Melt In Your Mouth Pork Belly (The One Ingredient You Must Include) Chinese Braised Pork Belly

Date: 2025-10-15 12:30:33

×

This recipe is for Melt In Your Mouth Pork Belly. It’s known as Chinese Braised Pork Belly or Red Braised Pork Belly 紅燒肉 . Also known as Hong Shao Rou. Delicious taste you willnever forget. A delicious and simple recipe. The pork belly is tender, sweet and salty. It’s a dish that you can served on special occasions. Your family and friends will be very impressed when you serve this dish. In this video, I use the Instant Pot but you can use a regular pot ifyou like. You can make my hong shao rou using your take- out Chinese Roast Pork or your left overs from your home cooked Chinese Roast Pork. You can also make this Chinese Braised Pork Belly starting from raw pork belly. I show you all the steps.
SEE OUR CHINESE COOKING ACCESSORY GUIDE: https://amzn.to/2EEym6I
For woks, sauces, ingredients, gadgets, cookbooks and equipment to improve your Chinese cooking.

Disclaimer: This description contains affiliate links, so I’ll receive a small commission. It’s at no cost to you. Thanks for your support.

The recipe is below:

RED BRAISED PORK BELLY 紅燒肉

1 to 2 lbs. pork belly
2 star anise
1 thumb sized piece of ginger
2 bay leaves
2 cups chicken broth or water
2 to 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons rock sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt (optional)
2 to 3 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine (optional)

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

In this video, I am using an Instant Pot. Put the already cooked Chinese Roast Pork Belly or leftover Chinese Roast Pork Belly into Instant Pot. Add star anise, ginger, bay leaves, chicken broth, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce into Instant Pot. Set timer for 15 minutes for pressure cooker setting. When time is up, take off lid and check for tenderness of the pork belly.

If using a regular pot, it’s the same procedure as the Instant Pot. The only difference is the cooking time is for 60 minutes at low to medium heat. As a rule of thumb, Instant Pot cooking takes 1/4 of the regulat pot cooking, without accounting for pre pressure time and after de pressure time.

For raw pork belly, parboil the pork belly for 10 to 15 minutes to remove the impurities and dirt from the pork belly. Rinse off the pork belly and cut into 1/4 inch wide or thicker pieces. You can also cut into 1 inch or 2 inch cubes if you like. The cooking time should be roughly the same as cooked pork belly.
Follow the same procedures as above using an Instant Pot or using a regular pot. If the pork belly is not tender enough at this time, simmer longer in the next step, when reducing the liquids to get to the thick sauce.

MAKING THE SAUCE AND FINISHING THE PORK BELLY

Preheat a wok or pan at low to medium heat. Add rock sugar and brown sugar. Use all brown sugar if you can’t find any rock sugar. Stir fry the sugar briefly to melt down a bit. Add 1 cup of water from the pot where the pork belly was boiling. Let simmer for a few minutes to dissolve the rock sugar and brown sugar.
Add the pork belly. Gradually the liquid will turn into a syrup to coat the pork belly. At this time add the optional Chinese cooking wine and salt to taste. Serve Red Braised Pork Belly on a nice plate. Enjoy!