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Braised Pork Belly (Dong Po Rou/东坡肉)
January 6th, 2012Recipes, Chinese New Year, Recipes, Chinese Recipes, Recipes47 Comments
Pork is most definitely not just “the other white meat” in China. From the smoky-licious BBQ Pork (叉烧) and Crispy Pork Belly (烧肉) in Cantonese cuisine to the dainty-licious Xiao Long Bao (小笼包) from Shanghai and numerous other famous Chinese pork dishes in between, pork is clearly the meat of choice in Chinese cooking. In fact, the Chinese character for meat ‘肉’ (ròu), refers to pork if no particular meat is specified (e.g. 咕噜’肉’ translates to Sweet and Sour ‘Pork’).
During one of my travels to China, I had the pleasure of introducing my taste buds to a deservedly popular pork dish in Chinese cuisine—the delicate and delectable Braised Pork Belly, Dongpo Pork (东坡肉). As I have mentioned before, many Chinese dish names tell interesting stories, like Beggar’s Chicken (叫化鸡) or Goubuli Baozi (狗不理包子). Dongpo Pork is an iconic feature of Hangzhou (杭州) cuisine and can be attributed to Su Shi (苏轼) a.k.a Su Dongpo (苏东坡), a scholar and court official during the Song Dynasty (宋朝), renowned today for his brilliance in poetry, calligraphy, and writings in Chinese literary history.
There was a time when Su Dongpo was demoted for criticizing the emperor and sent to Huangzhou (黄州) in exile. One day, he was so engrossed in a game of Chinese chess (象棋) with an old friend that he forgot all about the Red-Cooked Pork Belly (红烧肉) braising on his stove. The fragrant aroma from the lengthy braising drifting in from the kitchen suddenly reminded him. As he took a bite of the pork, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the dish he thought had been ruined turned out to be even more tender and tastier than expected. Dongpo Pork was thus born.
When he was later stationed in Hangzhou (杭州) and was overseeing a reconstruction project on the West Lake (西湖), he cooked the same dish with the pork cut up into cubes and distributed them to the workers as a sign of gratitude. The dish was thoroughly enjoyed by all and Dongpo Pork rapidly gained popularity then and there right up to the present day, where it has become a notable signature dish in Hangzhou cuisine and famous all around the world.
The key discerning factor between Red-Cooked Pork and Dongpo Pork is undoubtedly the lengthier braising process, which increases the caramelization of the sugar to enhance the flavor, infuses the cooking wine into the meat longer for an even richer fragrance, and last but definitely not least, breaks down the fat further to give the pork that tender “melt-in-your-mouth” texture minus the greasiness.
In other words, this is one dish that is definitely worth the wait. And as a bonus for your patience, you can always “forget” to set your kitchen timer and wait for the tantalizing aroma to remind you of the mouth-watering concoction simmering on your stovetop. Who knows? You might just get a dish named after you!
(Click Page 2 for the Braised Pork Belly/Dongpo Rou Recipe)
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This pork looks fantastic!
These safety strings add some complexity to the picture, for sure.
But a question: how the guest supposed to remove them? Is it possible to do this with just chopsticks?
That looks amazing
Isn’t that just a blob of fat?
I just made some 红烧肉 last night, I should try this recipe tonight. Yummy
Elaine, that’s how pork belly is. Streaks of fat and meat. I usually use those without skin and very little fat. Still taste good.
Elaine – exactly, that’s why pork belly is so good, fat with streaks of meat and melts in your mouth. ;)
Tsu – thanks for explaining. :)
Really tasty photos……. will be miaking this in the slow cooker…….
YUMMY! I remember have some amazing Dong Po Rou in Shanghai a few years and have thought about making it at home but never had the courage too lol I’m more of a baker ~ will definitely be referring to your recipe though!
Thanks!
Looks amazing. I am marinating two cornish hens to try your Chinese style roast chicken at the moment.
My family loves Stewed Pork Belly! In fact, I just made it for dinner last night. I also throw in some carrots and a couple of chickens thighs. I’ve discovered cooking it in a pressure cooker and it only takes 1hr to cook with the same tasty results! So yummy!
This dish is so easy to make. will try it as soon as I can get a slab of pork belly.
This is looks fantastic! Can’t wait to try them..:)
@Holly – let me know how the roast hen goes. :)
Hi Thanks for another wonderful recipe. Will Sure try to make it next weekend.
The Chinese style chicken is incredible! Had it with garlic green beans and white rice…will be making this again. Thank you!
Interesting story and recipe Bee!
We have restaurant in Bali which serve this dish, it call depot 369, i had this dish and my husband thought me how to it–sandwich the braised belly with very yummy pao *i totally forget the name:(
it really melt in the mouth :)
I tried this recipe yesterday and it was amazing.
On a side note, Dongporou is quite popular today, mainly because it was a favorite of MaoZedong, whose favorite recipe reportedly uses no soy sauce. Rumor goes that he grew up in Hunan, which had many soy sauce factories and after seeing how soy sauce was made, was not a fan of it in his food. An imperial chef was tasked with re-creating Dongporou without soy sauce and after two tries, he was in the Great Helmsman’s favor. My favorite version is served atop sweet rice nestled in a roasted small pumpkin crowned with the decadently fatty, tender meat–the gluttonous rice and sweetness of the pumpkin makes for a very tasty dish.
