Chairman Mao’s Pork Belly

Name: Chairman Mao’s Pork Belly
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 20 min
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 900 g (2 lb) rindless pork belly; 2 tsp five-spice powder; 60 g (2¼ oz) rock sugar or 4 tbsp caster sugar; 2 whole dried chillies; 1 star anise; 1 tbsp sesame oil; 2 tbsp black or rice vinegar; 3 cm (1¼ inch) ginger, julienned; 60 ml 2 fl oz) dark soy sauce; 90 ml 3 fl oz) Shaoxing rice wine; 30 ml 1 fl oz) light soy sauce; 6 spring onions (scallions); steamed rice, to serve

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium
Ready in
1 hr 40

Appears in

My Asian Kitchen

By Jennifer Joyce

Published 2018

About

This Hunan specialty, which was one of Mao’s favourite dishes, is a bit like pork candy. The meat is braised in a sugary rice wine and soy liquid and slowly softens until it is meltingly tender and coated in a sticky sweet-and-sour sauce. Chinese rock sugar makes this dish very authentic and you can easily buy it online, but feel free to use normal caster sugar instead.