Chinese Five Spice Pork Belly
Chinese Five Spice Pork Belly
My mother in law loves Chinese Five Spice Chicken, and loves it more when made using pork belly, so this is a slightly different recipe than what is on the spice pack. This is not a secret recipe or an internet recipe, this is a modified recipe based on the pack of spice you can buy in every town. The Lobo brand of spices have instructions in Thai and English on every spice packet I have used from them. I made this on 31 May 2017 and it was very well received by my mother in law, and it is delicious, my comments below. I did not get all the step by step photos so I will be making this again soon, so easy and inexpensive as well.
Ingredients
- 600-700 grams pork belly, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
- 7 hard boiled eggs, peeled
- 1 1/2 tablespoons 5 Spice Powder, rounded
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons black soy sauce
- water, as needed
- olive oil, as needed
- 1 package bean curd, this is tofu, amount is up to you, cut in 1 inch peices, optional
- 2 sticks cinnamon
- 1 whole star anise
Instructions
- Prepare the pork belly by slicing into 1 1/2 inch pieces, we used 700 grams. Place the meat in a bowl.
- In the bowl of meat, add the 5 Spice Powder. Rub that in with your fingers until all pieces are coated. This photo is just before I added the spice powder.
- In a large pot, heat a splash of olive oil then add the garlic and sugar, when the garlic is fragrant, about a minute, add the pork, cook for a few minutes turning a few times. You are browning them, not needing to cook through, that will happen later.
- Add the eggs, salt, light and black soy sauces, and bean curd if using, add enough water to nearly cover the eggs, and simmer for an hour. This photo is right after the eggs and water was added.
- At 1 hour, the eggs should be a light brown, check for tenderness of the pork, if tender, serve over rice, add some of the broth as well to the rice.
Notes
Prices can very with pork, if you go with a local vendor at an open market, you are getting fresh and much lower cost. Pork belly at Tesco is 220 Baht/kilo, the pork belly used in this recipe and in the photos, I purchased from an open market, 140 Baht/kilo. For this recipe the pork cost about 105 Baht/700 grams. For 4 servings this is about 77 cents per serving.
Modified from a recipe on a spice packet.
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
I modified the recipe stated on the spice pack with help from my wife, an easy meal to make and the taste is 100% perfect, on my go to list now. Made exactly as written but I missed some of the step by step photos but this will be a regular dish now for sure. Highly recommended.