Taiwanese Minced Pork Sauce over Rice (肉燥飯)
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Yes yes I know I have been a little inactive on this site (OK quite inactive) lately but the truth is I’ve never stopped trying new dishes throughout the summer. I promise I’ll share all the dishes I cooked on this site as long as I am done with what’s keeping my busy elsewhere 🙂
If you like Chinese calligraphy or authentic Chinese food in general, you might remember the lu wei or braised aromatic goodness I wrote about some time ago. In that post, I broadly introduced you to an important Chinese cooking technical called lu or braised stuff with aromatic spice. As I mentioned that over the course, lu wei has developed into countless regional variations and one of the regional flavor is the famous Taiwanese Minced Pork Sauce over Rice dish.
Taiwanese Minced Pork Sauce over Rice holds an iconic status in Taiwanese cuisine. This stew like meat sauce dish is extremely popular and can be found anywhere in Taiwan from mom’s kitchen to night market street vendors to upscale restaurants. The aromatic meat sauce is normally served on rice or noodles but I also discovered that it goes very well with toasted bread.
This dish is also very easy to make at home. It freezes well so I tend to make a big portion every time so I can save the leftover for extra meals. And yes, feel free to substitute minced pork with other types of meat. I like to use meat with a little fat to create that rich juicy consistency.
The recipe calls for store bought fried shallot which can be found in some Asian supermarkets. If you can’t find it nearby, you can order it online or make your own by frying chopped shallots until crispy. Also, the traditional recipe calls of soy sauce paste (醬油膏) which is a thicker version of soy sauce commonly used in Taiwan. If you have no luck to score it locally you can substitute it regular soy sauce and a little more sugar.
Step by Step Illustration:
On a heavy skillet, add 1 tbsp of cooking oil and the minced pork over high heat. Stir the pork gently and constantly for about 4 minutes or until the pork turns slightly brown. Make sure your skillet is hot enough so you don’t lose the juice from the meat.
Add broth/ water and mix in the five spice powder, star anise, bay leaf, soy sauce paste, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, black pepper, and sugar. Bring to boil and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Grind the fried shallot with mortar and pestle into coarse powder.
Add fried shallot to the meat sauce after 30 mins of simmering. Add salt if necessary. Continue to simmer for another 20 minutes. Thicken the meat sauce with some corn starch.
Garnish with chopped scallion and serve the meat sauce over cooked rice or noodles or read of your choice.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork (or the meat of your choice)
- 3 tbsp cooking wine
- 1/2 cup soy sauce paste (can substitute with regular soy sauce)
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 cup pork broth or water
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 star anise
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp five spice powder
- 1 cup of fried shallot
Instructions
- On a heavy skillet, add 1 tbsp of cooking oil and the minced pork over high heat. Stir the pork gently and constantly for about 4 minutes or until the pork turns slightly brown. Make sure your skillet is hot enough so you don’t lose the juice from the meat.
- Add broth/ water and mix in the five spice powder, star anise, bay leaf, soy sauce paste, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, black pepper, and sugar. Bring to boil and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Grind the fried shallot with mortar and pestle into coarse powder.
- Add fried shallot to the meat sauce after 30 mins of simmering. Add salt if necessary. Continue to simmer for another 20 minutes. Thicken the meat sauce with some corn starch.
- Garnish with chopped scallion and serve the meat sauce over cooked rice or noodles or read of your choice.
Happy Cooking!
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Hello! When I was in Taipei, I loved this rice dish. Thank you for this delicious recipe. I just made this dish for lunch. My family enjoyed it. Will try it with turkey and chicken in my next cooking adventure. The 5 spice powder gives it a kick. Next time, I plan to add some spiced dry tofu.
Hi there, thanks for the feedback and I am glad to hear that you and your family enjoyed this recipe. I’ve tried with chicken before and it came out pretty good (although i prefer pork with this recipe). Thanks again for checking out my site.
It was a bit too sweet for me but otherwise really good. I also added mushrooms and Chinese pickled cucumbers.
hi Lisa, thanks for the feedback and glad you and improvise to adjust to your own taste.
