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Close up of a bowl of lu rou fan with pickles, egg and Asian greens

Lu Rou Fan (Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice)

Lu rou fan (滷肉飯) or 'braised pork rice' is an extremely popular and much-loved comfort food in Taiwan. Delicious, generous and homely. What makes this dish truly special is the use of pork belly with the fat cooked to melt-in-your-mouth perfection. Most importantly, the perfect meat, fat, rice and sauce ratio. This recipe will show you just how to get it right!
4.88 from 8 votes
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Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours 35 minutes
Servings: 12 - 15 small portions
Calories: 532kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 kg / 2 pounds pork belly
  • 10 eggs
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 3 cm / 1inch fresh ginger minced (note 1)
  • 3 shallots finely sliced
  • 2 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
  • ¼ cup shaoxing wine substitute: dry sherry
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar substitute: rock or white sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon white pepper
  • 2 tablespoon neutral tasting oil eg. sunflower oil
  • 2 cups chicken stock or water

Spice bag (note 2)

  • 2 star anise
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1 stick cinnamon bark
  • 2 dried bay leaves

Instructions

Make the spice bag

  • Place spices into a muslin spice bag (or reusable ones). Ensure spices are locked in.

Prepare (remove impurities) and cut the pork belly

  • Rinse pork belly under the tap with cold water then submerge in a large pot of cold water. Ensure there is enough water to cover the entire pork belly. Bring up to boil over the stove at high heat. Off-white foam/scum will float to the top of the pot. These are impurities. Once boiling, carefully discard the water and wash the pork under the tap.
  • Pat the pork belly dry with paper towels. With a sharp knife, thinly slice the pork to about 1cm (just under ½ inch) thick then dice. See the image in the post above for reference. (note 3)

Braise the pork belly

  • In a wok or medium-sized pan, fry shallots with oil at medium heat until deep golden. Remove half of the fried shallots into a bowl and set aside for later.
  • Add garlic and ginger into the pan, stir fry until aromatic then add diced pork. Stir fry on high heat for about 3 minutes. Deglaze with shaoxing wine and cook for a further minute.
  • Transfer the pork mixture to a heavy-based pot with a lid. I used a cast-iron pot. Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce, white pepper, sugar, water/stock and spice bag.
  • Bring up to boil then reduce heat to low (as low as your stove can get). Lid on and cook for 2½ hours.

Boil eggs and finish off

  • Whilst the pork is braising, boil and peel eggs.
  • After 2½ hours of braising, mix in boiled eggs and braise on low heat with the lid on for a further 30 minutes. With 10 minutes left to go, turn the eggs for even colouring/seasoning and mix in reserved fried shallots.
  • Remove spice bag just before serving.

To serve

  • Scoop a ladle or two into a bowl of rice with an egg, some Asian greens and (optional) pickled radish.

Video

Notes

1. Mince ginger with a small cheese grater will help save time and effort!
2. If you don't have a spice bag, here are a couple of options:
  1. Add the whole spices straight into the pot and substitute the fennel seeds with powder. Pick out the spices and discard once finished cooking. 
  2. Use Chinese five spice powder instead. Simply replace the spice bag with 1 teaspoon of Chinese five spice powder. However as mentioned in the post above, I just find you get more from using whole spices. Especially when braising for hours on end!
3. There is a little art behind dicing the pork belly. First, you want to thinly slice (with a sharp) knife to about 1cm or just under ½ inch thick. Then, slice vertically (at the same thickness). That's it. Do not cut the pork any further. Rather than cubes, the pork should be in small rectangular shapes. This way, every piece of meat will have one part meat and one part fat. Thus ensuring a good meat, fat, sauce and rice ratio at every mouthful!
Slow cooker method: You'll need to make the following changes to the recipe: 1) Cook for longer. At step 6 of the recipe card below, transfer to slow cooker and cook on high for 8 - 12 hours. Add the boiled eggs in with 1 hour left of the cooking time, turning once after 30 minutes and add reserved fried shallots then. 2) Reduce water/stock from 2 cups to 1 ¼ cup.
Fridge/freezing. Lasts up to 3 - 4 days in the fridge and 2 - 6 months in the freezer stored in air-tight containers. 
A convenient way to freeze these is to portion the meat sauce in small packs before placing in it the freezer. Depending on the size of your household, you may want to keep 2 or 4 serving portions in each container. This way, you'll only defrost just the right amount when you want it. The rest can be stored for another day! :)
To incorporate this dish into a meal, you can serve with a meat dish (like this homestyle Soy Sauce Chicken) and a couple of vegetarian dishes (such as a Tomato and Egg Stir Fry and Chinese Broccoli with Oyster sauce)
Tried this recipe?Mention @Casuallypeckish or tag #casuallypeckish!

Nutrition

Calories: 532kcal | Carbohydrates: 6.9g | Protein: 13.1g | Fat: 50g | Saturated Fat: 17.4g | Cholesterol: 193mg | Sodium: 552mg | Potassium: 248mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 3.6g | Iron: 1.4mg