Chinese Sweet and Sour Pork Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Chinese sweet and sour pork made of? ›

A Chinese stir-fry dish made with juicy pieces of pork tenderloin, bell peppers, onion, and pineapple. Battered pork gets fried until crispy then tossed in a sweet and tangy sauce.

In a medium saucepan, combine pineapple juice, rice vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, and soy sauce and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir in cornstarch slurry and cook until thickened, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat and use immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

How do you tenderise pork for stir fry? Velveting is a Chinese technique that helps keep meat tender during stir frying. Adding cornstarch and bicarb to your meat during the marinating process helps to coat your meat, giving it a velvety feel that makes the meat feel extra soft.

Sweet and sour pork (咕噜肉) sits among some of the most well-known Chinese dishes outside of China. It's widely believed to be a Cantonese dish, known colloquially as gú lóuh yuhk, which roughly translates to “ancient pork.”

Sweet and sour pork is a Chinese dish particularly popular in westernised Cantonese cuisine and may be found all over the world. Several provinces in China produce various dishes that claim to be the ancestor including a traditional Jiangsu dish called “pork in a sugar and vinegar sauce” (糖醋里脊; pinyin: táng cù lǐjǐ).

You can slow cook it in a slow cooker or oven at a low temperature for several hours until it's fully cooked and tender. This will help break down the tough connective tissues and collagen in the meat, resulting in a succulent and tender pork belly. Braising: Braising is another method that works well for pork belly.

As one Chinese cook, I could definitely tell you that most sour sauce and sweet of Chinese restaurant is mainly bought from Chinese super markets.

Nowadays it's made out of a base of salty liquid, such as soy sauce, with sugar and a mix of spices. And it's not just a marinade — it's also used to finish the dish once it's cooked. Lu is the secret sauce at the heart of many Chinese family cuisines. To Peter, his Lu sauce is also a heritage from his beloved mother.

Boil the pork belly for about 5 minutes. This will remove a lot of the impurities from the pork and you will see a film of scum on the surface. Remove the pork belly and allow to cook on a plate or rack.

A brine is essentially just salt and water. It helps prevent moisture loss during cooking, and the salt also helps tenderize the meat from the inside out.

Does lemon juice make pork tender? ›

Lemons are highly acidic, making them a great meat tenderizer. A thick coating of lemon juice applied one hour before cooking will draw water from the meat, thus, improving the meat's texture. Adding too much of this marinade could actually toughen the meat.

But one thing is for sure and that is that the dish originated in China, took a journey around the world and came back to Hong Kong stronger than ever. “It actually evolved from a dish made with spare ribs braised in sugar and vinegar. It was a Shanghainese dish that used to be served to the emperor.

Real sweet and sour sauce is made with a mixture of sweet and sour ingredients, typically including: Sugar: This is the main source of sweetness in the sauce. White sugar, brown sugar, or honey can all be used. Vinegar: This provides the sourness in the sauce.

However, it is believed that the sweet and sour pork dish was originally made with ribs rather than sliced pork. After eating the dish, these foreigners enjoyed it but didn't like the bones, so they modified the recipe, and chefs ditched the ribs and replaced it with a well-marbled pork shoulder.

Well, virtually any cut is used overall in Chinese cooking, but in common take away, usually it's pretty common cuts that would be used. More often than not, it's the cheapest cuts like flank or hanger steak, or loin or butt meat from the pork or beef.

Char Siu Ingredients

Soy sauce, honey, ketchup, and brown sugar create the base of the luscious marinade, while hoisin sauce and red bean curd add depth. Juicy pork tenderloin is the main event of this 5-star recipe. Choose two 1 lb. tenderloins for best results, substituting pork loin or pork chops if necessary.

My dad uses pork butt, also known as "Boston butt” or "pork shoulder,” and this seems to be among the most popular cuts for char siu. It's ideal to use more fatty cuts, so some other options would be the pork neck end or pork belly.