Make Perfect CHASHU Pork for Ramen | Japanese Braised Pork Belly

Hey guys! Today is a shorter video because in my NEXT video I’m going to show you how to make delicious TONKOTSU ramen - but you can’t have delicious ramen without mouth-watering braised pork - or CHASHU!

Since this recipe can take a bit of time, I made it into a smaller video for you guys to come back to any time you want to revisit how to make chashu!

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00:00 Intro
00:17 Prepare Your Pork Belly
01:12 Tying the Chashu
01:44 Boiling the Chashu
03:08 Making Chashu Sauce
04:31 Frying the Crispy Pork!

Ingredients (One roll)

- 1 Pork Belly Block (it should be big enough to roll and have a nice layer of fat)
- 1 Ginger Root Chopped
- 3-5 peeled garlic cloves
- 2-3 stems of Japanese Negi or Green Onion

Chashu Sauce:
- 100ml cooking sake
- 100ml mirin
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 250ml soy sauce
- 500ml water
- 500ml water from the boiled pork
- ½ chopped onion

How to Make:

- Start off by preparing your pork belly, remove any moisture with a paper towel and cut off any uneven parts. Prick both sides with a fork and make thin slices down the non-fatty part of the belly.
- Roll the pork belly up tightly so the side with the least fat is in the middle
- Tie up the pork with kitchen twine - make one knot on the end of the pork and then make a circle with your hand - pull the pork through and tighten the string - repeat this step down the pork and tie off a tight knot at the end. Then tie the twine around the length of the pork a few times before making another tight knot.
- Fill a saucepan with enough water to cover the pork and bring to a boil - drain the pork in a sieve and wash away any impurities/bitterness from the pan and the pork (this will give you a better tasting chashu in the end)
- Put the pork back in a saucepan with ginger, garlic, and the green stems of Japanese negi (green onion) - bring to a boil and simmer for 90 minutes. You can place a piece of kitchen towel over the pork to make sure it doesn’t overflow and if the liquid evaporates too quickly - re add more water as necessary. (Make sure to save 500ml of this liquid for later)
- Once 90 minutes has passed, remove the pork and prepare a saucepan for the chashu sauce
- Add the cooking sake and mirin - and burn away the alcohol, once the alcohol has burned away, add the sugar and stir.
- Once the sugar had dissolved, add soy sauce, 500ml of water and 500ml of the your saved liquid from boiling the pork and then add the pork
- Let that simmer for 40 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.
- Once 40 minutes has passed, take out your pork and save the sauce.
- In a frying pan - cook the edges of your pork until nice and crispy - take out the pork - and add 2 large ladle-fulls (or enough to coat your pork) of your sauce to the fry-pan. Cook on a low heat until it thickens up.
- Coat your pork in this sauce and let rest. Enjoy your chashu with ramen or by itself!