Pork Belly Bao
A street food superstar and a cloud-soft comfort food classic, this braised pork belly recipe is scrumptious - sticky, savoury, and simply sensational.
Ingredients
Method
- Mix together the sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, hoisin, garlic, ginger and a generous amount of pepper in a medium bowl. Cut the pork belly in half and place in an 8-inch square baking dish with the fatty side up. Pour the marinade over top of the pork belly, cover tightly with foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C.
- Bake, covered, until the pork is tender and easy to shred with a fork, about 2 hours. Remove to a cutting board and set aside. Pour the cooking liquid into a medium skillet, bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, whisking occasionally, until reduced by half, about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, steam the bao buns according to the package directions.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a small skillet over high heat until very hot. Add the scallions and jalapeño and cook until just starting to turn tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a small plate.
- Slice the pork belly into 15 pieces. Once the cooking liquid has been reduced, turn the heat off, place the pork belly into the skillet and flip once just to coat with the sauce.
- Place a piece of pork belly in each bun, sprinkle with the scallion-jalapeño mixture and garnish with a few cilantro leaves. Serve immediately.
This braised pork belly recipe is a bao-verload of fabulous flavours!
This Asian braised pork belly recipe is the ultimate crowd-pleaser, soaring to new heights of snuggly-soft, saucy goodness. Melt-in-your-mouth braised belly of pork is slow-cooked in a sweet and savoury glaze of dark brown sugar, soy sauce, hoisin, rice wine vinegar, garlic, and ginger, and then comes the fun part!
Once the Asian braised pork belly is cooked to perfection, pack it into pillowy-soft bao buns with sliced spring onions, fiery red jalapeño, and fresh coriander for the ultimate street food treat. And the best bit is that you don’t have to make the buns. Frozen bao buns from the shop make this street food classic easy to pull off at home, you simply steam until they’re cloud-like and dreamy.
Looking for sensational sides? Serve your braised pork belly recipe with lightly pickled cucumber ribbons, Asian red cabbage slaw with peanuts, or hot chilli oil for more kick. Or round out your street feast with sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves, smoky grilled corn dusted with Sichuan pepper, or a bowl of miso and corn soup.
This is a brilliant braised belly of pork recipe, and for more Asian street food classics, how about a plate of Korean buffalo wings, traditional Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches with pork, pickled vegetables and herbs, tempura avocado with prawns from Japan, or a sensational Singapore pork satay with lemon-curry rice. Yum!
