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Pork belly buns served
Fluffy steamed buns stuffed with sticky pork belly and fresh coriander

Sticky pork belly buns

Author: Flavelo
Recipes Main Courses
'Gua Bao' is the star of Taiwanese street food. Imagine a cloud-soft steamed bun hugging a piece of melting, sticky-glazed pork belly. The fatty meat is balanced by pickled vegetables, fresh coriander, and crunchy peanuts (here sesame seeds). A perfect play of flavours and textures: soft-crunchy, salty-sweet, fatty-sour.
🕒 Prep Time 30 mins
🍳 Cook Time 1 hr 30 mins
⌛ Total Time 2 hrs
🍽️ Servings 4 servings
🔥 Calories 550 kcal
🌍 Cuisine Taiwanese / Asian

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

  • Steamer insert or bamboo steamer
  • Pan for cooking meat
  • Frying pan for the glaze

Allergen Information

⚠️ Cereals containing gluten
⚠️ Soya
⚠️ Sesame

Instructions

1 ✓

Pre-cooking meat: Place the whole pork belly in boiling water for 5 minutes, then remove and rinse. Cut into slices approx. 1.5 cm thick.

Tip: This step cleans the meat and helps the slices keep their shape.
2 ✓

Braise: Lightly fry the ginger and garlic in a pan. Add the soy sauce, sugar, five-spice, rice vinegar, and enough water to cover the meat. Put in the meat slices. Bring to the boil, then simmer under a lid on low heat for 1.5 hours.

Tip: The meat is ready when it is 'wobbly' and a chopstick runs into it without resistance.
3 ✓

Glazing: Remove the meat. Boil the cooking liquid down to a thick syrup. Toss the meat slices in it to get a nice shiny coating.

Tip: Reduction concentrates the flavours and forms a sticky glaze.
4 ✓

Steaming buns: Boil water under the frozen bao buns. Steam them according to the packaging instructions (approx. 10 minutes) until soft and hot.

Tip: Do not let them cool in the steam, as they may harden.
5 ✓

Assembly: Smear a little Hoisin sauce inside the bun. Place in a slice of meat, a few slices of cucumber, coriander, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Tip: The crunch of the cucumber is essential alongside the fatty meat.

Recipe FAQ

The meat didn't get soft enough.
Patience. Pork belly needs a minimum of 1.5 hours of gentle simmering for the fibres to yield.
The dough sticks to the steamer.
Place a piece of baking paper underneath, or brush the rack with oil.

Ingredients

  • 600 g Pork belly (skin-on)
  • 8 pcs Bao buns (frozen, or homemade)
  • 3 cloves Garlic
  • 20 g Ginger (sliced)
  • 4 tbsp Soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp Hoisin sauce
  • 2 tbsp Brown sugar
  • 1 tsp Chinese five-spice mix
  • 1 tbsp Rice vinegar
  • 1 pc Cucumber (or pickled mustard greens)
  • 1 bunch Fresh coriander
  • 1 tbsp Toasted sesame seeds (or crushed peanuts)