Serves 2-4

Time: 3 hours + overnight pressing

NutritionSortLoading...
Loading...

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs pork belly, skin removed (9inch x 4 piece)

1 cup water

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp dark soy

4 Tbsp Shaoxing wine

2 Tbsp granulated sugar, or about 2 inch piece of rock sugar

2 star anise

1 bay leaf

1 small cinnamon

1 Tbsp coriander seeds

3 dried arbol chile

3 scallions, chopped

1 inch ginger, sliced

2 dried shiitake mushroom caps

Juice from 1 tangerine + peel (no pith)

Chopped cilantro, for serving

Sliced scallions, for serving

Tangerine segments, for serving

Cooked jasmine rice, for serving

Select allAdd

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 300F

2. Using a cake tester or the tip of a sharp knife, poke pork belly all over.

3. In a baking dish, combine water, soy sauce, dark soy, shaoxing, sugar, star anise, bay leaf, cinnamon, coriander seeds, dried chile, ginger, scallions, shiitake, tangerine juice and peel.

4. Coat pork belly with liquid, cover with parchment paper and cover baking dish with aluminum foil.

5. Place in oven and cook until pork belly is tender. Instant read thermometer should read about 195F. About 2 hours and 30 minutes.

6. Remove foil, flip pork belly over to soak in more flavor. Let cool down to room temperature. Place plastic wrap or parchment paper on top of pork belly. Place similar size vessel on top of pork belly to weigh down. Use canned goods/weights if necessary.

7. Place in fridge at least 6 hours or overnight with weights on top of it.

8. Next day, remove pork belly and portion. Pat dry with a paper towel. (I cut mine into 4 2-inch pieces.)

9. Strain braising liquid and discard solids. (I heated the braising liquid slightly since it’s very gelatinized.)

10. Sear pork belly on all sides until golden brown. About 3 minutes each side.

11. Turn off flame to prevent flame flare up. Pour about 1 ½ cups of strained braising liquid into pot.

12. Reduce over medium high heat until the sauce sticks to the pork belly and coats the back of your spoon. About 15-20 minutes. (To prevent burning on the sides of the pan, brush the sides with water.)

13. Remove from pan, slice pork belly thinly.

14. Spoon more sauce over sliced pork belly. Top with chopped cilantro, sliced scallions and tangerine segments.

15. Serve with rice!

NOTES:

Pressing the pork belly overnight helps when slicing and also taste better since it’s sitting in the braising liquid.

If you decide to skip the pressing overnight part. I suggest reducing the sauce on it’s own, skipping the searing part as well and cutting pork belly pieces into larger chunks. Spoon reduced sauce over pork belly.