it turned out beautiful even my Filipina GF loved it. I have a cooking background the only thing I did a bit different is the water I blanched the pork belly in in added ginger, and the peppercorns and green onions you suggested where your recipe called for water I used the water the meat was blanched in. Turned out absolutely delicious.
Made this last night. Very tasty. But the pork belly seemed chewy not tender. I think I did everything exactly per recipe but would it be chewy if cooked too long or not enough?
Hi Fiona, sounds like you’re actually almost there! Your pork belly needs a little longer in a lower heat simmer so the collagen in the pork skin can break down a little more. Next time, if your pork belly is still chewy, try putting it on a low simmer for a little longer, until it reaches the right consistency! Every piece of pork belly is a little different, some just take a little longer. Let me know if that works!
Tiffy