If you love Hong Shao Rou (Red Braised Pork Belly) and Lu Rou Fan (Braised Pork over Rice), you will love Rou Zao Fan (肉燥饭), or Taiwanese Braised Minced Pork Over Rice, even more. It has the same great flavors, but uses ground pork instead of pork belly.
Not only is ground pork more readily available, it requires a bit less preparation and cooks faster.
A Mellow, Rich Pork Dish
Some people think Rou Zao Fan is the same as Lu Rou Fan. Not quite! This Taiwanese Braised Minced Pork is actually much easier to make and requires fewer aromatic spices. The dish has a mellower taste, closer to Hong Shao Rou.
It’s yummy beyond words, and for anyone watching their fat intake, there’s significantly less calories involved in this version than in braised hong shao rou, which uses pork belly.
What’s the Difference?
There are many similarities between Rou Zao Fan, Hong Shao Rou, and Lu Rou Fan. They all apply the same basic principles of braising meat with soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and plenty of rock sugar to achieve that glossy finish.
They’re also each such beloved staples of home cooking. Families adapt recipes to suit their own tastes.
Outside of home kitchens, they’re so popular that restaurants, fast food chains and food courts, regardless of region or province, include them on their menus.
Lastly, they’re each so delicious, I know you’ll be back to make these recipes more than just once or twice!
While there are plenty of similarities, the differences lie in the ratios of sugar, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine, as well as the aromatics used. They’re also written to suit the cut of meat used and the size it is cut into.
Tip!
While buying fatty ground pork from the butcher is the easiest way to prepare this dish, you can also start with a piece of marbled pork shoulder or pork butt, and chop it by hand with a cleaver. This yields a superior texture and meatier mouthfeel. We have a complete step-by-step in our How to Grind Meat Without a Grinder tutorial.
Rou Zao Fan: Recipe Instructions
To rehydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms, rinse them of any dust and soak them in hot water for at least 2 hours (or overnight). Squeeze out the liquid, and dice into ¼ inch pieces. Set aside the soaking liquid (you will use it later in the recipe).
If desired, use our hand-chopped meat technique to chop a 1 pound piece of pork shoulder/butt. This will yield the best texture. Store-bought ground pork is also fine.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add the ginger…
And the shallots.
Cook the ginger and shallots for 1-2 minutes, or until the shallots turn translucent.
Stir in the mushrooms, and cook for 2 minutes.
Increase the heat to high. Add 1 additional tablespoon of oil, along with the ground pork and star anise.
Cook until the meat is opaque.
After cooking the pork, stir in the Shaoxing wine to deglaze the wok or pan. Add the rock sugar (or sugar), light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, white pepper, five spice powder, and 2 cups of water (including the mushroom soaking water. Just be sure to leave behind any sediment from soaking the mushrooms).
Bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover, reduce the heat to medium/medium-low, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, hard-boil the eggs. Bring a medium pot of water to a rolling boil. Gently lower the eggs into the water using a large spoon, taking care not to break the shells. Boil rapidly for 30 seconds, and then reduce the heat to low. Cover, and simmer the eggs for 10 minutes. Remove to a bowl of ice water.
When the eggs are cool to the touch, peel them and rinse them under running water.
After the pork has simmered for 20 minutes, add the eggs to the mixture, making sure they’re at least 2/3 submerged in the sauce. At this point, you may need to add another ½ cup to 1 cup of water to ensure there’s enough liquid to submerge the eggs.
Cover and simmer the mixture for an additional 10 minutes.
Uncover the wok. If the sauce is too thin, turn up the heat to medium high, and reduce it down, stirring carefully so as not to break the eggs.
Stir in the scallions and salt to taste.
To serve, give each person one egg (cut in half if desired) and ladle the pork over rice.
Taiwanese Braised Minced Pork Over Rice (肉燥饭)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 pound ground pork (hand-chopped pork shoulder or pork butt is ideal)
- 3 tablespoons oil (any neutral flavored oil, such as vegetable or canola oil)
- 1 tablespoon ginger (minced)
- 1 cup shallots (finely diced)
- 2 star anise
- 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
- 0.5 ounce rock sugar (or 1 tablespoon granulated sugar)
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon five spice powder
- 2-3 cups water (including shiitake mushroom soaking water)
- 5 eggs
- 1/4 cup scallions (chopped, white and green parts)
- salt to taste (optional, likely not needed)
Instructions
- To rehydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms, rinse them of any dust and soak them in hot water for at least 2 hours (or overnight). Squeeze out the liquid, and dice into ¼ inch pieces. Set aside the soaking liquid (you will use it later in the recipe).
