Gua Bao is very popular Taiwanese street food. It’s braised pork belly filled in between steamed buns with fresh vegetables and herbs.
There are many different variations of gua bao, but hands down, this recipe is the BEST you can find online, no more searching surfing guys.
For this recipe, you can use store bought steamed buns or you can make my fluffiest bao buns at home! Check out the link below!
This braised pork belly recipe is also great on top of rice too… Awww can’t wait, let’s get started!
Heat a large thick bottom pot or dutch oven over high heat; add 1-inch cubed pork belly and cook them until nice golden brown edges, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop some onion and garlic.
Also mix the sauce ahead too. The sauce mixture has chicken stock, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, dark soy sauce (dark in color, no sweetness) honey and shaoxing wine.
Shaoxing wine is Chinese brown cooking wine, has a beautiful bitter flavor that upgrades the whole entire dish’s flavor. You can substitute with dry sherry or regular rice wine.
Add pinch of chinese spice, star anise or cloves to your taste make it nice and fragrance, but I made without spices this time.
When pork belly is nice and golden brown all around, add onion and garlic into the pork, cook all together about 2 to 3 minutes. Keep stir.
Pour the sauce and keep stir and deglaze the bottom of the pot, about 2 minutes.
Add water. Mix well and bring it to boil over high heat and keep hard boiling for 20 minutes with no cover until pork belly is tender and sauce’s thicken. Stir occasionally.
Meanwhile, chop some cilantro, julienne cucumber and slice some red/green chili. Also steam your bao buns during this time.
In the steamed buns, fill up with braised pork belly, cucumber, cilantro and chili. Garnish with crushed peanut and it’s ready to serve!
You can serve the braised pork on top of rice or make this sandwich on regular sandwich roll or baguette too!
Enjoy!
The BEST Gua Bao Pork Belly Steamed Buns
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 32 baos 1x
Description
Gua Bao like you will have in a night market in Taiwan!!
Ingredients
- 4 lb pork belly or pork shoulder cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 15 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup dark soy sauce (dark in color no sweetness)
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup shaoxing wine, dry sherry or sake
- 2 cups water
- steamed buns
- handful cilantro
- cucumber
- red or green chili
- crushed peanut or sesame seeds
Instructions
- Heat a large thick bottom pot or dutch oven over high heat; add pork belly and cook them until nice golden brown edges, about 20 minutes.
- Add onion and garlic into the pork, cook all together about 2 to 3 minutes. Keep stir.
- Mix chicken stock, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, dark soy sauce, honey and shaoxing wine in a measuring cup or mixing bowl. Add pinch of Chinese spice, star anise or cloves to your taste make it nice and fragrance, but I made without spices.
- Pour the sauce and keep stir and deglaze the bottom of the pot, about 2 minutes. Add water. Mix well and bring it to boil over high heat and keep hard boiling for 20 minutes with no cover until pork belly is tender and sauce’s thicken. Stir occasionally. Meanwhile, chop some cilantro, julienne cucumber and slice some red/green chili. Also steam your buns during this time.
- In the steamed buns, fill up with braised pork belly, cucumber, cilantro and chili. Garnish with crushed peanut and it’s ready to serve! You can serve the braised pork on top of rice or make this sandwich on regular sandwich roll or baguette too! Enjoy!
- Cook Time: 40 mins
*Nutrition Facts is without the Buns Calories*
24 comments
Do you think you could freeze this after it is cooked?
hi Sarah. very late for this post, put hoping you or someone else received a response in regards to making and freezing this pork recipe for the lovely bae buns. I have tried successfully to make and freeze the bae but not tried freezing the pork as yet. be very interested to know how you or anyone got on with that. I haven’t as yet seen a reply to your question. Cheers, robyn
There shouldn’t be any problem freezing them with the pork inside!
These are fantastic!!! And it was a delicious and easy reheat during the week.
I wish I could give this recipe 10 stars! This was absolutely fantastic! Boyfriend and I couldn’t stop eating it.
This is an amazing recipe!!! Made it together with the Bao buns this evening and everybody LOVED it. Thank you so much!
I did the Bao buns for the for the first timei t was good and my family really enjoyed it. Instead of using pork belly, I used ground pork and boneless chicken. It came out really good.
Thank you for sharing
Ria
Absolutely delicious, made it twice so far and both times were a hit. I added some pickled red onion, carrots and cucumber.
Do you think I could freeze it at some stage?
Thanks for the great recipe!
This is an amazing recipe and I am making it tonight again. Thank you very much for sharing!
That was delish!thanks for sharing
Hello, How many people is this recipe calculated to feed? I only need to make it for 4 people. Thanks
Really enjoyed this recipe! We did it the first time with pork belly and the second time for a slightly lighter dish. When I made it with the chicken thighs, I used a wide pan vs. a deep one so it would reduce faster. Turned out great and we still have all the specialty ingredients, so looking forward to making it again!
My filling didn’t thicken? What can I do? I followed the directions exactly and used exact measurements.
The best suggestion I could give would be trying to hard boil for a little bit longer, and if that doesn’t work I would just try and add corn starch mixed with cold water into it to thicken it that way. Hope this helped!
Very very tasty. I halfed the recipe and cooked the pork belly in a wide frying pan to help reduce the glaze. Will make again but my only change would be to render a bit more of the pork fat in the first fry, and then drain it off before adding the onions and garlic and then the glaze. Served it with quick-pickled cucumber and carrot, sliced red cabbage, cilantro and chilies. So good.
My first time cooking pork belly and this was so easy and so delicious. I made this for my fiance for Chinese new year
I am sorry you had a bad experience, perhaps things didn’t go quite as planned? I have cooked this recipe 4 times now. The first time I had trouble getting the sauce to thicken, also I had an issue with too much fat on the pork. But I have made it 4 times using this exact recipe and it has been fantastic! You should definitely give it another shot!
I hope you receive this message and get a reply soon. I made the buns yesterday, and they turned out PERFECT! thank you.
I am wondering, for the pork belly, if I could first cook in Instant Pot, alone, to get the fat out. Then put in sauce over stove? Would that work? thank you.
I don’t see why not! That should work out great! So glad your buns turned out perfect, hope this was helpful (:
Really easy recipe and very tasty dish. Made this and your bao buns and the whole family loved it! Thankyou
Oh. My. Gossshhh. This was so so so goooood. I’ve made this twice now. Perfection.
I’m so happy to hear that Dez!!
So good!!! Loved it! Will make this many more times. I will remove some of the liquid fat next time before adding sauce. But so so good! Looking forward to the left overs tonight!
This recipe is simply amazing. Simmered the pork belly in the sauce on very low for a few hours and it was super tender then thickened the sauce at the end by boiling off the liquid. Made this with your bao recipe and some quick pickled daikon, carrot, cucumber and red pepper. Best bao I’ve ever had. This sauce would be fabulous on chicken wings too. Thank you. (great video too – so cute!)