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Hong Shao Rou Recipe—(Red Braised Pork Belly)

September 6, 2014 26 Comments

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Sushi style Hong shao Rou—Su style red braised pork belly. Hong shao or red-braising or red-cooking, is methods of cooking meats or vegetables with soy sauce, sugar and sometimes other spices. I have introduced Maoshi red braised pork belly previously and this style is mild Sushi without chili and spices.

Hong Shao Rou—SuShi(Red braised pork belly)

There are many varieties of Hongshao Rou. Every house cook might have her own recipe. This is a clay pot recipe I made most of times with 100% successful rate. Just remove from the stove.

Hong Shao Rou—SuShi(Red braised pork belly)

One of the skillful steps is to stir fry the brown sugar. We call this as sugar color sauce, which can help to provide a slightly caramel flavor and deep caramelized color. The simplified version is to use dark soy sauce to add the color and add the brown sugar directly into your wok. But the simplified version will lose the caramel flavor.

Firstly cut the pork belly into cubes, rinse in boiling water for 1 minute. Then sauté until both sides becomes slightly brown.  Transfer out (to a clay pot or a plate).

Hong Shao Rou—SuShi(Red braised pork belly)

And here we begin to stir fry the sugar caramelized color. Put the brown sugar in wok to stir fry until all the sugar melts and you can see large bubbles. Keep stirring in the process. Turn off the fire and add warm water to make the sauce. Be careful when pouring the water in. Pour the caramelized sugar sauce into the pot.

Hong Shao Rou—SuShi(Red braised pork belly)

Then you can choose to simmer the pork cubes in clay pot or just in the wok. Simmer for around 45 minutes and turn up the fire for thickening the sauce. After around 1 hour, here we are.  Garnish some chopped green onion and sever hot!

Hong Shao Rou—SuShi(Red braised pork belly)

Is the caramelized color beautiful?

Hong Shao Rou—SuShi(Red braised pork belly)

5 from 3 votes
Hong Shao Rou—SuShi(Red braised pork belly)
Print
Hong Shao Rou—SuShi (Red Braised Pork Belly)
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 10 mins
 
Chinese Sushi Red Braised Pork Belly--Hong Shao Rou
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Braised, Pork Belly
Servings: 4
Calories: 691 kcal
Author: Elaine
Ingredients
  • 500 g pork belly , cut into cubes around 2 inches
  • 1 tbsp. cooking wine
  • 4 tbsp. light soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp. brown sugar , broken if you have large pieces
  • 2 inches ginger , cut into slices
  • 4 green onions , 1 finely chopped for garnish and the left into long sections
  • hot water to cover the pork cubes , as needed
  • oil for brushing , optional if you are using iron wok
Instructions
  1. Clean and cut the pork belly into cubes around 2 inches long.
  2. Boil a large pot of water, add cooking wine, 2 slices of ginger and 2 green onions, cook the pork belly for around 4 minutes. Transfer out and wash with warm water. Set aside and drain.
  3. Add green onion and ginger slices in a clay pot and pre-heat it on a stove.
  4. Then on another stove, heat up wok on medium fire; brush some oil on the bottom. Sautee the pork belly until the surface becomes slightly brown. Transfer the pork cubes to our pre-heat clay pot.
  5. Put the brown sugar in wok to stir fry until all the sugar melts and you can see large bubbles. Keep stirring during the process. Pour hot water to cover the pork cubes. Mix well!
  6. Transfer the sugar mixture to the clay pot with pork belly or return the pork belly into your wok. Add light soy sauce too.
  7. Bring all the content to a boiling and then lower the fire to simmer for around 45 minutes with the lid covered.
  8. Lift the lid and turn up the fire to thicken the sauce (around 15 minutes). Stop when you see the sauce is boiling strongly with large bubbles and almost thickened. Cool down a little bit and the sauce will fatherly thicken itself.
  9. Garnish some chopped green onion before serving.
Recipe Notes

Be careful when you pour hot water to the sugar sauce. But you need to pour all the water once quickly without hesitation.

