Classic Shanghai Pork Belly: Hongshaorou (红烧肉), Red-Cooked Pork
Published Sep 11, 2016, Updated Jan 31, 2025
Inspired by Red Cook: Hongshaorou
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve red-cooked something. I’ve red-cooked the traditional pork belly many a time and have also tried red-cooking pork shoulder, chicken thighs and beef short ribs. But I’ve never settled on a favorite 红烧肉 (hóngshāoròu), red-cooked meat, recipe or method. Perhaps because I’m not Chinese, and my mom (or other family member) did not hand one down to me. But I have to have one. Because I have to pass the family red-cooking recipe down to my Chinese daughter. Otherwise, how will she have one?
For those who don’t know, red-cooking, or hongshao, simply means braising a protein in a caramelly Shaoxing wine-soy sauce-sugar liquid, tossing in some Chinese spices and aromatics to make it interesting, and letting it cook into a meltingly tender piece of meat with a redish-brown glaze. Even though red-cooked dishes originated in Eastern China, around Shanghai, every region of China, including Sichuan, cooks them, and every region has its own style. In fact, just as with American beef stew, every family has its own style of this ultimate comfort food.
Seeking my own, I tried the versions in my usual Sichuan cookbooks. But none were quite right—either the ingredients or the method were off and my red-cooked dishes just weren’t as tasty as I knew they could be. And I do know what the ideal hongshaorou should look and taste like, by the way, because on my 2014 trip to China I went out of my way—making a reservation weeks in advance and still waiting in line for an hour—to eat at Old Jesse, considered by many to be the best Shanghainese restaurant in Shanghai at the time and the mothership of hongshaorou.
To tell you the truth, it was the very last night of an emotional, stressful and ultimately rewarding three-week trip to China—Fongchong’s first return to her country and village in Guangzhou as well as trips to Chengdu and Shanghai—and our little family was fed up with both restaurants and each other by that time. But despite our sour selves, the shimmering cubes of melt-in-your-mouth fat and deeply flavorful meat were a magical thing that pulled us out of our heads and into the moment, ending our trip on a sweet note.
In 2016, longtime blogger and new cookbook author Kian Lam Kho asked me (and several other bloggers) to cook from his cookbook, the IACP-Award-winning Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees, to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, promising a copy of the book for me, and another for one of my lucky readers. “I’d be happy to cook from your book,” I told him. “But you don’t have to send me one in order for me to do it, because I bought one as soon as it came out.”
Kian’s book is unique among Chinese cookbooks, organized not by courses, ingredients or regions, but by cooking methods. It’s designed almost as a cooking course, guiding you through the many cooking methods of Chinese cuisine—not just the many different stir-frying techniques, but different braising techniques as well as steaming, roasting, smoking and pickling.
I decided to try his recipe for hongshaorou, since Kian and his blog go by the name Red Cook and red-cooking is how he started his “adventures from a Chinese home kitchen.” If anyone has the tastiest red-cooking recipe, it should be Red Cook, right?
And he does.
As is my usual approach, I didn’t try his recipe just once, I tried it three times. And is also my MO, I tweaked it a bit. He calls for caramelizing the parboiled pork belly in a wok and then transferring it to a clay pot, but I wanted to dirty only two pans, so after the parboil I made it from start to finish in a clay pot. As often happens, however, when caramelizing meat in a sugar water, the caramel started to burn, and I had to rescue it with a little added oil. That’s probably why the recipe suggests a wok for that step.
The second time, I tried using pork-shoulder chunks, which provide a lot more meat, a lot less fat, and are less decadent for a Tuesday night. These I cooked in a cast-iron dutch oven and they were terribly good, both that day and the next, when Fongchong heaped them on some instant ramen noodles.
For my next attempt at the pork belly, I used a nonstick dutch oven. Unlike the other two attempts, I did not have to add oil during the caramelization process, because the nonstick surface allowed me to get the meat quite darkly caramelized without burning. That was a triumph, because a dark caramelization adds to both the color and flavor of the dish. Another big plus is that I was able to parboil the belly in the same pan, so I only dirtied one pan for the whole process. This pan produced by far the most successful hongshaorou, with beautiful caramelization and, later, a quickly reduced sauce.
Recipe Tip
If using a clay pot, wok, cast-iron dutch oven or any other pot without a nonstick surface, prepare the caramel with oil instead of water. It is much easier to caramelize the sugar without it burning.
The dutch oven retains moisture during the cooking process, which is good for a tender braise, though you’ll have to reduce the sauce at the end of the process to get that lovely glaze. With pork belly you’ll want to de-fat the sauce as well, though with pork shoulder you won’t need to. If you have a fat separator, that would be ideal, but I found that the reduced sauce quickly separates and it’s easy to just pour off a lot of the extra fat, which runs out first as you tip the pan.
