Sweet and Sour Garlic Spare Ribs (One-Pot Dinner)
Taiwanese Sweet and Sour Garlic Spare Ribs are hands down one of my favorite one-pot recipes from my mom. Super tender pork short ribs coated with a sticky sweet and sour glaze, this easy pork dish is a must-try recipe! Made with easy-to-find ingredients, this recipe is the perfect weeknight dinner! Get your rice ready, because this glaze will make you eat bowls and bowls of rice!
Taiwanese Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs
Whenever I smell my mom making these Taiwanese Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs, I’m racing to the dinner table with a bowl of rice. It’s a super simple home-cooked dish that appears often on our dinner table! Although there’s sweet-sour style pork dishes all over China, this particular variety was brought over to Taiwan by immigrants from Fujian. Compared to the Cantonese sweet and sour pork ribs, which is usually battered and deep-fried first, Taiwanese Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs are sautéed directly and combined with the sauce. Some families will also add Taiwan’s pineapples in order to enhance the sweet and sour flavors!
Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs Ingredients
- 2 lb Pork Side Ribs
- 8 cloves Garlic minced
- 3 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
- 3 tbsp Rice Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Ketchup
- 3 tbsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp Chinese Cooking Wine optional
- 2 cups Water
Preparing Pork Short Ribs For Cooking
This classic Taiwanese recipes uses pork spare ribs, or side ribs, as the main ingredient. It has a short bone in the middle that’s surrounded by meat, which actually makes it pretty fun to eat. An essential step for preparing these ribs before cooking is to blanch the ribs ahead of time. I always boil the pork for 3-4 minutes. Then, I drain, then rinse and scrub it with cold water to get out all the blood and dirt. Then, it is fully prepared for cooking. This simple step will keep the sauce pure from gamey pork flavors, and help the pork absorb the flavor of the sauce much better.
Sticky Sweet and Sour Glaze
The sticky sweet and sour glaze is super addicting and flavorful, so it pairs perfectly with a large bowl of rice. Definitely make extra rice, because whenever my mom makes this, I end up eating extra! The SOY SAUCE is the most crucial ingredient for my mom’s Taiwanese Sweet and Sour Garlic Short Ribs. PRO TIP: You can also use the leftover oil and glaze to saute vegetables such as bok choy and broccoli for the perfect one-pan dinner.
As you know, I always rave about how important it is to use HIGH-QUALITY Soy Sauce as it makes a world of difference. Today we will be using my go-to and favorite condiments from Lee Kum Kee, my go-to brand for Oyster Sauce, Soy Sauce, and also Dark Soy Sauce. Lee Kum Kee’s Premium line carries high-quality products that are affordable AND accessible!
How To Make Sweet and Sour Garlic Spare Ribs
- Cut the pork side ribs into cubes by following the bones. Cook the pork in boiling water for 3-4 minutes and set aside.
- Mix dark soy sauce, soy sauce, ketchup, rice vinegar, Chinese cooking wine, and sugar until sugar is dissolved.
- Turn the heat up to medium-high and drizzle oil into a pan. Once the oil is hot, add in pork and sauté for 3-4 minutes.
- Add in garlic and saute together for another 1-2 minutes.
- Drizzle in the sauce and mix for 1-2 minutes until pork is covered in sauce and pour in 2 cups of water. Bring it to a simmer and turn the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, turn the heat up to high and cook uncovered for 3-4 minutes.
EASY Taiwanese Recipes To Enjoy with Sweet Sour Ribs
- Garlic Green Beans
- Chow Mein (Authentic Traditional Recipe!)
- Din Tai Fung Egg Fried Rice
- Sticky Rice (Authentic Recipe)
Sweet and Sour Garlic Short Ribs
By Tiffy Cooks
Ingredients
- 2 lb Pork Side Ribs
- 8 cloves Garlic minced
- 3 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
- 3 tbsp Rice Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Ketchup
- 3 tbsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp Chinese Cooking Wine optional
- 2 cups Water
Instructions
- Cut the pork side ribs into cubes by following the bones. Cook the pork in boiling water for 3-4 minutes and set aside.
- Mix dark soy sauce, soy sauce, ketchup, rice vinegar, Chinese cooking wine, and sugar until sugar is dissolved.
- Turn the heat up to medium-high and drizzle oil into a pan. Once the oil is hot, add in pork and sauté for 3-4 minutes.
- Add in garlic and saute together for another 1-2 minutes.
- Drizzle in the sauce and mix for 1-2 minutes until pork is covered in sauce and pour in 2 cups of water. Bring it to a simmer and turn the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, turn the heat up to high and cook uncovered for 3-4 minutes.
This recipe was so good! I followed it word for word because the recipe actually used ingredients I keep on hand. Lots of yummy sauce for rice. I wonder how it would taste with balsamic instead of rice wine vinegar. Loved it, thank you!
Love your recipes! Super easy to follow and even if I don’t have the exact ingredients, always turns out tasting so delicious 🤤
Thanks for sharing your love of cooking with the world 🥰
So excited to try this Recipe tonight!!
Just wondering, your ingredient lists ketchup but your instruction and video both don’t have it??
The ribs tasted a 🌟! This will be my go to recipe for ribs now.
It’s kind of common sense that it is part of the sauce mix, but your recipe instruction did not include ketchup in the sauce mix–just FYI
🙂 🙂 🙂
turned out great, loved the recipe
I went to the butcher and asked for pork short ribs and he said short ribs are not pork, they are beef. I showed him your video (which doesn’t name “pork” as the rib type) and told him I think they are pork. He disagreed with me and told me they don’t have any beef “short ribs” ..grrrr..:(. I finally found your written recipe and sure enough you call them “side ribs”. I’m so confused! I looked up side ribs and they don’t look anything like what you are cooking!
I learned that “side ribs” = “spare ribs”. I need more detail…lol.
Erin, I’ve had that happen to me, too. But there’s a pork center about 1 hour from us, and we drove over there to stock up our freezer yesterday. They have pork short ribs. They do NOT look like beef short ribs. And now that I’ve seen them, I know I’ve seen them in our grocery stores here, but not by that name.
Fantastic recipe! I was worried that simmering the ribs would make them tough, but they were super tender. This recipe is no-fuss, few ingredients, and is ready in under an hour. And the flavor is amazing! Thank you for sharing:)
The ribs were a hit.
tried this tonight and it was a smashing hit! My kids absolutely loved it!
Super easy! Super good! My family normally doesn’t react well to new things on the menu. But I had these ribs and didn’t know how to prepare them. So I tried this recipe. My family loved them and dinner was done and ready to eat in just under an hour. Thus is definitely a keeper.
Chef’s Kiss, Thank you soooo much.
My son loved this recipe and he is super picky! Definitely making the food rotation!
This is a great recipe! I found that it took closer to 45 minutes to reduce the sauce. I also did not have ketchup, so added an extra tablespoon of sugar and used tomato paste instead. Served it over udon noodles and tonkatsu broth with green onion and sesame seeds. So delicious for so little work! Will make again the next time pot spare ribs are on sale at my local Asian market.
Just made them last night. Family loved them! These were so good we were sucking on the bones! I don’t know what step in the process does it, but the flavor just permeates through the meat and all the way into the bones! This will be a staple on our home forever!
Made this twice and always a hit in our house! My young kids (4 and 2) also love it so much. I cooked it a little longer (closer to 50 min) to make it more tender for the kids. Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Reina, I’m so happy you enjoyed this, and especially glad that your kids love it too! Thank you for sharing! This was one of my favorites as a kid as well!
Tiffy