Twice-Cooked Pork Belly with XO Sauce

Written by on in Recipes

This is a twist on the traditional twice-cooked pork dish from Sichuan, China. Rather than use thinly sliced pork belly for a spicy dish, this recipe calls for XO sauce and is slightly sweet. Inspired by my friend Frank’s original recipe.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Ingredients

For the marinade:

  • 6 pork belly strips (about 2.25 lbs, each a half-inch thick)
  • 2 Tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine
  • ½ Tbsp XO sauce
  • 1 ½ Tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 ½ Tbsp dark soy sauce
  • ½ tsp white pepper
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 1 ½ Tbsp cornstarch
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • 6 cloves garlic (minced)

For the stir-fry:

  • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
  • 2-3 stalks scallions (thinly sliced)

Directions

  1. Starting at the end of each strip, cut against the grain of the pork belly (6 strips) into small, about half-inch wide pieces. You can cut off any particularly excessive fat beforehand if necessary, but you will want to leave the majority of the fat to render off later.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the pork belly with the marinade ingredients–Shaoxing cooking wine (2 Tbsp), XO sauce (½ Tbsp), light soy sauce (1 ½ Tbsp), dark soy sauce (1 ½ Tbsp), white pepper (½ tsp), black pepper (½ tsp), cornstarch (1 ½ Tbsp), sugar (½ tsp), and garlic (6 cloves minced)–until combined. Leave marinating at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
  3. Heat a wok or large pan on medium-high heat. Add sesame oil (1 Tbsp) and heat for a few seconds until hot.
  4. Add marinated pork belly to the wok. Stir-fry for 5-10 mins or until the pork belly is just cooked through.
  5. Remove the cooked pork belly from the heat and set aside in a large bowl, leaving the leftover oils in the wok.
  6. Reheat the wok on high, until the residual oil is very hot and just smoking.
  7. Separate the cooked pork into 2-3 batches, depending on the size of your wok or pan. Add a batch of the cooked pork back to the pan so that it sits in one layer at the bottom.
  8. Leave the pork sizzling in oil without stirring for about 1-2 minutes or until browning.
  9. Add one-third to one-half of the scallions (2-3 stalks, thinly sliced) to the meat depending on the size of the batch, give the pork a good stir, and repeat step 8, so that the most pieces are browned on more than one side.
  10. Remove the twice-cooked pork from the pan and repeat steps 7-9 with the remaining batches of pork.
  11. Serve hot with steamed rice for best results.