Recipe: Perfect Japanese braised pork belly

Japanese braised pork belly. Pork belly is the cut where bacon originates and is quite heavy in fat. Give Japanese buta-no-kakuni a try, and you might be pleasantly surprised at how a small, tender piece of braised pork belly brightens up the dinner table as an appetizer or side dish. Make this easy, melt-in-your-mouth Chashu pork belly recipe at home!

So good with rice and egg on the side. Kakuni (角煮) is Japanese braised pork belly, and it literary means "square simmered" referring to the shape of this dish. Braising a pork belly must be a typically asian thing to do, as there is a filipino dish that looks very similar, called humba. You can cook Japanese braised pork belly using 11 ingredients and 7 steps. Here is how you cook it.

Ingredients of Japanese braised pork belly

1. It's 2 tablespoon of sugar.
2. You need 450 gram of pork belly.
3. It's 100 gram of soy sauce.
4. Prepare 80 gram of cooking wine.
5. You need 4 piece of garlic.
6. Prepare 10 gram of ginger.
7. It's 10 gram of spring onion.
8. It's 2 of star anise(optional).
9. Prepare 1 of cinnamon stick(optional).
10. You need of Sichuan pepper (optional).
11. You need of Fennel seed(optional).

Cut pork belly strips into halves or so to fit into a pot you use. Kakuni is a classic Japanese braised pork belly dish. It is typically slow cooked until tender and served in a sweet soy sauce based sauce. Most of these ingredients can be found at your local grocery store.

Japanese braised pork belly step by step

1. Remove the pork skin then tie the pork belly up to a roll.
2. Stir fry the ginger, garlic and spring onion till it’s golden brown.Take it out to wait for next step..
3. Pan-fry the surface of the pork belly until it ‘s golden brown. Put sugar in the pot until it’s caramelized. Coat the pork belly with caramelizad sugar..
4. Put the soy sauce and cooking wine into the pot. Add the ginger. Garlic and onion back into the pot along with the spices (optional)then add 500 grams of water. Boiled in medium fire for 40 mins..
5. Cool down the sauce and pork. Move them into a container where the source could cover the whole pork. Leave it in the fridge overnight.
6. Cut the pork into thin slice when it’s cold if you want to use the pork for Ramen topping.
7. For pork belly rice bowl, heat up the pork along with sauce. Sprinkle the sauce on top of the pork belly rice bowl. Add any preferred topping. Voilà ❤️.

If you can't find them, I've included links to buy them in the recipe. Kakuni is a southern Japanese dish that's made by simmering cubes of pork belly in aromatics and seasonings until it's melt-in-your-mouth tender. My version uses a mild braising liquid that makes this Kakuni perfect for using as a topping for ramen, udon, rice, and even sandwiches. Braise pork belly (Dong Po Rou) is surprisingly simple to prepare because it only involves six ingredients. You need a few hours of stewing before you can taste the fantastic evening combination of flavor and texture of the meat, which is definitely worth the wait.