braised chashu pork belly with marinated eggs

This braised chashu pork belly with marinated eggs is definitely a weekend project, aka you’ll need some time to dedicate to this recipe! The reward though is some of the most savory, juicy, and wonderfully crispy chashu pork belly — people would be surprised you made this at home. I promise you it’s worth it!

This cooking method of rolling up pork belly into a log and braising it slowly (usually in soy sauce, mirin, and sake) is typically seen in Japanese cuisine, and is actually an adaptation of the Chinese char siu. Char siu, or Chinese BBQ pork, typically involves marinating and roasting pork shoulder or pork loin in a combination of sweet and savory ingredients, with the addition of red food coloring. These two dishes actually end up tasting very different but are great in their own ways.

The version I’m sharing today keeps the Japanese method of cooking the pork slowly at a low temperature, but marries it with Chinese ingredients (Chinese or Shaoxing cooking wine, spices like dried cinnamon, cloves, and star anise). It was an experiment I tried and am so happy with the results! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did 🙂

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Recipe:

chashu, pork belly, marinated eggs, white rice, ramen

entree

Yield: - 5-6 +

Author: Susanna

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braised chashu pork belly w/ marinated eggs

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A great weekend project that will reward you some of the tastiest chashu you can serve over white rice or in a soup with ramen!

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 1 H & 30 MInactive time: 6 HourTotal time: 7 H & 45 M

IngredientsUSMetric

• ~3 lb pork belly (skin on or removed, either works)
• 1 cup light soy sauce
• ½ cup mirin
• ½ cup Chinese cooking wine
• 3 tbsp sugar
• water
• 2-3 ginger slices
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 2 stalks green onion
• optional: dried cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise
• large eggs
• ice bath (for eggs)
• kitchen twine

Instructions

Preparing and braising the pork belly

1. Measure about 10-12 forearm-lengths (elbow to fingers) of kitchen twine and cut.
2. With the pork belly skin side down, roll it up tightly. Take the twine and fold it in half once so that the ends meet and you have a loop at the top. Place the twine under the middle of the pork and pull the ends through the top loop tightly. Pull one string to the right and the other to the left, and start looping knots as shown in video.
3. The knots should be about ½ inch spaced apart (you can adjust based on how thick you’d like the slices of pork belly). Make sure to secure both ends with a final knot.
4. Heat up a heavy-bottomed pot (I used a 2 qt pot) to medium heat and sear all sides of the pork belly. Once browned, add all your ingredients: soy sauce, mirin, Chinese cooking wine, sugar, ginger, garlic, green onions, and optional spices like star anise, cloves, and dried cinnamon. Fill up the rest of the pot with water but make sure to leave about 2 inches at the top to prevent the liquid from boiling over. If using a larger pot, increase the amount of ingredients accordingly.
5. Bring the pot up to a boil. Once boiling, decrease heat to a low simmer, cover (allow for some steam to escape), and let braise for 90 mins. Flip pork belly over halfway through for even color distribution.

Preparing the eggs

1. In the meantime, bring a separate pot of water to boil for your eggs. Once boiling, drop in your eggs and cook until your favorite consistency: 6-7 for soft-boiled, 7-8 for medium, and 9-10 for hard-boiled. After they’re boiled, drop in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Peel the eggs and set aside.

Marinating the pork belly and eggs

1. After the pork belly has been braising for 90 min, remove from heat and let cool. To speed up the process, drop in some ice cubes.
2. Once liquid is completely cooled, drop in the peeled eggs, cover the pot with a lid, and store in your fridge overnight or for at least 6 hours.
3. After 6 hours, remove from the fridge. There should be a layer of solidified fat at the top of the liquid — remove this layer and discard or use for cooking elsewhere.
4. Gently remove the pork belly and eggs from the liquid. Cut off the twine and slice the pork belly at each indentation. If you're not ready to serve, you can keep these slices, the remaining braising liquid, and the marinated eggs in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Preparing to serve

1. Before serving, pan-fry each pork belly slice on medium heat for ~2 min on both sides or until golden and crispy.
2. Bring the remaining braising liquid up to boil, decrease to a simmer, and put your eggs in for just a minute to gently reheat. This also helps remove any extra solidified fat that may have settled around the eggs. Drizzle the sauce over your chashu pork belly, marinated eggs, and serve over white rice or with a bowl of ramen!

Notes:

• The amounts listed for each ingredients are based on cooking with a 2 qt pot. I don't recommend cooking with a pot smaller than that, but if you are using a larger pot, make sure to increase the amounts for the braising liquid ingredients (soy sauce, mirin, cooking wine, sugar, aromatics, and spices).
• You can make a great ramen base with the remaining braising liquid by adding some stock (dashi, chicken, vegetable) and adjusting to your taste.

Recommended Products:

light soy sauce

Chinese cooking wine

mirin

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