Hong Shao Rou (Chinese Red-Braised Pork Belly)
Hong shao rou (红烧肉), literally 'red-braised meat', is a Chinese home-style braise of skin-on pork belly cubes cooked until the surface turns a deep mahogany red and a thin, glossy sauce clings to every piece. The colour and shine come from rock sugar caramelized before the meat goes in, then a slow simmer in soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, ginger, and star anise. It is one of the standard dishes on the family table for National Day (国庆, 1–7 October) and Lunar New Year, usually served alongside plain rice and a plate of blanched greens to balance the richness. Most of the 60 to 90 minutes on the stove is unattended simmering, so the active work is really the first fifteen minutes: cutting, blanching, and getting the sugar to the right shade of amber. Done right, the fat under the skin turns soft and almost translucent rather than greasy, and the lean layers hold their shape without drying out.
Ingredients
- 550 gskin-on pork belly
- 30 grock sugar
- 3 tbspShaoxing wine
- 2 tbsplight soy sauce
- 1 tbspdark soy sauce
- 4 slicesfresh ginger
- 2 spring onions
- 2 star anise
- 1 tbspneutral oil
- 600 mlhot water
Method
- Cut the pork belly into 3 cm cubes, keeping the skin on. Even cubes matter here: pieces that are too small dry out during the long simmer, and pieces that are too large won't take up the sauce all the way through. Leave the skin attached; it turns soft and jelly-like after braising and is part of what makes the dish rich rather than just fatty.
- Blanch the pork starting from cold water (冷水下锅焯水): put the cubes in a pot, cover with cold water, and add two of the ginger slices and one spring onion. Bring to a boil over high heat and let it bubble for 2 to 3 minutes, skimming off the grey foam that rises. Starting from cold water is what pulls the blood and impurities out slowly as the water heats; starting from boiling water instead seals the surface immediately and traps them inside, leaving the braise cloudy and faintly gamy. Drain, rinse the pork under warm water, and pat it dry.
- Make the caramel (炒糖色): put the rock sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a dry wok or heavy pot over medium-low heat. Swirl the pan gently as the sugar melts and turns from clear to pale gold to a deep amber the colour of dark honey, with small bubbles covering the whole surface — this takes 4 to 6 minutes. Watch it closely once it passes gold: amber can slide into bitter, burnt sugar within seconds, and if that happens there is no saving it, so tip it out and start again rather than pushing forward with a scorched batch.
- As soon as the caramel reaches that amber stage, add the drained pork cubes and the neutral oil, and toss quickly to coat every piece. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until the pork looks glossy and the edges pick up a little colour. The sugar seizes fast against the cold meat, so keep the pieces moving instead of leaving them still in one spot.
- Add the Shaoxing wine (绍兴黄酒) and let it bubble for about 30 seconds; it should smell sharp and slightly sweet as the alcohol cooks off. Stir in the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, the remaining ginger and spring onion, and the star anise, then pour in the hot water so the pork is covered by about 1 cm. Bring everything back to a boil.
- Cover the pot, lower the heat until the liquid barely bubbles, and simmer for 60 to 90 minutes, checking every 20 minutes or so that it hasn't dried out. The pork is ready when a chopstick slides into a cube with no resistance and the skin has gone soft enough to cut with the side of a spoon; thicker cubes and older pigs need the longer end of that range.
- Uncover the pot, fish out the ginger, spring onion, and star anise, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Reduce the sauce for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often so it doesn't catch on the bottom, until it thickens into a glossy syrup that coats the back of a spoon and clings to the pork instead of pooling around it. This step, 收汁 or 'gathering the juice', is what turns a good braise into a lacquered one.
- Serve immediately over steamed rice, spooning the reduced sauce generously over the meat. A plate of quickly blanched bok choy or choy sum on the side cuts through the richness and is the usual accompaniment at a Chinese family table.
FAQ
The sugar went past the amber stage before you added the pork or liquid. Rock sugar melts slowly at first, but once it hits a deep honey colour it can burn within 5 to 10 seconds, especially over medium-high heat rather than medium-low. If it happens, there's no rescuing that batch: tip it out, wipe the pan, and start again with fresh rock sugar over lower heat, adding the pork the instant it turns amber rather than waiting for a darker shade.
Yes, and it's a common home-cook substitution when rock sugar isn't on hand. Use about 25 grams of white sugar in place of the 30 grams of rock sugar, since white sugar tastes sweeter gram for gram; it caramelizes the same way but a little faster, so watch it closely. Rock sugar's main advantage is a cleaner, less aggressively sweet flavour and a slightly glossier finish on the meat, not a difference you can't live without. If you actually want a sweeter, sugar-forward pork dish rather than a savoury braise, sweet and sour pork is a better fit.
Stored in an airtight container once cooled, it keeps for 4 to 5 days in the fridge and genuinely tastes better after the first day, when the sauce has had time to sink further into the meat. It freezes well for up to 2 months; freeze it submerged in its own sauce rather than drained, since the sauce protects the meat from drying out. Thaw it in the fridge overnight and reheat gently on the stove with a tablespoon or two of water to loosen the sauce back to a glaze.
Chairman Mao's version, 毛氏红烧肉, skips soy sauce entirely: the colour comes only from caramelized sugar, and the seasoning leans on doubanjiang or fermented black beans plus a few dried chillies, giving it a spicier, saltier edge. Shanghai-style hong shao rou, the style behind this recipe, follows the 浓油赤酱 principle of 'thick oil, deep sauce': both light and dark soy sauce go in alongside the sugar, giving a sweeter, glossier, more mahogany-coloured braise. Both share the same core technique of caramelizing sugar before the low, slow simmer. If you want pork cooked a completely different way, char siu pork is roasted with a sticky, sweet glaze instead of braised.
Plain steamed white rice is the standard pairing; it soaks up the reduced sauce and needs nothing added. Add a plate of quickly blanched bok choy, choy sum, or Chinese broccoli dressed with nothing more than a drizzle of the braising liquid, since the vegetable's slight bitterness cuts through the fat. Skip heavy, oily side dishes at the same meal: hong shao rou is rich enough to be the centre of the table on its own. If you do want a vegetable dish that plays well with the same soy-and-garlic flavour base, Chinese braised eggplant is a natural match.
Rate this
Recipes by email
One letter a week: a recipe picked for your taste, plus whatever is new on the site. Unsubscribe in one click.
Welcome gift: Sergei's cookbook (e-book).
By subscribing you agree to the privacy policy.
Tell us what you like to cook (30 seconds) →Keep browsing
More dishes from the Chinese archive — picked by overlap with what you're cooking now.
Join the conversation
Comments
No comments yet — be the first!