You can serve the pork over rice or, as we prefer, stuffed inside homemade fold-over bao as luxe little sandwiches. A pillow of savory-sweet meat with a blanket of yeasty bread. Comfort food, indeed.
Finally, it seems, my search for the perfect family hongshao recipe has come to an end as I adopt, and slightly adapt, the Kho family recipe. I love the flavor combination he uses—lots of Shaoxing wine and lots of star anise are the major notes. But Kian would be the first to tell you to use his recipe as a guide to create your family’s own red-cooking recipe. Believe me: You’ll want to pass it down through the generations.
Classic Shanghai Pork Belly: Hongshaorou (红烧肉), Red-Cooked Pork
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds pork belly
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 2 whole star anise
- 2 tablespoons Chinese dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese light soy sauce
- ¼ cup Shaoxing rice wine
Instructions
- Put the pork belly, in one or two pieces, into a dutch oven or soup pot, preferably nonstick (which makes it easier to caramelize the meat without burning in the next step). Add cold water to cover. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium and cook, uncovered, on a low boil for 20 minutes, skimming off the scum that forms on the surface. Remove the pork belly and allow it to cool enough to cut into pieces about 1½-inch wide, each piece retaining fat and meat.
- Wash the pan, and add 3 tablespoons sugar and 4 tablespoons water. (If using a pot that does not have a nonstick coating, prepare the caramel with 3 T sugar and 3 T neutral oil.) Cook over a medium fire until the caramel starts to turn a light brown. This will take a few minutes, but watch the sugar carefully because when it starts to turn color it does so quickly. Add the pork pieces and let sear and caramelize on one side until they are a nice dark color. Turn the pieces over and caramelize the other side. The sugar should be a deep brown but not burning.
- Add 1½ cups water with the garlic, scallion, star anise, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and Shaoxing wine. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and cook, covered, at a just-bubbling simmer for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so, until the meat is tender.
- Remove the pork pieces to a bowl, and cook the sauce over a medium-high heat until it reduces to your desired consistency (anywhere from a thick sauce to a thick glaze), about 5 minutes for a thick sauce. When you are ready to serve, add back the pork pieces and reheat. Then remove the pork to a serving bowl. Let the sauce sit for a minute to separate, then carefully pour off the accumulated fat, which will pour out first as you tip the pan. (Or use a fat separator.) Pour the remaining sauce over the pork and serve with rice or with fold-over bao as sandwiches.
Tried this recipe?
Have you checked out the new cookbook All Under Heaven (https://www.amazon.com/All-Under-Heaven-Recipes-Cuisines/dp/1607749823)? I just got it and it’s fantastic! I love how it really focuses on Chinese style food that hasn’t received as much attention in the West.
HSR has always been my go-to crowd pleasing dish whenever I cook a Chinese feast for friends. They might find some of the other dishes a bit outside their comfort zone or not to their taste but everyone dives into the HSR. My experience though is that it doesn’t really matter how you make HSR, even pretty bad HSR is still pretty good. But you have me worried now that I’ve simply never tasted good HSR and all the HSR I’ve cooked has been bad :o.
I don’t bother with the blanching step generally, I sear my meat gently until some of the pork fat is leaking out, take the pork out and then caramelize the sugar in that pork fat. I also add thick slices of ginger to the braising liquid and also add just a splash of Chinkiang vinegar at the end to balance out the richness.
I’ve also found it’s important to pick the right pork belly. I think the quality of the pork belly (and cooking it to the right doneness) is more important than the exact ingredients for the sauce. Thick bands of fat end up pretty unappetizing in the final product IMHO, you want finely marbled, many layered meat.
I also actually don’t like a melt in your mouth texture for HSR. Like BBQ, I think the best texture is when it’s just yielding but still has a snap. Of course, this means regular quality control tasting towards the end of the cooking to find the right doneness :D.
Hi Xianhang, I totally agree about the quality of the pork belly being a major factor. American pork bellies are often too fat, a problem I discussed in detail in my hui guo rou (twice-cooked pork) recipe. I try to look for one that is at least half-lean, which is easier to find at Asian markets. That’s also why I’ll opt more often for pork shoulder. I disagree about the parboiling step, however, because I do think it cleans up the sauce. Kian discusses that on his own blog, how he used to skip that step but now includes it because it makes a cleaner, more focussed sauce. And, yes, I’m excited about All Under Heaven as well. I tested a few recipes for that book, but I haven’t gotten it yet. Thanks for your thoughts!
P.S. Caramelizing the sugar in the pork fat, as you suggest, would definitely make it less likely to burn. I often caramelize the sugar in oil instead of water for leaner meats like chicken.
I’ll have to try the boiling to see if it makes a difference but I was under the impression that if you sear, you don’t need to boil as both set the surface proteins. Please write a review of All Under Heaven when you get it!
You’ve got a point there. Let us know how your experiment goes!
Wow, Taylor! This looks amazing! I am headed out to my local Rochester Asian market tomorrow to pick up some moon cakes for Mid-Autumn Festival and now I will have to pick up some star anise to try this recipe!
