Sichuan’s Classic Sticky Rice—With Cured Pork and Peas—Is a Four-Ingredient Wonder

There’s easy and then there’s stupid easy—and sticky rice with cured pork belly (jiǔmǐ fàn, 酒米饭), is stupid easy. While this dish requires several prep steps, it’s one of the few Chinese foods that has nothing to do with fancy knife skills or difficult cooking techniques. It also doesn’t rely much on intuition. In other words, it’s a perfect starter recipe.

Many parts of China have a variation of 拉肉 (lā ròu), or “wind-cured” meat, plus sticky rice, but Sichuan’s is one of the plainest. All it requires is the la rou, some green peas and ground Sichuan pepper. Though this may seem surprising, given Sichuan’s reputation for flavorful dishes, it makes sense when you consider the rice’s table bedfellows. Any given Sichuan meal may feature a spread of flavors—from intensely spicy to sour or bitter or just plain savory—so having a simple backdrop to eat them with is important. And since rice is served with virtually every meal besides breakfast or noodles, this dressed-up version simply replaces white rice on the table. When there’s an abundance of la rou, that is.

This dish is sometimes made with a burnt layer of caramelized rice at the bottom of the pan. Back in my parents’ time, this was a treat the kids fought over. Nowadays, treats aren’t quite the rarity they used to be, and we prefer not having to deal with scrubbing off burnt rice, so we add more oil to the dish, to keep the rice from sticking.

The version I have pictured here also includes some cured sausage, because I had it left over and thought it would make a nice addition. The common version of the recipe doesn’t call for it, so I haven’t included it in the recipe.

The Simple Art of Making Pork Belly Sticky Rice

To begin, soak the glutinous (sweet/sticky) rice and the la rou in separate bowls for one to two hours. Wash both thoroughly with at least one change of water (more if your la rou is on the salty side). Then set the rice aside to drain. Meanwhile, halve and quarter the meat so you can slice or roughly dice into bite-size pieces. Shape doesn’t matter much for pork belly sticky rice, so it’s up to your personal preference.

Heat up a wok or large pan on medium heat and stir-fry the la rou until it is fragrant and browned. You don’t need to add oil, since the longer you cook the meat, the more oil you’ll render from the fat. Cooking on medium instead of high heat makes sure nothing burns while this happens. Of course, if you want to preserve the juicy portions of your pork belly, or the meat you’re using isn’t particularly fatty, simply cook until browned and then add some vegetable oil.

Once you have enough grease (of either kind) to coat the bottom and sides of the pan before adding the drained rice, pour the rice in and stir-fry like a madman for about three minutes.

Immediately transfer the mixture to a rice cooker. Add one cup of water (equivalent to the amount of rice you scooped previously); the water should just cover the rice with no more than one half to one centimeter sitting on top. Steam the mixture on the “white rice” setting, and when the machine has finished, let the rice sit for at least 15 minutes before opening it.

While you wait for the rice to rest, boil the peas; cooking the peas on their own prevents them from getting mushy or losing their attractive verdant green color. Drain the peas, then add them to the cooked rice and mix everything with a wide spatula. At this point, you also add ground Sichuan pepper to taste.

Back in Sichuan, the green peas are meatier and don’t break down as easily as the watery varieties we find in the U.S. If you happen to be cooking in Sichuan, you can steam the rice with the peas mixed in and save yourself a whole recipe step. This process also works pretty well with Costco’s organic frozen peas, which are the one exception I’ve found to mushy stateside peas. While not quite as good as Chinese peas, they won’t turn to mush and they still have some bite when cooked.

For more ways to cook la rou, see Kathy’s Sichuan Wind-Cured Pork Belly (La Rou, 腊肉), Part 2 and Cured Pork Belly Stir-fry (Chao Larou, 炒腊肉) or Taylor’s Stir-Fried Bacon in Sichuan Bean Sauces (Chao Larou, 炒腊肉).