Chinese Sweet and Sour Pork Recipe (2024)

Sweet and sour pork is a well-known Chinese dish loved for its sweet and tangy flavors. There are lots of ways to make it.

This recipe stands out from your typical takeout version as it offers a truly authentic taste of local Chinese cuisine.

🥢 About This Recipe

What’s so special about this recipe? Well, it comes from my mom’s hometown, QuanZhou and it’s prepared in a truly authentic local style. My mom takes great pride in it and taught me how to make it.

It includes five-spice powder and involves deep frying method. The pork undergoes marination directly in the sweet and sour sauce before being coated with batter and deep-fried to perfection.

This dish is great for making in large batches, especially during New Year’s when everyone’s busy visiting family.

You can keep it in the fridge for several days, using it for stir-fries with veggies or just reheating it when you want a quick meal.

🔪 How do you cook this sweet and sour pork?

1. Marinating: Marinate the pork pieces in a sauce made of Chinese dark vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, rice wine, and five-spice powder to create a unique burst of flavor on each bite.
2. Coating: coat the marinated pork with the mixture of cornstarch and flour.
3. Deep frying: Deep fry the pork until crispy. Or double deep frying for extra crispiness.
4. Stir-frying with any vegetables you like. (optional)

🥘 Ingredients

• Pork: Pork scotch is a great option because it retains its moisture when deep-fried due to its natural fat content. If you don’t want so much fat in your dish, simply use pork tenderloin.
• Soy sauce: Use quality soy sauce. Recommend Leekumkee soy sauce.
• Chinese dark vinegar: Several varieties of Chinese black vinegar are available on the market, which vary in color and flavor. We usually use the yellow label one called ZhenJiang vinegar.You can use balsamic vinegar to replace Chinese dark vinegar.
• Five Spice Powder: It packs a punch with its strong flavor, so remember that a little can go a long way. However, feel free to adjust the amount to suit your taste preferences.

📝 Recipe notes

• Marinade Sauce: Maintain a 2:1:1 ratio of vinegar to soy sauce to sugar for the sauce to achieve a well-balanced flavor.
• Batter Ratio: Use a 2:1 ratio of cornstarch to flour in the batter. You can increase the flour ratio for more crunchiness.
• Batter Consistency: Ensure the batter isn’t too watery by removing excess marinade sauce before adding cornstarch and flour.
• Texture Tip: For stir-frying purposes, consider using cornstarch or sweet potato (Kumara) powder to attain a silky texture, and you can skip using flour in the batter.
• Flavor Combinations: Try stir-frying with tomatoes and baby leeks for a delicious flavor combination.
• Batch Cooking: This recipe is perfect for batch cooking and freezing in small portions.

🔍 FAQ

Q: What is the difference between this recipe and the usual sweet and sour pork?

A: For the usual sweet and sour pork, the pork pieces are deep fried and then coated in the sweet and sour sauce. In this recipe, the pork is marinated directly in the sweet, sour sauce and five-spice powder and then coated with batter and deep-fried. You can taste the tangy and sweet flavor throughout the entire bite. You won’t be disappointed!

Q: How do you serve this sweet and sour pork?

A: It is a really versatile dish. It is perfect as an appetizer, the main course, or as a snack. It can be used in a stir fry with vegetables, as the topping on noodle soup, or as one of the ingredients in hot and sour soup.

Other Chinese pork recipes to try:

Pork belly slices

Pork chop noodles

Sweet and sour pork ribs

Now that you’ve got these tips and insights for this Chinese sweet and sour pork recipe, it’s time to head to the kitchen, and whip up your mouthwatering dish.

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