Prep Time 20 minutes - Total Time 4 hours 15 minutes - Serves 5
!!Safety Announcement!!
Warning cooking this recipe will result in serious drooling, so beware of drowning.
This has to be my favourite way of cooking pork belly, braising it low and slow with beautiful flavours that will fill the house. It will almost feel like torture as the amazing aromatic swirl around the kitchen making you want to rip open the oven door.
But remember patience is a virtue, so trust me the 4-hour wait well be more than worth it. And once the pork is ready you are going to be left with super tender, fall-apart pork belly. Serve it with some rice and pak choi with a little garlic and ginger or oyster sauce or add it to your favourite stirfry mix with noodles.
Ingredients
2 kg of boneless pork belly, rind removed.
Sauce Ingredients
4 tbsps of sweet chilli sauce.
4 tbsps of hoisin sauce.
3 tbsps of honey.
Chilli sauce, optional and to taste.
2 tbsps of dark soy sauce.
1 tbsp of toasted sesame oil.
2 lime, juice only.
Braising Ingredients
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, roughly sliced.
4 spring onions, roughly sliced.
5 garlic cloves, left whole.
3 star anise.
2 lemongrass.
2 tbsps of oyster sauce.
3 tbsps of light soy sauce.
1 tbsp of black peppercorns.
1 tbsp of Chinese five-spice.
2 limes, cut into quarters.
3 tbsps of Shaoxing cooking wine.
1 tbsp of fish sauce.
1 litre of chicken stock.
Method
In a large deep roasting tray mix all the braising ingredients along with a nice pinch of salt. Place the pork belly on top, cover tightly with tin foil and pop into a preheated oven set at 150℃ for 4 hours or till super tender. Every hour or so give it a base with the beautiful juices in the tray.
Once out of the oven leave the pork in the tray and allow to cool completely. Then once cooled take the pork and cut into nice bite-size cubes; you should get around 17-20 depending on how big you cut them.
Now mix all the sauce ingredients with a pinch of salt and leave to one side while you finish the pork.
Get a wok or large frying pan over a high heat, add a nice splash of oil and throw in the pork. As the pork is already cooked what you are looking at doing now is warming it up and getting a bit of a crust on it. After a few minutes pour in the sauce being sure to coat all the pork and give that another few minutes. Depending on the size of your wok or pan you may have to do this in 2 batches. Allow the sauce to reduce slightly then you are good to go.
Serve the pork with some rice and pak choi with a little garlic and ginger or oyster sauce or add it to your favourite stirfry mix. However, you serve it make sure you finish it off with a few sprinkles of sesame seeds, some fresh chopped coriander and mint and a few sliced red chillies.
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