• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

China Sichuan Food

Chinese Recipes and Eating Culture

  • Recipes
    • All Time Popular
    • Sichuan Food
    • Staple| Rice|Noodles
    • Pork
    • Beef & Lamb
    • Chicken & Poultry
    • Fish & Seafood
    • Egg & Dairy
    • Salad & Cold dishes
    • Beverages & Tea
    • Dessert
    • Soup
    • Vegan
    • Vegetarian
  • Pantry
  • Blog
  • About
    • PRIVACY POLICY
  • Video
  • How to
  • Hot Pot
    • Chinese Hot Pot e-Cookbook

Sweet and Sour Ribs–Tang Cu Pai Gu

November 27, 2015 62 Comments

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Sweet and Sour Rib (Tang Cu Pai Gu)is a quite popular dish in China. However, mostly people will eat it in restaurant rather than at home since restaurant version is quite hard to achieve at home. This is Elaine’s simplified  homemade version without deep-frying. First published 2014 and updated in Nov, 2015 with a video.

Restrictively, spare ribs are selected as the main ingredients. The popularity is not only due to its delicious taste but also its beautiful color.

Chinese sweet and sour ribs

For restaurant style sweet and sour ribs, spare ribs are firstly marinated and then deep-fried in hot oil for less than 1 minute. This step creates a  crispy surface and a tender inner part, at the same time, ribs are almost cooked. After stir frying the sugar color, other ingredients are well combined. At the last step, ribs are placed in the sauce for coating. Usually we do not have such strong fire at home and deep-frying process requires a large amount of oil.

In this home version, we simmer the ribs along with the sauce and then thicken the sauce at the last stage. The texture is slightly different from restaurant version but quite comforting.

Sweet and sour is a popular taste in many Chinese cuisine and it can be achieved by different ingredients. For example, in well known Chinese sweet and sour sauce, ketchup is used. However for this recipe, we use black vinegar, soy sauce and sugar color (dark red rock sugar color) to create the bright red color.

Sugar color (糖色) is melted sugar with oil, usually presenting a red dark color. This cooking method is also used in many other dishes like this red braised pork belly.  Comparing with the color bought by light soy sauce or ketchup, sugar color has stronger viscidity.

Chinese sweet and sour ribs

Besides, I high recommend cutting the spare ribs into small sections around 1 inch so they can be flavored.

4.84 from 6 votes
Print
Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
50 mins
 
Chinese Sweet and Sour Ribs have an excellent taste. This version is an simplied one that can be made at home easily.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: ribs, sweet and sour
Servings: 3
Calories: 457 kcal
Author: Elaine
Ingredients
  • 1 pound spare ribs , cut into 1 to 1.5 inch sections
  • 2 tablespoons cooking oil
  • 35 g mashed rock sugar
  • 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons cooking wine
  • 3 tablespoon black vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon extra black vinegar
  • 1 star anise , optional
  • 3 ginger slices
  • 4 green onion white parts
  • hot water as needed
  • 1/2 tablespoon white sesame seed for garnishing
  • Spring onion for garnishing
Instructions
  1. Cut ribs into 1 inch to 1.5 inch sections. Place in a pot with cold water. Bring to boil and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes. Transfer out and rinse under running warm water. Set aside to drain.
  2. Add cooking oil and smashed rock sugar in wok, heat over slow fire. Keep stirring until the sugar melts and turns into dark red.
  3. Add ribs to coat the sugar color, place light soy sauce, cooking wine and black vinegar. Continue stir fry for 2 minutes and pour enough hot water to cover and add ginger, green onion and star anise.
  4. Cover the lid and simmer for 25 minutes over slowest fire. Stir once or twice in the process. Pick the ginger, green onion and star anise out in the later stage.
  5. Turn up the fire and thicken the fire. Keep stirring and stop when the sauce is almost adhered to the ribs. Be carefully in the last minutes, do not get your ribs overcooked.
  6. Add extra 1 teaspoon of black vinegar and sesame seeds. Combine well.
  7. Garnish chopped spring onions before serving.

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

When stir frying the sugar color, use slowest fire and keep stirring. Remove the work from fire if the temperature is too hot.