- If desired, use our hand-chopped meat technique to chop a 1 pound piece of pork shoulder/butt. This will yield the best texture. Store-bought ground pork is also fine.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Cook the ginger and shallots for 1-2 minutes, or until the shallots turn translucent. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook for 2 minutes.
- Increase the heat to high. Add 1 additional tablespoon of oil, along with the ground pork and star anise. Cook until the meat is opaque.
- When the pork is cooked, stir in the Shaoxing wine to deglaze the wok or pan. Add the rock sugar (or sugar), light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, white pepper, five spice powder, and 2 cups of water (including the mushroom soaking water. Just be sure to leave behind any sediment from soaking the mushrooms).
- Bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover, reduce the heat to medium/medium-low, and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, hard-boil the eggs. Bring a medium pot of water to a rolling boil. Gently lower the eggs into the water using a large spoon, taking care not to break the shells. Boil rapidly for 30 seconds, and then reduce the heat to low. Cover, and simmer the eggs for 10 minutes. Remove to a bowl of ice water. When the eggs are cool to the touch, peel them and rinse them under running water.
- After the pork has simmered for 20 minutes, add the eggs to the mixture, making sure they’re submerged in the sauce. At this point, you may need to add another ½ cup to 1 cup of water to ensure there’s enough liquid to submerge the eggs. Cover and simmer the mixture for an additional 10 minutes.
- Uncover the wok. If the sauce is too thin, turn up the heat to medium high, and reduce it down, stirring carefully so as not to break the eggs.
- Stir in the scallions and salt to taste. To serve, give each person one egg (cut in half if desired) and ladle the pork over rice.
Working on a vegan version of this using diced oyster mushrooms and dry tofu (5 spice). Tried it once using a different recipe, failed, came out way too salty. Want to try it again. Your recipe calls for much less soy sauce which is where I think I went wrong.
Hi David, with a vegan version, I’d use seitan instead of the 5-spice firm tofu. Seitan’s texture is much softer.
I just made this recipe for my entire family & everyone loved it! They even asked me to make it again! Thank you for sharing this recipe!! It’s definitely a keeper!
That’s truly wonderful, Judy, a meal the whole family can agree on.
Great recipe! Really hits the spot for a cozy night home or quick lunch the next day. Reminds me of a fast meal, we used to get as a family in NY Chinatown growing up. Delish.
That’s awesome, Katie.
This is delicious! Thank you for the recipe! I halved the quantities and used fresh shiitake mushrooms which I know don’t have the same depth but it was still absolutely yummy!
So delicious. I’ve been cooking a lot of your recipes, and they are all amazing.
Thank you so much for your high praise, Steve :-)
This blew me away with it’s complex unusual flavors all working together so beautifully. It’s a good recipe especially if you cook for 1 like I do because I figure it would freeze well if I were to add more sauce and boil it down during rewarming. I’d have to cook the egg fresh but I could do that while I cook the rice. Thanks so much
So glad you liked it, Liz. It’s a great dish to freeze. You might want to consider a fried egg instead of the braised egg for reheating portions :-)
I’m addicted. I had it for the first time last week and I’m on my second batch this week. Thanks for making a slightly healthier version of lu rou fan :-) Good on cozy nights in, or when I miss Taiwan.
Eat up, Amy, eat up :-)
This was FANTASTIC! My husband helped make it so yes we totally followed the recipe since he is like that. I’m more of a throw it all in and it’s good enough person. We made a double batch and I was planning to freeze half but there is only just over one serve left so guess what is for lunch :) This is a keeper for sure.
LOL…I’m glad your husband was there to uphold the recipe for me :-)
I made this today. Great flavor! I had it over noodles with some greens and used starch to thicken the sauce. To those who miss something in the flavor of this dish: I found out in general that the quality of the oyster sauce makes a huge difference. It is really worth it to spend some extra money in high quality oyster sauce from the asian supermarket.
Thank you so much for your input, Thomas. You are so right that good quality ingredients can make all the difference.
Not the greatest dish I have made. It was OK . added hua jiao which helped. Probably won’t make it again. Flavors were not complex enough.
Sorry to hear that it’s not for you.
As a butcher I was able to grind lean pork belly trim to make this (1x grind to be coarser). Way better than (but still good) round one. Also used “regular” mushrooms as there was no fresh shiitake at our store today. I will probably use more water and some potato starch to make a thicker sauce (our personal preference), but exactly the flavour we were looking for.
That’s great, George, so glad you liked it :-)