Nutrition Facts
Hong Shao Rou—SuShi (Red Braised Pork Belly)
Amount Per Serving
Calories 691 Calories from Fat 594
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 66g 102%
Saturated Fat 24g 120%
Cholesterol 90mg 30%
Sodium 869mg 36%
Potassium 300mg 9%
Total Carbohydrates 9g 3%
Sugars 7g
Protein 13g 26%
Vitamin A 1%
Vitamin C 1.6%
Calcium 1.9%
Iron 6.3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Hong Shao Rou—SuShi(Red braised pork belly)

Filed Under: Featured, Pork, Recipes

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  1. John says

    November 13, 2014 at 8:38 pm

    gonna have to give this a try

    Reply
    • Elaine Luo says

      November 13, 2014 at 8:48 pm

      That will be a paying off choice, John. Good luck and happy cooking ahead.

      Reply
  2. Jmk says

    April 12, 2015 at 2:16 pm

    My red braised dishes (made with dark soy) are always brown (like the soy) and not red. Do you know why? Would cartelizing the sugar and using light soy be red?

    Reply
    • Elaine Luo says

      April 12, 2015 at 7:58 pm

      Hi Jmk,
      For a brighter red color, using sugar and light soy sauce. Dark soy sauce will spoil the color.

      Reply
  3. Reid says

    November 3, 2015 at 2:18 am

    I’ve tried a few different 红烧肉 recipes and this one is the best! The caramelized sugar with soy sauce creates the perfect sauce for the pork belly. Each piece was tender and deep red, just like the photos. I can’t wait to make this again! Do you have any suggestions for how to make crispy pork belly without an oven? I read your Crispy Pork Belly recipe and by the end my mouth was watering, but then I realized I needed an oven. Any ideas? Thanks for the authentic recipes and helping me improve my Chinese cooking!

    Reply
  4. Rei says

    April 10, 2016 at 2:28 pm

    Hi there, tried your recipe except that I halved the ingredients. At about 25 mins mark while simmering the sugared pork belly, the pork belly got charred n tasted tough. I had to forgo the whole dish as it was too burnt (and dark). Any idea what could have gone wrong? One thing that cross my mind could be too much brown sugar used.

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      April 10, 2016 at 9:39 pm

      Hi Rei,

      In order to prevent the pork belly getting burnt, you will need to stir them occasionally especially in the later half time. And remember to use the slowest fire.

      Reply
    • Chua says

      June 16, 2016 at 8:15 pm

      I had the same problem. Used low fire & stirred it every 10 min. but it got burnt at about 25 min mark.

      Reply
      • Elaine says

        June 19, 2016 at 8:56 pm

        Hi Chua,

        I believe it might be caused by the amount of hot water. 1 cup might be not enough.

        Reply
  5. Jessica says

    May 13, 2016 at 11:27 am

    Hi, do I need to transfer green onion, ginger and oil from the wok into the clay pot when cooking the pork? Im a bit confused with step 3
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      May 14, 2016 at 2:39 pm

      Sorry Jessica,
      I do not make myself understood. Firstly you need to heat up a clay pot with green onion and ginger slices on another stove.

      Reply
  6. Paul M. says

    May 15, 2016 at 6:20 am

    Hello Elaine
    I just found your site!!!! ……
    I have been making Asian food for many years now….( I am Irish-American ) …However your recipes sound/taste so authentic that I will most likely end up as round in the belly as Buddha !
    Thank you as many times as there are stars in the sky….. May you have good luck and prosper…… and a special thank you to your Mother & Grandmother….as I learned how to cook from both of my Grandmothers ….I have found that they are the most important ingredient in any good cooks pantry!
    Sincerely PaulM

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      May 16, 2016 at 10:03 pm

      That’s rule. I own all my yummy dishes to my mother and grandmother. They told me so many important tips in their daily cooking and more importantly motivate me to enjoy cooking and food creation.

      I am glad that you love this Paul. Happy cooking!