Made this last night and it was nice, but not exceptional. my kitchen had a real “Chinese Restaurant ” smell!!!
I used pork mince and will mince pork belly next time. I have also seen a recipe for this with diced pork belly.
I think the “Soy paste’ youi are referring to is also known as “Sweet Soy Sauce” or “ABC Sweet Soy Sauce Kecup Manis”.
Be carefull cooking this on the stovetop as the high level of sugar will “catch” easily, especially in the second half of the braisage.
If the dish turns out too salty for your taste you need to balance the salt with added sugar. Failing this put some sliced potato in and cook for another 15 minutes and reserve the sliced potato when you serve.
You can blanch the whole belly in boiling water for a minute or so to reduce the “porky” smell. Chefs call this step the “First”.
No. Soy paste is 酱油膏 which is regularly sold in Taiwan
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Hi Yi! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I’m excited to give it a try.
I have a question on ground pork. I find that I am very sensitive to the “porky” smell that comes with cooking pork. For soups, I typically blanch the pork bones in boiling water prior to combining with the remaining ingredients. Any ideas on what can I do with ground pork to eliminate that strong gamey pork smell?
Thank you!
Hi there, thank you for checking out my recipe. I agree that some pork has a porky smell that’s rather not desirable and I, too, blanch my pork bones before making a soup. To answer your question, the only way (I know of) to treat ground pork is to wrap the pork in a few lawyers of cheesecloth and soak the wrapped pork in cold water for 10 minutes (change the water one or two times in between). This should reduce the smell and cut down some of the blood. I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
You can blanch the whole belly in boiling water for a minute or so to reduce the “porky” smell. Chefs call this step the “First”.
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Hi. Just tried this. Subbed low sodium chicken broth for the pork broth and regular soy for the soy paste. Had great aroma and base flavor, but man, it was salty! Any suggestions to dial that back? Perhaps use water the next time?
Hi Chris, thanks for checking out my blog. One suggestion I have is to thin the sauce with more water and more cornstarch slurry. Hope this helps.The pork broth I used was homemade stock so there was no sodium. I’ll update the recipe to reflect that. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Ok, here’s what I did. Used unsalted chicken broth and subbed in lite sodium soy sauce, using about 1/3 cup instead of 1/2.
I also used ground turkey breakfast sausage because you know, calories. I really expected it to turn out bland or dryish, in which case I would have tried over with regular pork.
Yada yada yada, it turned out GREAT!! My husband even licked the bowl. I can’t say it was a “low sodium dish” – those who don’t like salt would certainly not like it. But the salty taste from before was probably reduced ~60%. I’ll be making this again.
If the dish turns out too salty for your taste you need to balance the salt with added sugar. Failing this put some sliced potato in and cook for another 15 minutes and reserve the sliced potato when you serve.
see my comment above regarding the Soy Paste in the recipe.
Hi Yi
I’d like to try but i want to ask about the cooking wine
Is it any cooking wine or asian style which is shaoxing wine or huangjiu?
Thank you
Please Respond it ASAP
I’d like to cook it soon because I already bought everything but the cooking wine
I bought the western wine
Thank you
Hi there, the Asian cooking wine was used in the recipe but western cooking wine should work as well. Please let me know if you have any other questions
Thanks so much for this recipe! Tried it for lunch today and really enjoyed it.
I just made this for dinner and the flavours were AMAZING! I had to improvised a little with beef mince, no soy sauce paste and chicken stock instead of pork broth and I will definitely be making this again. Wow! Thank you for extending my cooking skills.
Hi Raine, glad to hear that you liked the dish!
hello Yi, this recipe was aweseome!! i made it for the first time and I never cook chinese food, had to go to the chinese market and buy all kinds of unfamiliar ingredients, but it tasted the same as the taiwanese restaurants I’ve eaten at before. My husband loved it as well. Thank you!
hey there, thanks for your feedback! So glad to hear that you and your husband loved the recipe. Good job on making your first Chinese dish!!
