Twice-Cooked Pork Belly
Hui guo rou. Simmer the belly whole, chill it, slice it thin, then fry it in its own fat with chili bean paste until the edges curl.
Still dialing this one in. I have only made this experimentally, so treat the numbers as a starting point rather than a dialed-in recipe. The method is sound; the amounts are where I would expect to adjust.
- Serves
- 4
- Active
- 25 min
- Total
- 3 hr
If you have skin-on belly
Use it, unchanged. Simmer 5 minutes longer so the skin softens, and expect the slices to hold their shape better in the wok — the skin keeps the curl from going too far.
You'll have bought more than this
Belly comes in 4 to 5 pound slabs, and this uses about a pound and a half. Simmer the whole slab in step 1 — same pot, same aromatics, 10 minutes longer for the extra thickness — then chill all of it. You get this dish tonight and a cold, cooked, sliceable piece of belly for the rest of the week.
The cooked belly keeps 4 days in the fridge and freezes well in slabs. What to do with the rest:
- Slice and fry it the same way with different seasoning — soy, honey and chili, or just salt and pepper.
- Cube it and crisp it for tacos, skipping that recipe's water stage since it's already rendered.
- Chop it into fried rice, ramen or noodles, where a little goes a long way.
Or double everything here and cook for eight.
Substitutions, from a regular grocery store
Everything here is on the shelf at H-E-B, mostly in the Asian aisle, and none of it is a compromise worth apologising for.
| Traditional | What to buy instead | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pixian chili bean paste (doubanjiang) | Lee Kum Kee Sichuan-style broad bean sauce, or their chili bean sauce / toban djan | 1:1. Red label, glass jar. Already a paste, so it scoops straight in. |
| Sweet bean sauce (tianmianjiang) | Hoisin sauce, any brand | 1:1. Hoisin is thinner and sweeter, so cut the added sugar to ½ tsp or skip it. |
| Fermented black beans (douchi) | Lee Kum Kee black bean garlic sauce | 1 tsp of the sauce. Don't rinse it. It already has garlic in it, so use smaller cloves for the fresh garlic. |
| Shaoxing wine | Dry sherry | 1:1, and it's near the vinegars rather than the Asian aisle. Mirin also works, but it's sweet — skip the added sugar entirely if you use it. |
| Sichuan peppercorns | Nothing, honestly — or black peppercorns | They're only in the poaching water here, where they're doing a light job. If the store has them (spice aisle or Asian aisle, sometimes labelled prickly ash), use them. If not, ½ tsp of black peppercorns and a bay leaf is a fine stand-in. Nothing else numbs, and nothing needs to at this stage. |
| Leeks or green garlic | Scallions | Use 4 scallions, whites and greens, cut on the same steep diagonal. Green garlic is the best of the three and the hardest to find. |
The chili bean paste is the one ingredient that decides whether this tastes like the dish. Generic chili paste or sriracha is not a substitute; the Lee Kum Kee jar is.
Ingredients
Method
-
Simmer
Simmer. Put the belly in a pot with the ginger, scallion, Shaoxing and peppercorns, cover with cold water, and bring to a bare simmer. It should be cooked through but still firm -- this is not the braise.
-
Rest
Chill. Lift it out, cool it, and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight. It has to be properly cold.
-
Prep
Slice. Cut into pieces about 2 mm thick, as wide as the belly is. Thin matters more than tidy.
-
Fry
Dry-fry. Heat a wok or heavy pan over medium-high with no oil, or a teaspoon if your belly is very lean. Lay the slices in a single layer and fry until the fat renders out and the edges curl up. That curl is the sign the dish is named for. Push the pork to one side.
-
Fry
Fry the paste. Add the chili bean paste to the rendered fat and fry until the oil turns red, about 30 seconds. Then the sweet bean sauce, black beans and garlic, another 20 seconds.
-
Fry
Combine. Toss the pork back through, add the leeks, then the soy, sugar and Shaoxing. Stir-fry until the leeks are just softened.
-
Prep
Serve with plain rice.
If it's not right
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Slices tear instead of cutting | Not cold enough. | Back in the fridge. |
| Nothing curls | Too thick, or the pan was not hot enough. | Slice thinner and get the pan properly hot. |
| Harsh, raw-tasting sauce | The chili bean paste was not fried long enough. | It needs to bloom in the fat until the oil colours. |
| Greasy | Too much rendered fat left in the pan. | Pour off all but about a tablespoon before the paste goes in. |
| Tough pork | Simmered too long in step 1, or boiled rather than simmered. | A bare simmer, 20 to 25 minutes, no more. |
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