Twice Cooked Pork, or hui guo rou (回鍋肉), is a Sichuan dish of spicy seared pork belly that’s way too famous to ignore and too delicious not to share. If you’ve never tried it, you NEED to make this recipe. It is simply and unequivocally delicious!
Yes, Shanghai Braised pork belly is irresistible and yes, Cantonese roast pork belly is delicious, but pork belly recipes in Sichuan, China are different and when cooked right, this dish melts in your mouth and gives such a pleasant hot chili bean flavor that you may down two or three servings of rice with it.
In the US, this dish has evolved as demand for authentic Chinese cooking has grown. I clearly remember the Twice Cooked Pork we’d make in our take-out restaurant in the old days: boiled pork, cabbage, five-spiced tofu, green and red bell pepper, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and hot sauce. For a long, long time, I thought we were making “twice cooked pork.”
But as more and more authentic Sichuan restaurants open up, the true twice cooked pork has revealed itself. It’s amazingly decadent and addictive.
If you find yourself in a restaurant with a lot of Chinese diners and you see this dish on the menu, order it. Most likely, it will be pretty authentic.
We also had the dish often while living in Beijing, and developed this particular recipe based off of some of the best versions we had around the city. Only the best for our readers!
Twice Cooked Pork: Recipe Instructions
Important notes, before we begin:
- Don’t forget to make rice in advance because you’ll need it.
- Just to make this really clear: the pork is sliced AFTER being boiled.
- The right hot bean paste really makes this dish, so see photo below for the right brand.
In a medium pot, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add the whole piece of pork belly and the ginger, and bring the pot to a boil again. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, until the pork is tender and cooked through. Remove the pork from the pot and run it under cold running water for about a minute. Set aside.
While the pork is cooling, prepare all the other ingredients. Once you are ready to cook (don’t do this in advance, or the pork will dry out), thinly slice the pork belly (slices should be about 1/8 inch thick).
Heat your wok over high heat until just starting to smoke. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and sear the pork, until you get a light caramelization, about 90 seconds. Turn the heat to medium-low and scoop out the pork. Add another tablespoon of oil to the wok.
Add the spicy broad bean paste to the wok and let it fry in the oil for about 30 seconds to bring out the flavor and color. The color should be red; pay attention to the heat to avoid burning.
Now add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds.
Turn the heat to high and add the pork, long hot green peppers, and leeks.
Stir-fry for a minute. Add the shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and sugar. Stir everything together. Once the leeks and are wilted and the peppers are cooked (while still having a little crunch), it’s ready to serve.
Twice Cooked Pork
Ingredients
- 1 pound pork belly (450g, you HAVE to use pork belly, or it's not twice cooked pork)
- 2 slices ginger
- 2 tablespoons oil (divided)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons spicy broad bean paste
- 2 cloves garlic (sliced)
- 2 long hot green peppers (seeds removed and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces)
- 1 medium leek (split lengthwise, washed thoroughly, and cut in 2-inch pieces)
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- In a medium pot, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add the whole piece of pork belly and the ginger, and bring the pot to a boil again. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, until the pork is tender and cooked through. Remove the pork from the pot and run it under cold running water for about a minute. Set aside.
- While the pork is cooling, prepare all the other ingredients. Once you are ready to cook (don't do this in advance, or the pork will dry out), thinly slice the pork belly (slices should be about 1/8 inch thick).
- Heat your wok over high heat until just starting to smoke. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and sear the pork, until you get a light caramelization, about 90 seconds. Turn the heat to medium-low and scoop out the pork. Add another tablespoon of oil to the wok.
- Add the spicy broad bean paste to the wok and let it fry in the oil for about 30 seconds to bring out the flavor and color. The color should be red; pay attention to the heat to avoid burning.
- Now add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Turn the heat to high and add the pork, peppers, and leeks. Stir-fry for a minute. Add the shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and sugar. Stir everything together. Once the leeks and are wilted and the peppers are cooked (while still having a little crunch), it's ready to serve.
We need a bit more info on how hot this dish is when using all the peppers and broadbean sauce. I cheated to make it less spicy with red and yellow bell peppers. Doubanjiang is pretty intense and has quite a kick. I make mapo dofu with it. I bought a gallon of it last year because there was nothing smaller available in china town in Seattle. I put a small jar of it in my spice cabinet and keep the big jar in the pantry where its cool and dark. It’s still bright red so keeping nicely. Many of the ingred. for everything is getting hard to buy because of shortages in the stores. I have lots of freezers stocked with pork belly and ground pork so whenever we want some chinese type of food we get it out of the freezer. I have made the type you discribed in your introduction. We made it with american type cabbage but it isn’t as good as the leek.
Hi paul, the heat comes from the doubanjiang and dried red peppers but also from the long green hot peppers. If you get a spicy batch of the long green hot peppers, they are actually much spicier than the doubanjiang, especially if you don’t deseed them ;-)
Sorry – forgot to rate before hitting submit!!
This was delicious and easy to make! While I love and was craving that classic purple/pink/red stuff you get at the best greasy Chinese joints, this one will now be my go-to for home cooking! By far more complex and delicious.
Hi Elliot, sounds like you like the authentic version more than the Americanized Chinese restaurant version. Enjoy!
Any chance of getting a recipe for the American restaurant-style Twice-cooked pork you describe in your introduction? That’s the twice-cooked pork I know and love. I would really like to be able to make it at home. Thank you!
Hi Marjorie, that dish is on our list and I’ll do my best to get to it soon!
made this over the weekend and everybody loved it. just how i remembered eating it in Shanghai while i was studying. authentic taste!
thank you
You’re welcome katz!
Hey ,,, would it be possible to replicate this recipe with pre cut slices of pork belly ??
Hi Dhruv, I have not tried it but I think thin-sliced pork belly could work!
I do this with pork butt as the pork belly splatters a lot. It still turns out great! Thanks for this recipe! Love your blog.
Hi Rdeev, yes, sliced pork shoulder butt does work nicely
Hey there, I have skinless pork belly, will that still work ok? Thanks!
Yes, it works.
I absolutely love love this recipe it was so easy I did add red peppers and onions as I’m not a fan of very spicy dishes. It still came out great I wasn’t so sure about the spicy bean paste but after one bite I completely get it. This was truly a treat thank you.
Hi Tephelia, love your description – that first bite is always the best!
A fantastic classic dish from Sichuan, nowadays popular all over China. Now I’m interested in your opinion on the following question: Many recipes also use the sweet 甜面酱 paste along with the hot and spicy 豆瓣酱. Some sources say that the original Sichuan version is, like yours, without tianmianjiang, which rather belongs to the variants from North China. Sometimes 豆豉 are added. What do you think about it?
Hi Henning, I do see lots of recipes that use both the sweet and the spicy pastes. When double cooked sliced pork first appeared in Chinese restaurants in the U.S., it was often made with slices of lean pork, cabbage, peppers, hoisin sauce, and chili oil for the heat. Doubanjiang was rarely, if ever used, probably because it was not sold in restaurant-sized quantities and back then, and it was relatively expensive. If I were to speculate, the versions that use both sweet and spicy bean pastes combined the Westernized and the Chinese versions which admittedly, can be tasty. However, my personal preference is what I have posted here ;-)