Braised Glass Noodles with Pork & Napa Cabbage, or 白菜猪肉炖粉条, is a traditional dish from Northern China, and I’m pretty certain that most northerners have their own creative ways of cooking it. Some like to use sour cabbage instead of fresh cabbage, and some like to add chili. Some prefer it saucy, and others prefer an almost soup-like consistency. Of course, everyone claims that their own mother or grandmother makes the best version.
I am certainly not here to compete with the mothers of the North, but I do want to shed some light on this delightful dish, and this is how I like to prepare it. Plus, I know you guys love noodles! If you’re a fan of our Ants Climbing a Tree recipe (another famous glass noodle dish), you’ll love these braised glass noodles with pork and napa cabbage.
The most common glass noodle in Chinese cooking is generally the mung bean noodle. It’s super absorbent, and soaks up liquid a little too quickly. So for this recipe, I decided to use Korean sweet potato noodles (commonly used for Japchae). I like the texture of these noodles, and they work great in this dish!
Recipe Instructions
Pre-cook the sweet potato noodles, following the instructions on the package. Drain and toss in a teaspoon of oil to prevent sticking. Set aside.
Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a wok over high heat until just starting to smoke. Brown the pork belly for about a minute, and then turn the heat down to medium. Remove the pork belly from the wok and set aside.
Add the ginger, star anise, and rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms. Cook for a minute.
Turn the heat back up to high, and add the napa cabbage.
Stir-fry for a minute, and then add the salt, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and chicken stock (or water).
Mix everything well, cover, and simmer for 3 minutes. Mix in the cooked glass noodles and pork belly, cover, and simmer for another 2 minutes.
Stir in the chopped scallion (if using) and serve!
Braised Glass Noodles with Pork & Napa Cabbage
Ingredients
- 3 oz. dried sweet potato noodles (85g)
- 1 teaspoon oil (plus 3 tablespoons)
- 8 oz. pork belly (225g, thinly sliced)
- 3 slices ginger
- 1 to 2 star anise
- 6 shiitake mushrooms (fresh or rehydrated dried)
- 1 pound napa cabbage (450g, cut into large pieces)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1/2 cup chicken stock (or water)
- 1 scallion (chopped, optional)
Instructions
- Pre-cook the sweet potato noodles, following the instructions on the package. Drain and toss in a teaspoon of oil to prevent sticking. Set aside.
- Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a wok over high heat until just starting to smoke. Brown the pork belly for about a minute, and then turn the heat down to medium. Remove the pork belly from the wok and set aside. Add the ginger, star anise, and mushrooms, and cook for 1 minute.
- Turn the heat back up to high, and add the napa cabbage. Stir-fry for a minute, and then add the salt, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and chicken stock (or water). Mix everything well, cover, and simmer for 3 minutes. Mix in the cooked glass noodles and pork belly, cover, and simmer for another 2 minutes. Stir in the chopped scallion (if using) and serve!
nutrition facts
I recently discovered your blog, and it has been the most wonderful resource. I’m Chinese American — but just moved out of the house to Hong Kong for work (here for the first time, though my family is from HK — I hadn’t been until now). It has been a quest for me to rediscover old favourites and navigate HK food on the ground, and not from my family. While I am in HK, I miss my family’s (very HK) cooking …but that is back in the US (funny how that works). In this flip flopped situation, your blog has helped me fill in some of the gaps! My popo made a very similar version of these noodles.Thank you all!
Really interesting, Juliet, because this is not a Cantonese dish! Is your family originally from Guangdong?
Yes, they are!!
Delicious! Butcher didn’t have pork belly so I cut the meat off of bone-in pork chops – we loved this! For our personal taste, maybe a tad more soy sauce next time b/c we are #sodiumaddicts. Thank you for another fantastic recipe!
You are very welcome, Rachel, so glad you enjoyed it.
This recipe is delicious! Thanks for the many wonderful recipes on your website.
You are so welcome, Angela, happy wokking ;-)
Judy, I vaguely recall my Shanghainese mom making something like this with extra firmly pressed tofu and possibly without the glass noodles. Have you heard of anything like that?
Are you saying a dish made with pork and napa? I do know of that dish.
The anise star makes the difference here! It was so good, we loved it.
I have a (big) lists of recipes from this blog I have to try!
Thanks for the good taste and personality in the blog. Blogs like this one are not easy to find anymore. Great job!
Thank you, Mercedes, so good to have you cook along with us :-)
So yummy! I used sliced pork shoulder marinated with some garlic salt and pepper, added 1/2 sliced onion to last phase of pork fry. And other than that, I followed the remaining instructions to this fantastic recipe. Thanks for sharing!
You are very welcome! Happy wokking.
Hello! I’m so excited to try this dish. Can you substitute pork shoulder for pork belly? And if so would you do the same cooking time? Thanks!
Yes, you can, Elda. Pork shoulder requires slightly less cooking time.
Made this last week and my family loved it! star anise and ginger gave the dish a really nice kick. After someone in the comment section suggested frying the pork with the spices to give it taste, I marinated the pork with Soy sauce, cornstarch and a bit of sugar before frying. I will definitely recommend this recipe to friends.
Thank you so much, Jaime.
Hi. I made this with pork loin and the bean thread noodles. I have trouble with gluten, so I used the shitake soaking water and added lots of GF soy sauce, some salt and sugar. My family really enjoyed it; it’s a definite do again!
Thanks!
Hi Catherine, sounds very good. Thanks for sharing your cooking experience and results!
I just made this for dinner tonight using sliced country-style ribs (grocery didn’t have pork belly) and it turned out really fantastic. Great, fast recipe.
Super! So glad you enjoyed it.