This is my Easy Asian Braised Pork Belly recipe. You only need 6 ingredients to make the sauce to create the slow-cooked pork belly. I can't explain how tasty, rich, and decadent this dish is. It's so unbelievably simple, yet the flavour is unreal. I serve the sticky pork belly on top of a bed of rice and topped with chives and sesame seeds, but you can have it with noodles, steamed buns, or just on its own!
I wanted to create a simple Asian braised pork belly recipe, because a lot of recipes I've found online or had in restaurants use a tonne of ingredients and are quite complex. This braised pork belly recipe uses garlic, ginger, star anise, soy sauce, and brown sugar to season the pork belly...simple but SO good.
If you're a fan of pork belly, then you'll love my super crispy air fryer pork belly recipe and my Japanese style pork bowl, also known as Butadon! Another personal favourite is my pork belly udon carbonara, which is such a comforting noodle dish!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
One Pan: make sure to use a pan that has a lid, and you're all ready to go!
Simple: we're using pantry staple ingredients and basic cooking techniques! No fancy equipment required!
Low Effort: Once you've fried off the pork belly slices, we literally just place all of the seasoning ingredients into the pan and leave it to simmer for an hour. The result is a sticky, delicious pork belly dish, that's required nearly zero effort!!
What does "Braised" mean?
It's one of the most delicious ways to cook food...in my opinion. It's very simple. The term braised, essentially refers to food that has been seared first (fried until golden), and then simmered in some sort of liquid or stock for a long period of time (usually minimum an hour), until the components break down into tender, succulent bites of food.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Pork belly: I personally buy pork belly slices, not a joint of pork belly. It's easier to slice and it also doesn't include the skin, which can be a bit tough and too fatty for this kind of dish. For those of you who are vegan, this dish would be delicious using extra firm tofu.
Garlic: we're using whole cloves of garlic. Just peel the skin and place them into the pot. I would recommend using fresh garlic over granules!
Ginger: once again, we're opting for fresh ginger. I've not even bothered to take the skin off here, just slice it up and throw into the pot.
Soy sauce: light soy sauce and dark soy sauce are our key seasoning ingredients for this recipe. The light soy sauce is saltier but thinner in thickness and lighter in colour, dark soy sauce is more caramel in flavour, but has a deep colour that creates that beautiful tanned look on our pork belly.
Star anise: I always have these in my pantry, they are so aromatic and provide a liquorice, autumnal flavour in the braised pork belly dish! If you don't have star anise, you can omit it, but you will be missing out on flavour. Additional or other bits you could add in, instead or as well as the star anise: 4 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 teaspoon black peppercorns.
Brown sugar: this helps to balance out the sweetness from the saltiness. You could use white sugar if you like, or honey, or agave.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
Step by Step Instructions with Photos
Step 1: Place a large-based pan (which has a lid) on medium heat and add in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Once hot, add in the sliced pork belly and fry on each side for 4 minutes or until golden brown.
Step 2: Once the pork belly is seared, add in the garlic cloves, sliced ginger, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, star anise, 400ml water (enough to cover the pork belly), and brown sugar. Give everything a mix, then cover with the lid. Bring to the boil, then reduce to simmer for an hour.
Step 3: After an hour, remove the lid. The pork belly should be glossy and tender. Now, time to fry the pork belly to reduce the sauce to your desired consistency (I cooked for a further 3 minutes until viscous and glossy).
Step 4: Serve up your pork belly with your desired extras! I've served mine up with short grain rice, chives, and sesame seeds! Make sure to remove the star anise, garlic, and ginger if serving to a large group of people!
What To Do with Leftovers
Storage: once cooled, place the braised pork belly in airtight containers and into the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freezing: once cooled, place the asian-inspired pork belly into tupperware (don't forget to label with contents and the date), and place into the freezer for up to 3 months. Leave to thaw/defrost in the fridge overnight before reheating.
Reheating: Add a few tablespoons of water into the tupperware and place in the microwave for a few minutes or until piping hot.
FAQs
For sure, swap out the pork belly for extra firm tofu. The tofu will soak up all the flavours...so good!
Yes, just make sure the soy sauce is gluten-free!
I love serving braised pork belly with rice, noodles, or on its own! I also love serving it with veggies - tenderstem broccoli, edamame beans, chinese cabbage, or cucumber salad.
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Easy Asian Braised Pork Belly
Ingredients
- 500 g pork belly slices sliced into 1 inch pieces
- 6 garlic cloves peeled
- 2 inches ginger sliced
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 2 star anise
- 400 ml water enough to cover pork and other ingredients
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
- Place a large-based pan (which has a lid) on medium heat and add in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Once hot, add in the sliced pork belly and fry on each side for 4 minutes or until golden brown (see images further up the blog for references).
- Once the pork belly is seared, add in the garlic cloves, sliced ginger, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, star anise, 400ml water (enough to cover the pork belly), and brown sugar. Give everything a mix, then cover with the lid. Bring to the boil, then reduce to low to simmer for an hour.
- After an hour, remove the lid. The pork belly should be glossy and tender. Now, time to fry the pork belly to reduce the sauce to your desired consistency (I cooked for a further 3 minutes until viscous and glossy).
- Serve up your pork belly with your desired extras! I've served mine up with cooked short grain rice, chives, and sesame seeds! Make sure to remove the star anise, garlic, and ginger if serving to a large group of people!
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