Top 10 Chinese Pork Recipes to Satisfy Your Taste Bud

China is the No.1 pork consumer around the world. Every year, nearly half of the world’s pork is eaten by Chinese. In China, except for people in the northwestern regions who prefer to beef and mutton due to local climate, their religions and other reasons, the “ruling” meat in rest areas is mainly pork. Chinese not only love pork but also are good at cooking pork, which can be fried, steamed, boiled, braised, etc.; and the flavors of pork include salty, sweet, spicy... What are the best Chinese pork dishes? And how to cook them at home? Here are the top 10 Chinese pork recipes for you.

Red Braised Pork

Twice Cooked Pork

Chinese Name: 红烧肉 hóng shāo ròu
Flavor: salty and a little sweet, aromatic
Ingredients: streaky pork, ginger, rock candy, soy sauce, star anise...
Cooking Methods: boil, fry, braise

Red Braised Pork is a popular dish all over China. First, cut the streaky pork into big dices and quick boil them in water with cooking wine and ginger slices. Remove the white scum, and then pick them out to be drained out. Next, fry some rock candy until it turns to be brown syrup. Add boiled pork dices and stir-fry them with cooking wine and soy sauce for 2-3 minutes. After that, pour hot water to submerge the pork, and put star anises, cassia barks, myrcia, dried orange peel and ground pepper in the pot, to boil them for 15-20 minutes. Then, remove the mixture into an earthen pot to braise them for about 1 hour until the sauce gets thick. Add salt to season, and the food can be dished up.

Read more: Recipe - How to Make Red Braised Pork
 

Chinese Name: 回锅肉 huí guō ròu
Flavor: salty, a little spicy, a little sweet aftertaste
Ingredients: streaky pork, thick broad-bean sauce, ginger, garlic bolts...
Cooking Methods: boil, stir-fry

Twice-Cooked Pork is one of the most famous Chinese meat dishes, which belongs to Sichuan cuisine. Boil the whole streaky pork with sliced ginger and cooking wine for 15 minutes. Skim the scum while boiling. Next, drain the pork out and slice it. Stir-fry the pork slices with thick broad-bean sauce and ginger slices. After, add chopped garlic bolts, sugar and salt successively to stir-fry well. It tastes spicy and aromatic.

Read more: Recipe - How to Make Twice-Cooked Pork
 

Stir-fried Noodles with Pork Shreds

Chinese Name: 肉丝炒面 ròu sī chǎo miàn
Flavor: salty and aromatic
Ingredients: pork fillet, thin noodles, shallots, ginger, onion, green chili, carrot…
Cooking Methods: stir-fry

Shredded Pork Chow Main is a Chinese pork dish can be easily made at home. Steam thin noodles to well-done, pick them out and mix them with vegetarian oil. You can also buy the steamed noodles directly. Shred the pork fillet and marinate it with salt, starch and cooking wine. Then fry shredded pork fillet to be white, and pick them out. Next, fry shredded onion, green chili and carrot with chopped shallots, ginger and garlic. Add fried pork shreds, steamed noodles, and sauté with soy sauce and salt and stir well.

Read more: Recipe - How to Make Chow Mein (Stir-Fried Noodles)
 

Chinese Name: 水煮肉片 shuǐ zhǔ ròu piàn
Flavor: numb and spicy
Ingredients: pork fillet, ginger, garlics, peppers, dry chili...
Cooking Methods: boil, scald with hot oil

Boiled Pork Slices is a representative Sichuan food as well as one of best Chinese pork dishes. Marinate pork slices with starch, egg liquid, salt and cooking wine. Deep-fry peppers and dry chili to be golden and then ground them. Then, heat some oil, add shallots, sliced ginger and spicy thick-bean sauce, soy sauce, pepper powder and cooking wine. When it smells, add some water. When it boils, add starched pork slices to boil to well-done. Afterwards, move them into a bowl, sprinkle ground fried peppers and dry chili and pour some hot oil.
 

