Red Braised or Red Cooked is the quintessential Chinese Home-style Cooking Method. I grew up on Red Cooked Pork, Beef, Fish, Tofu, etc. Everyone loves it and it’s really quite simple to make.

Red Braised Pork Belly

  • 2.2 ounces rock sugar
  • 1 3/4 pound pork belly
  • 2 cup soy sauce
  • 3 1/2 cups water, divided
  • 3/4″ cross section ginger, smashed
  • 2 scallions, cut in half

1. Spray a large skillet with non-stick and heat on low. Melt the rock candy and when there’s enough melted (a bit more than half), put the pork belly, skin side down, on the sugar. Allow the skin to get crispy.
2. Add soy sauce, 2 1/2 cups of water, ginger and scallions and bring to a boil.

Braising Pork Belly

3. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 25 minutes, uncovered.
4. Turn the pork belly on its side and add remaining cup of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue for another 10 minutes. Turn onto the other side and cook for another 10 minutes.

Red Braised Pork Belly 2 Red Braised Pork Belly

Now, you have Red Braised Pork Belly. It’s so tender, so flavorful, so juicy, oh, yes, and fatty, but not in an oily way. What do you do with it? Sometimes, it’s served in 2-3 inch segments, sometimes it’s sliced. I decided on the latter, after first removing the bone on the bottom.
sliced pork belly

You will have a lot of sauce. One option is to serve this meat over rice and drizzle some of this sauce.
Pork Belly on Rice

Your other option is making a noodle soup. I used soba for the noodle and to make soup, just take some sauce and add water until it’s the right saltiness for you. You can also add veggies like bok choy. (I don’t know the English name of the veggie I used.)
Pork Belly Noodle Soup

When Lon saw me making soba, he protested, assuming he wouldn’t like it. I asked him to trust me and when he tried it he loved it, pork belly, soba, soup, and all.

posted by jessica at 11:59 AM Filed under Chinese, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.