The ribs should be drained completely before adding to the wok, otherwise the sugar color might splash out.

Nutrition Facts
Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs
Amount Per Serving
Calories 457 Calories from Fat 306
% Daily Value*
Fat 34g52%
Saturated Fat 8g50%
Cholesterol 84mg28%
Sodium 759mg33%
Potassium 335mg10%
Carbohydrates 15g5%
Sugar 12g13%
Protein 18g36%
Vitamin A 100IU2%
Vitamin C 1.9mg2%
Calcium 40mg4%
Iron 1.9mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Sorry I spoil the pictures because I was only given two minutes. And my eaters carve them up in 5 minutes.

Chinese sweet and sour ribs

Chinese sweet and sour ribs

Filed Under: Featured, Recipes, video

« Beef Ho Fun Noodle Soup
Char Siu Pork-Chinese BBQ Pork »

You may also like

soy sauce eggs

Chinese Soy Sauce Eggs

salt and pepper squid| chinasichuanfood.com

Salt and Pepper Squid

Shanghai soup dumpling|chinasichuanfood.com

Xiao Long Bao— Soup Dumplings

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *






    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Jenny C. says

    October 27, 2019 at 12:59 pm

    Cooked this snd I love it! Yummy!

    Reply
  2. Mark says

    January 5, 2020 at 6:01 am

    Hi Elaine,

    This recipe turned out wonderful. I had slightly too much liquid after 30 minutes of simmering so removed the ribs to reduce the sauce more forcefully, then returned ribs to the sauce when it was almost syrupy and very concentrated by flavour. Excellent.

    One question: I served this with plain rice but we longed for some vegetables on the side— what would usually accompany the ribs according to Chinese tradition or your own preferences?

    Very nice blog, much appreciated

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      January 6, 2020 at 7:54 pm

      Thanks Mark,
      Usually we do not serve blanched vegetables along with sweet and sour ribs since the sauce is quite thick and hard to attach other ingredients. Usually we serve Chinese vegetable stir fry or light Chinese soups like this tofu soup with bok choy.

      Reply
  3. Nikki says

    March 2, 2020 at 1:05 am

    Can you please recommend a type or brand of rock sugar? I’ve never heard of it before and don’t know what to look for. Also, is there a reasonable substitute for the black vinegar? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      March 2, 2020 at 9:16 am

      Learn more about rock sugar here. You can use balsamic vinegar to replace black vinegar.

      Reply
  4. Emily says

    May 12, 2020 at 9:06 pm

    5 stars
    Can you use plain granulated sugar instead in rock sugar?

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      May 13, 2020 at 8:30 am

      Sure.

      Reply
  5. IC says

    May 25, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    5 stars
    Hi elaine,

    This recipe is soooooo yummy! Thank you!

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      May 26, 2020 at 8:33 am

      You got it IC. The most comforting dish for me.

      Reply
  6. Erin Stamm says

    January 11, 2021 at 5:19 am

    5 stars
    So delicious. And not too difficult!

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      January 11, 2021 at 8:36 am

      Thanks Erin!

      Reply
« Older Comments

Hi, Welcome!

Please not be limited by site name, as Elaine shares Chinese recipes beyond Sichuan dishes. Know me more from About Page

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe for Updates

Most Popular

Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup

Chinese chicken noodle soup| chinasichuanfood.com

Kung Pao Cauliflower

kung pao cauliflower | chinasichuanfood.cokung pao cauliflower | chinasichuanfood.co

Sichuan Dumplings (Zhong Dumplings)

Chinese Pantry

Chinese aromatics|chinasichuanfood.com

An Introduction to Chinese Vegetables: Allium, Aromatics and Peppers

Chinese seasonings|China Sichuan Food

Chinese Sauces and Pastes–Guide to Basic Chinese Cooking

how to toast black sesame seeds

How to Toast Sesame

taro balls|chinasichuanfood.com

How to Make Taro Balls

ChinaSichuanFood.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use only images without prior permission. 图片和文字未经授权,禁止转载和使用。

Copyright © 2021 · Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in