      Reply
  7. Janina says

    November 27, 2016 at 8:30 pm

    We made this recipe yesterday and oh! was it yummy! We added some cinnamon, star anise and chili to the sugar as we had seen that in some other recipes.
    I think this sentence is a little hard to understand: “Put the brown sugar in wok to stir fry until all the sugar melts and you can see large bubbles. Keep stirring during the process. Pour hot water to cover the pork cubes. Mix well!”
    Maybe someone else also has some problems so here is my interpretation: “… Let the brown sugar caramelize and keep stirring during the process. Add the hot water you used for cooking the meat into the wok so that it will cover the pork cubes you’ll add later. Mix well!” Hope that I understood it correctly. For us it worked this way 🙂
    Next project: Gua Bao (Taiwanese Pork Belly Buns). Already looking forward to it!

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      December 1, 2016 at 5:36 pm

      Thanks Janina for the wonderful feedback. I hope you like Gua Bao too. Gua Bao will be much easier after a successful Hong Shao Rou.

      Reply
  8. dewey says

    January 30, 2017 at 1:43 pm

    I followed the recipe and after 1 hr, there was still way too much water. Is there a rule of thumb regarding how much of the pork to cover with water or is 2 cups always necessary. Thanks,

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      January 30, 2017 at 9:59 pm

      Hi Dewey,
      The water evaporation depends on lots of factors including the cookware and the heat. When you open the lid and turn up the fire, the evaporation process will speed up. If there is still too much, you just need to slightly lengthen the process.
      Usually I keep the pork cubes around 4/5 covered. I hope this helps. Happy cooking!

      Reply
  9. Nathan says

    January 6, 2018 at 7:47 am


    Wonderful edition to fried rice, I made this in preparation for the fried rice I was making and it came out beautifully tender, a few tips for the ingredients I found was instead of saying 4 tablespoons of soy sauce you could say 1/4th cup it takes less time to measure out also instead of 500g you could say 1lb or 16oz, not that it matters that much just thought it would be easier to follow, thank you for the delicious recipe!

    Reply
  10. Amir Najam Sethit says

    March 9, 2018 at 8:07 pm

    Looks so delicious.. Thank you for sharing this mouth watering recipe.

    Reply
  11. Jason says

    July 16, 2018 at 6:27 am


    Hi,
    I doubled this recipe and ended up having a brown sauce rather than red. I’m not sure where I went wrong.

    I carmalized the brown sugar, added enough water that it would cover all the pork, then transferred the carmalized brown sugar “sauce” to a Dutch oven with the pork. I then simmered for 45 minutes. It stayed brown the entire time. At what point should the sauce turn red?

    Taste was great though!

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      July 16, 2018 at 8:05 am

      Jason,
      You need to continue thickening the sauce with very slow fire.

      Reply
  12. Jess says

    October 24, 2018 at 4:54 am

    Is it possible to use rock sugar instead of brown sugar?

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      October 24, 2018 at 8:29 am

      Yes, rock sugar works fine too.

      Reply
  13. Eva says

    August 6, 2019 at 4:18 am


    I did this recipe this evening but the sauce was either too thick or too oily… And I didn’t have the same color as you, I think it’s because I used brown sugar from cane? Also, I did use a medium red oignon since I didn’t have green ones… maybe the sauce was too thick because of that? shame!

    Added an anis star + one clove too. Was super delicious anyway!

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      August 6, 2019 at 9:58 am

      Eva,
      The most possible reason is that your pork belly is slightly over-heated in the searing process. If it comes too oily, you can pour the extra oil out and continue with further steps.
      The color can be influenced by the sugar and the soy sauce. If possible, tag me a photo on INS.

      Reply
      • Eva says

        August 20, 2019 at 3:12 am

        I had already eaten everything when I saw your picture. I think the soy sauce is too dark but I can’t buy too many products in my small flat. Could I put less soy sauce and a little bit of salt instead?

        I actually forgot to sear it… But maybe I waited too long for my sauce to reduce.

        Reply

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