Bee, this pork belly looks so incredibly delicious I want to cry. Wow.
Ha, we had this at a restaurant the other day and the kids love it. we had it sandwiched betwwen pieces of pao-like mantou. I am so going to try this this week, as a good prep for CNY dinner :) Thanks Bee
I have a pot full of dong po rou (a la Filipino adobo style). I cooked two slabs of pork belly, with some very streaky pork neck chunks in a sauce made of a local chinese rice wine (in lieu of vinegar), soy sauce, garlic, ginger, peppercorns, scallions, and a couple of star anise tossed in there. Three hours braised in the oven and all that meat was soft and buttery. I have kept the pork belly in a “confit” (the fat congealed over the belly strips), and have used a few chunks to cook vegetables. It’s a divine dish, very versatile and easy to make. Long live pork!
It is available in Esquire Kitchen. We always call this dish whenever we eat there. Delicious. Think I’ll try out the recipe. Thanks.
Can’t wait until I’m eating meat again. This post has me anticipating this as my first meat meal!
This is just the sort of dish I love!! Bookmarking!
My god, look at that color,
(drooling)~
a nice recipe, but i really miss the fivespice flavor of dong po rou! so i added abt 1 tsp fivespice powder and also 1 cinnamon stick and double the amount of shaoxing wine.
Hi! When you call for dark soy sauce is this the Malaysian thick caramel sauce?
No, just black soy sauce.
hi bee! i just found out about your website when searching for the black pepper beef recipe. I found yours in http://www.mycookinghut.com when she referred to this website. I have to say that is the best black pepper recipe ever!! my husband loves it so much he asked me to cook again for him the next day lol thanks to you.
I just tried your dong po rou this evening for dinner and it’s just delicious!! i went to hang zhou once and tried this dish. A bit different from what i remember but still your recipe tastes great and that’s what matters!!
btw, i really really want to buy your book. do u know if they sell it in singapore? rather than buying from amazon (the shipping fee is like 75% of the book price for standard 18-32 days delivery!!) i literally cant wait that long! lol
please let me know, ok :) thanks
Hi Jinilia, you can get it Kinokuniya. Scroll down on this link for information: http://rasamalaysia.com/easy-chinese-recipes-cookbook/
yaaaay thanks can’t wait to buy one :)
Hi!If I wish to cook 2lb of pork belly does that mean I have to double the ingredients?
Yes.
Thank you, enjoy following your simple and yummy recipes! Keep up the good work!
Hi Bee, I tried making this the other day and the result was very, very salty. I followed your recipe down to the tee, and I am wondering if it is because I simmered it uncovered or is 1 cup of soy sauce too much?
If you read the comments, a few people had tried with successful results. If you simmer with the lit uncovered, all the water will evaporate/reduce mostly that’s why your sauce might be too salty. If you simmer with it covered, it keeps most of the water/moisture. Add more water if it’s too salty.
oh wait, I think I braised it with the pot covered. Hence, I am not sure why the recipe turned out to be so salty. Would be great if I know what went wrong as I love Dong Po Rou! Thanks!
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Hey Bee, I just had a go at this recipe, but found it overly overly salty even after adding a whole lot of sugar. Could there be a mistake in the amount of soy sauce used?
I used low sodium soy sauce which is very light. I updated the recipe to 1 cup low sodium soy sauce or 1/2 cup regular soy sauce. Also did your water level reduced a lot? If so, add some water to it.
Are you using an American measuring cup?
Hi thanks for the awesome recipe really been looking forward to it since moving away from singapore, it was really easy to follow but after two hours of simmering I was nowhere near the caramel looking brown in the photo? It’s the color I’m familiar with from back home so I know what Iv made is way too white, but the braising sauce tastes really good and the meat really soft too but somehow doesn’t seem to have absorbed the flavours(which the dark colour would have been an indicator that it has I mean and which I didn’t get). I don’t know if iv somehow missed a step by misunderstanding your recipe? Like after drying the pork after its been boiled is it supposed to be fried a little with the garlic and scallions before adding water? Although I don’t see what diff that would make
argh tried it again and still cant get that caramelly look, and this time the pork even had a weird taste to it, like the pork version of ‘gamey’ if you get what i mean, kind of like the smell that comes up when boiling off the dirt or whatever that is at the start of the process, except this time for some reason it was still in the pork even after letting it boil for 15 minutes or slightly more, it was just the other half of the same slab i used before, left in the regular fridge, shouldnt have spoilt or anything, any idea what im doing wrong?
I am not sure, it sounds like you didn’t cook it enough?
well i cooked it for 2 hours both times, only slightly brown looking, left it for at least another hour, every so slightly more brown, not what i would even call medium brown, at this point the meat is so soft that it falls apart really easily in my mouth but just is not what i would call dong po rou, or any of the sort of chinese braised pork
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