This is a real showstopper: Sticky Japanese Pork Belly Noodles. It’s sweet, full of flavour and so impressive. It uses pork belly, a fatty cut of meat that really benefits from slow cooking as it softens the fat and makes the cut meltingly tender and not tough at all. The dish takes a few hours to cook but the hands-on time is very minimal. It’s one of those where you put it in the oven and forget about it.
Slow cooking meat is such a good option when you're entertaining. It’s so easy, requires zero skill, and yet people are always completely, disproportionately impressed and astounded by the results. This also reheats very well and is great to make the day before so you can get ahead.
What you need for these pork belly noodles
Skin on pork belly (you need 1kg roughly, so it’s usually easier to get this from the butchers if you can, as supermarket cuts are usually a bit smaller and definitely don’t have as good a flavour either)
Olive oil
Spring onion
Fresh ginger (you need this both at first stage when roasting and also when making the sticky sauce. Using a microplane grater is great when making the sauce as it makes the ginger so small it melts into the sauce)
Red chilli (the heat here is really welcome in this sweet sauce but if you really can’t handle heat, you can omit)
Chicken stock
Soy sauce
Mirin (mirin is a Japanese rice wine, it’s sweet and sharp at the same time. It’s similar to sake but with more sugar and less alcohol)
Soft brown sugar (this thickens the sauce and also is what adds the glazed, sticky element so it coats the pork belly noodles and chunks)
Frequently Asked Questions
Noodles work well here, I toss the noodles into the sticky sauce that also coats the pork belly chunks so they are saucy too. Otherwise, I think these would be great in a bao bun. Add a quick slaw alongside and it would be so delicious.
You could use a pork shoulder instead but pork belly is ideal as it’s so fatty. You could also sub in pork ribs. Roast them initially then don’t cut them up obviously. You can then toss them in the sticky sauce at the end and they would be so good.
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Japanese Braised Sticky Pork Belly Noodles
Pork Belly Noodles are sticky, sweet, saucy. They are so good and whilst it is slow cooked, it's hardly any hands-on time, you just have it let it cook slowly!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: Serves 4
- Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients
For the initial sear and simmer:
- 1 kg pork belly with the skin on
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 spring onions, roughly chopped in half
- 1 inch ginger, peeled, and roughly chopped
- ½ red chilli, roughly chopped
- 2 sticks of lemongrass
For the sticky sauce:
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- ½ red chilli, very finely chopped
To serve:
- 1 carrot, julienned into thin ribbons
- Egg noodles: 1 nest per person
- 2 x sliced baby cucumber
- sprinkling of sesame seeds, roughly chopped cashew nuts, sliced red chilli and spring onion, for garnish
Also very good with a bowl of rice and some steamed/fried pak choi
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and once it’s nice and hot, place the whole pork belly in the pan skin side down. Once golden, turn it over and sear on the other sides too. The idea is just to get a lovely colour, but you aren’t focusing on cooking the meat at all.
- Put the seared pork belly, still whole, into a heavy bottomed pan with a lid. Cover with water and add the spring onion, ginger, lemongrass and red chilli. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer with the lid on for about 2 hours. During this time, skim off any fat that floats to the surface.
- Remove the pork belly from the liquid and leave to cool enough for you to chop it up, into roughly 2 inch chunks.
- Mix together the oil, soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, chopped chilli and garlic
- Heat a frying pan with a little oil and then add your pork belly cubes. Fry for a few minutes until they have turned golden and the skin is looking crispy.
- Now pour the sticky sauce into the pan and cook for another 2 minutes, making sure to keep stirring as you don't want it to burn or caramelise. The pork should look gorgeously golden and sticky.
- It’s delicious served with the cooked egg noodles and pak choi. I like to add the julienned carrots to the noodles 1 minute before they finish cooking and then toss the cooked noodles and carrots with a few spoons from the pork cooking liquid to make them nice and saucy. Serve with sliced cucumber slices. Sprinkle over some fresh chopped chilli, some spring onions and sesame seeds.
Notes
Whilst the cooking time for this is longer than most of my recipes, the "hands on" time is really very minimal and the results are so worth it. This is really very good.
This also is an easy dinner party dish, as it’s insanely delicious and can be made a day ahead. For a hassle free dinner party, you could make this the day before and then leave to cool in the fridge overnight. Then rewarm it gently the next day when you are ready for it. Easy breezy.
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