braised chashu pork belly with marinated eggs

This braised chashu pork belly with marinated eggs is definitely a weekend project that pays off! The reward is some of the most savory, juicy, and wonderfully crispy chashu pork belly — people would be surprised you made this at home.

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 :)

What should I do with the leftover delicious braising liquid from this recipe? 

After the pork belly is braised, don’t waste that savory and delicious braising liquid! Here are 3 ways I like to put it to good use: 

• Use the braising liquid to marinate soft or hard-boiled eggs. You will want to soft or hard boil your eggs separately first, put them into an ice bath to stop them from overcooking, then marinate them in the cooled braising liquid for at least 6 hours to infuse the eggs with all its flavor. 
• Make a ramen broth! One of my favorite ways to use the savory braising liquid is to make a ramen broth by adding chicken broth to the braising liquid. I’ll add about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the braising liquid (heated) to my bowl, then some hot chicken broth. Adjust the ratios to your taste preference! 
• Use it as a sauce for rice or stir fries! Because this braising liquid is has so much flavor, it’s honestly just really good over some plain white rice. If you want to get more creative, you can use it to flavor your fried rice during cooking, or even your stir-fried proteins and vegetables. 

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Braised Chashu Pork Belly with Marinated Eggs

A weekend project that definitely pays off, this slow-cooked pork belly is juicy, savory, and a perfect marriage of a Japanese cooking method with Chinese ingredients.

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Prep Time 15 minutesmins

Cook Time 1 hourhr30 minutesmins

Resting Time 6 hourshrs

Total Time 7 hourshrs45 minutesmins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese, Japanese

Servings 6

Equipment

• kitchen twine

Ingredients

1x2x3x

• 3lbpork bellyskin on or removed, either works
• large eggs

Braising liquid

• 1cuplight soy sauce
• ½cupmirin
• ½cupChinese cooking wine
• 3tbspsugar
• water
• 2-3ginger slices
• 4-5garlic cloves
• 2stalksscallions

Optional spices

• 1dried cinnamon stick
• 3-5cloves
• 2-3star anise

Instructions

Preparing and braising the pork belly

• Measure about 10-12 forearm-lengths (elbow to fingers) of kitchen twine and cut.
• 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 lb pork belly
• 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.
• 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, scallions, 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.
  1 cup light soy sauce, ½ cup mirin, ½ cup Chinese cooking wine, 3 tbsp sugar, 2-3 ginger slices, 4-5 garlic cloves, 2 stalks scallions, 1 dried cinnamon stick, 3-5 cloves, 2-3 star anise, water
• 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

• 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 minutes for runny yolks, 7-8 for soft and jammy yolks, and 9-10 for more firm yolks. After they’re boiled, drop in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Peel the eggs and set aside.
  large eggs

Marinating the pork belly and eggs

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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

• Before serving, pan-fry each pork belly slice on medium heat for ~2 min on both sides or until golden and crispy.
• 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!

Video

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A post shared by Susanna 🍜 easy recipes (@smelly.lunchbox)

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.

Keyword braised pork belly, chashu pork belly, japanese pork belly

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