I hope I can win either the cookbook or the pan. I think they would make a great addition to my little Chinese kitchen. ^_^
Thanks, Cristopher! They would indeed make a good addition.
I’m vegetarian but I still loved reading this post!!!
That’s saying something! Thanks, Tanya.
I am also vegetarian so I won’t be cooking this dish. Instead, I try to adapt the flavour profiles for vegetarian cooking!
Red Cook says in his book that people red-cook mushrooms and tofu. Sounds delicious to me!
Perfect 🙂
If you’re vegetarian and not vegan, hard boiled eggs are often an addition to HSR and would be delicious in a vegetarian version. First cook and peel hard boiled eggs normally, then add to the braising liquid for the last 15 minutes or so to let it absorb the color of the sauce.
Great idea. Everytime I’m making hong shao, Fong Chong gets excited because she thinks the smell is tea eggs. The flavoring is similar.
This is going to be tried for sure. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We have a fabulous Asian grocery store in my town so I will be heading there this week.
I hope you like it!
Hi, Taylor!
Love reading your recipe adventures. As you know, living in a small-town, middle America we don’t have everyday access to some of the quality ingredients required for authentic Chinese cooking.
I like the way you try out traditional recipes in different variations. Demystifying the techniques and ingredients for those us who are sometimes overwhelmed at the thought of making Chinese dishes at home.
I love Carmel-glazed sauces with meats. After reading this challenge and the recipe, I suddenly feel I could make your one-pot version (opting for the pork shoulder).
If I don’t win the cookbook, your description on the layout, makes it sounds like a good buy!
Hi Kristen! So good to hear from you, and happy to know you’re reading. I know some of the ingredients on my blog are a stretch, but most cities have Asian groceries with the basics. I bet you can find dark soy sauce and star anise even in Stillwater. 🙂 The rest you can order online once and they’ll last forever. I hope you try it. Sure wish we could eat it together. xox
What can I day – we love pork!! My three (3 Silly Chilliez adopted from Jiangxi, Gansu and Guangdong) love any pork… but especially Hong Shao Rou which I haven’t attempted to make, but absolutely will now!!!
I think every Chinese kid must love hong shao rou. I bet every American-born kid would too. You can do it!
I have made this dish following the recipe in Red Cook, and it is indeed heavenly! I found a meaty chunk of belly at my local Chinese grocery, so it wan’t too awful fatty, but next time I will try with shoulder.
I love it with noodles, but then everything is good with noodles!
Hi Spike. Yes, for some reason, the Asian pork bellies are a better mix of fat and meat. Though if you ask butchers for less fatty bellies they can sometimes oblige. My daughter won’t eat the fat, so we do get more mileage out of the pork shoulder.
The mushroom and tofu combination sound like a winner. Will have to try it out on the next three day weekend!
I think “red braised pork” might be a better translation for this dish because the main portion of cooking is a low simmer in a pot. Nevertheless, I love your interpretation on this dish as it’s nearly every kids childhood favorite in Chengdu. I remember going to a restaurant for a big family dinner and one of the adults ordered this dish for the kids table. When it came, it didn’t last more than a minute before the plate emptied out. :D. Will try your recipe as mine tend to be a little watery and the skin of the belly doesn’t have the same texture as the ones I remember from childhood.
I love that you remember hong shao rou being served at a restaurant in Sichuan. I wonder why we seldom see it in Chinese restaurants in the U.S.? People don’t know what they’re missing!
This new restaurant called Shao Mountain in our neighborhood of west San Jose actually does a chairman Mao version of it. It’s decent but again lacks the texture you showed in your picture and what I remembered. Still good in its own way. I think most modern Americans view the fat in pork belly the same way Superman feels about cryptonite. But in all other cultures, fat is looked much differently in culinary culture.
There’s been a trend of chef-y restaurants in the U.S. serving pork belly in various ways, but, yeah, it’s a tough sell for most home cooks I guess.
Mindy and I bought something from K&S some time back to make red pork but we didn’t get very far. We’re going to make your recipe, so thanks. We’ll most likely use shoulder not pork belly (though the slabs of pork belly I saw yesterday at Costco looked pretty impressive and not entirely fatty). We also want to make the bao which we’ve never done (maybe you have a recipe at Mala Project?). If you can point me toward a source for the rice wine that would be great. Thanks Taylor. R.B.
Hi R.B. I do have a recipe for bao, adapted from David Chang, which is WAY better than the store-bought version. https://blog.themalamarket.com/chengdu-challenge-9-bao-steamed-sandwich-buns/
K&S always has Shaoxing wine. See a photo of the one I like here: https://blog.themalamarket.com/chengdu-challenge-7-golden-chicken-stew/
Thanks for the tip on Costco, the one Nashville grocery I don’t normally hit. And thanks for liking and sharing!