Hallo
This recipe loks tempting ,currently in Taipei ,will love to try ,and then try in my Kitchen once back in home town
Thanks for checking out my blog. Enjoy your stay in Taipei and please let me know how you like it!
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I tried to make this and failed miserably! I think its because of the type of soy sauce paste I used…
When I was in the market, I was trying to understand if you meant SOYA PASTE which did not look to be fermented, ie not like soya sauce and more just bean paste…or something called THICK SOYA SAUCE which had molasses in it.
I went with the Thick Soya Sauce and blech! The dish tasted like burned black bean sauce….
Can you clarify which type of Soya Sauce Paste you used?
Hi Andrew, first of all i am sorry that your last attempt didn’t work out so well. The translation of the soy sauce i used gets kind of confusing. Sounds like you might have used sweet soy bean paste which is very think. The soy sauce paste used in this recipe is more like a slightly thicker (and sweeter) version of soy sauce. This is what i used for my dish. However depending on where you live you might find something similar but under different brands.
Whenever my family dine at a Taiwanese Restaurant in Hongkong, we usually order a bowl of this ground pork….we love it and I’ll give a try this time at home. I’m sure my siblings would like it too! thank you so much….
Thanks for checking out recipe. Please let me know how it came out if you do get to cook it. Thanks.
I have used the dried shallots before, but my last package hung around for so long that I tossed it! Now I must pick another one up on my next trip To Kam Man, as I’d like to try this dish. Ill have mine in a bowl over rice. My DH will have his on a plate over bread and a knife and fork. (sigh)
Hi Jo-Ann, thanks for stopping by. I’ve actually spread the meat sauce on toasted bread before and I really liked it. I am sure your DH will like it as well 🙂
There is something about fried shallots that gives the pork sauce extra sweetness and depth! I like 肉燥 A LOT! So versatile! Can have it with rice, porridge, noodles…
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Hi Yi,
I love to cook with minced pork but the Taiwanese version is still new to me. I will try to get it in my kitchen too. Haha. Happy cooking
Very nice and simple dish!
Cant wait to try this!
This is something we order for kids when we go to Taiwan. We have similar Japanese dish and kids are used to eating minced pork on the rice. Easy to eat and so delicious. I’d be happy with a big bowl of this and some greens on top, just like how you served it. I call this my perfect meal. 🙂
Oh yes! My mom makes this and my son loves it…so she always make extra so he can take home with him…yours look delicious, so flavorful as well…and yes, with this meat sauce I can eat easily a couple of rice bowls 🙂
Hope you are having a great week Yi 🙂
YUM!!! Are you taiwanese Yi? I love all types of Taiwanese food hehe 🙂 I never knew it was relatively easy to make Minced Pork Rice 😀 Hopefully my boyfriend will make it for me soon ~
Hi Daisy thanks for stopping by. I actually grew up in Sichuan, China but i am a big fan of Taiwanese food!
Minced pork over rice is always winner in my house. I really like your recipe, and pictures are tempting! I need to try your recipe asap:)
Thank you for sharing.
Hi Yi,
This dish looks good. I’m happy that it’s simple enough to make for a weeknight meal. =D
This is one of my favorite Taiwanese dishes; with some vegetables, it is already a satisfying meal to me.
omg lu rou fan!!! my good friend is taiwanese and she always misses this dish. will share this link with her. and looking fwd to hearing more from you!
This looks terrific! And I like that you can freeze it – so many Chinese dishes don’t freeze well, I’ve found (probably I’m just making the wrong things!). I enjoy the flavor of pork, so that’s definitely the meat I’d use in this. Nice recipe – thanks so much.
Hi Yi! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I’ve tried a couple from other websites but the taste just didn’t feel right. There is a little restaurant close to where I live serve a nice Taiwanese combo with minced pork on top of the rice, very yummy and I’ve always wondered how do they cook it consistently everytime, can’t wait to give your recipe a try!
Like to try it too!!