Boiled Pork Slices

Fish-Flavored Shredded Pork

Chinese Name: 鱼香肉丝 yú xiāng ròu sī
Flavor: salty, sour, spicy, sweet, fish flavor
Ingredients: pork fillet, black fungus, pickled chili, shallots...
Cooking Methods: stir-fry

Fish-Flavored Shredded Pork is also a Chinese meat dish belonging to Sichuan cuisine. Marinate shredded pork fillet with salt, starch, egg white and cooking wine for 5-10 minutes. Make the fish-flavored sauce with starch, salt, white sugar, soy sauce, cooking wine and a little meat soup or water. Then, quick-fry the shredded pork to make them not sticky, remove them out when the pork becomes dairy white. Fry chopped ginger, garlics and pickled chili, and add chopped shallots, black fungus, tine peas and slices of tender bamboo shoots. Stir fry them evenly for 2-3 minutes and then add the shredded pork to fry well with the fish-flavored sauce, until the sauce gets thick. To cook this dish, the pickled chili must be chopped and the fish-flavored sauce is vital.

Read more: Recipe - How to Make Fish-Flavored Shredded Pork
 

Chinese Name: 菠萝古老肉 bō luó gǔ lǎo ròu
Flavor: sweet and sour
Ingredients: thin pork, pineapple, green and red chili, eggs, tomato ketchup...
Cooking Methods: deep-fry, stir-fry

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple is a Cantonese dish. The simple Chinese meat recipe is following. Cut pork into small loafs and marinate them with salt, egg liquid, starch and cooking wine. Cut green and red chili into triangular shapes, and then cut pineapple into dices. Next, make sauce with white vinegar, tomato ketchup, white sugar, light soy sauce and water. Then, cover marinated pork loafs with egg liquid, add starch on the surfaces and deep-fry to be golden. After that, stir-fry red and green chili in another work, with pineapple loafs. Add seasoned sauce followed with pork loafs and stir them well.

Read more: Recipe - How to Make Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple
 

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple

Steamed Pork with Preserved Vegetables

Chinese Name: 梅菜扣肉 méi cài kòu ròu
Flavor: salty with a little sweet
Ingredients: preserved vegetables, streaky pork, shallots, ginger...
Cooking Methods: steam

Steamed Pork with Preserved Vegetables is one of the popular Chinese pork dishes. Cut the streaky pork into big square loafs and quick-boil them with cooking wine and sliced ginger. Brush a layer of soy sauce on the surfaces of pork and then deep-fry them. When they cool down, slice them into long slices. Fry preserved vegetables. Next, lay pork slices in the bottom of a bowl evenly, and then place the fried preserved vegetables on; after, pour in sauce made of salt, soy sauce, cooking wine, white sugar and water. After that, steam it together with the bowl for about an hour. Turn the bowl upside down with a plate, and you can enjoy this food.
 

Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siu)

Chinese Name: 蜜汁叉烧肉 mì zhī chā shāo ròu
Flavor: light sweet
Ingredients: pork butt, Char Siu sauce, honey, sugar, garlics...
Cooking Methods: roast

Brush Char Siu sauce, honey and cooking wine on the pork strips evenly. Pack the pork in fresh-keeping bags and put in refrigerator to marinate for 12 hours. Then, brush some Char Siu sauce and honey again and roast the pork in oven with 250℃ (480℉) for 15 minutes. Take the pork out and again brush some Char Siu sauce and honey and keep roasting for 15 minutes more. And then, you can dice the pork and enjoy it.
 

Chinese Name: 皮蛋瘦肉粥 pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu
Flavor: salty, aromatic
Ingredients: pork, rice, preserved eggs, mushrooms, chopped shallots...
Cooking Methods: stew

The Chinese meat recipes for Minced Pork Congee with Preserved Egg is quite simple. Soak rice in water with a little sesame oil for about 30 minutes. Marinate minced pork with salt, cooking wine and ginger for 20 minutes. Peer preserved egg and cut it into dices. Next, boil rice till the water is thick, add in preserved egg dices, mushroom dices and pork mince to continue boiling for 2-3 minutes. Then, add some salt and lard, and top with chopped shallots.
 

Steamed Pork with Rice Powder

Chinese Name: 粉蒸肉 fěn zhēng ròu
Flavor: salty, spicy, or sweet
Ingredients: streaky pork, glutinous rice, pepper powder, cooking wine...
Cooking Methods: steam

Steamed Pork with Rice Powder is pretty popular in southern China. The first step to cook this dish is to marinate streaky pork slices with salt, soy sauce, chopped ginger, cooking wine, white sugar, etc. Then fry glutinous rice with star anises over low fire; when the rice turns yellowish, ground it to be powder. After that, spread the rice powder on pork slices and stir well. After, steam the dressed pork over high heat for about 80 minutes.

Read more: Recipe - How to Make Steamed Pork with Rice Powder