Chinese Red Pork Recipe - Red Braised Pork or Bear | Hank Shaw (2024)

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Chinese red pork, also called red cooked or red braised pork, is so easy to make and so satisfying that I am shocked that it hasn’t made to the canon of Chinese American restaurant menus.

After all, it’s long braised pork belly or shoulder, with soy sauce, spices and a little sugar. So you get meaty-salty-fatty-sweet, and sometimes spicy all in the same dish. What’s not to love?

I grew up eating Hunan food at a local Chinese place in Garwood, New Jersey. Spicier, deeper in flavor and more exotic than the traditional Cantonese food most places served. Hands down, Hunan and the even spicier Sichuan food are my favorite styles of Chinese.

But never did I see Chinese red pork in any form — or any other red cooked dishes, for that matter.

In recent years, however, I’ve made countless Hunan and Sichuan dishes at home, and I’ve studied the cuisine a fair bit, from books and from my friend Kho Kian Lam’s excellent blog Red Cook, Adventures from a Chinese Home Kitchen. Kian knows his stuff when it comes to red cooking — he named his whole site after the style. I’ll let Kian explain it:

Red cooking is the basis of many Chinese home cooking. It is a term used for braising different kinds of food with garlic, dark soy sauce, rice wine and sugar. This technique can be used for pork, chicken, fish, tofu and many other ingredients. The phrase “red cook” comes from the fact that these dishes result in a shiny bright brown sauce appearing almost red. It is one of the most versatile techniques in Chinese cooking. And I’ve decided to name my blog for this technique to emphasize its flexibility and adaptability.

Red cooking need not even be with meat or fish. You will see red cooked tofu, and I happen to love red braised mushrooms.

In America, you will most often see red braised pork belly. This recipe is based on that one, and can be done with store-bought pork or wild ingredients, specifically wild pigs and bear. Yes, bear. Black bears can be so fat you can sometimes make bacon out of the belly, or you can make this.

Like many of the recipes on this site, this is the sort of family favorite where there are as many recipes as families. Some put chiles in, some not. Ditto for star anise. I’ve seen malt syrup used and rock sugar, simple granulated and no sugar at all.

Usually, however, any rendition of Chinese red pork is simple: The meat and maybe one or two other things going on, plus some greenery for garnish. It’s served over simple steamed rice; jasmine is my favorite here.

No matter if you use pork belly from the store, from a wild hog or bear you’ve brought home or whatever, you’ll want to make this recipe. Why? This bowl of food has it all: Fatty goodness, meltingly tender meat, a sweet-savory-salty-spicy sauce reduced from the braising liquid — all with a whiff of exotic anise — bright, crunchy green onions (or better yet, Chinese garlic chives), herbal cilantro and, for my touch, garlic.

I’m not gonna lie to ya, Holly and I ate nearly full two pounds of red braised pork between us. At one sitting. Make this. You won’t be sad.