Chinese pork belly ribs recipe

Fall apart pork ribs with a golden crispy exterior, covered in a sweet, sticky sauce. The best ribs ever!

Ordering ribs when you go for Chinese is an absolute must right?
I’ve tried lots of ribs in lots of places, and I’ve made a fair few versions myself with pretty good results.

Nothing ever compared to the ribs sold in a little Chinese restaurant in my home town of Southport though. Members of my family have been know to order ribs for their starter, then ribs for their main course at that place. If your face and hands weren’t covered in BBQ sauce by the end then….well I can’t actually tell you because that would never happen.
Ling’s barbecued spare ribs were unbeatable.

Or so I thought.

I’d been thinking about testing out a few different ways to cook ribs.

• Dry rub first?
• Slow cook in the sauce?
• Slow roast then finished on the BBQ?

Then I started thinking about my favourite Sticky Chinese Pork Belly recipe and I realised that applying the same ingredients and technique might just work. After all, the cuts of meat are pretty close in terms of location. The ribs of course have bones, but surely that could only add to the flavour?

Yesss!

They were perfect.

The kind of perfect that makes you smile when your husband looks at you like he fell in love all over again, making constant ‘Mmmmmm’ sounds whilst he’s eating them.
The kind of perfect that the plan of only eating one each and cutting up the rest of the meat for another meal goes completely out of the window.
The kind of perfect that finds you sticking your finger in the leftover sauce for another lick, because despite the fact you’ve already eaten dinner, that taste is just too good to go to waste.

Cook time

Total time

Fall apart pork ribs with a golden crispy exterior, covered in a sweet, sticky sauce. The best ribs I've ever tasted.

Author: Nicky @ Kitchensanctuary.com

Recipe type: dinner

Serves: 5-6 ribs

Ingredients

• Slow cooked ribs:
• 1 + ¼ kg meaty pork ribs (about 5 or 6 ribs) - in one piece
• 1 litre hot chicken/veg stock
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped in half
• 1 tbsp. rice wine
• 1 tbsp. caster sugar
• Glaze:
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and minced
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 3 tbps soy sauce
• 1 tsp lemon grass paste

Instructions

1. Add all the slow cooked rib ingredients to a large pan (not the glaze ingredients). Bring to the boil, then place a lid on, turn down the heat (to prevent the rib meat sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning) and simmer for 3½ hours. Check a couple of times during the last hour of cooking, and top up with a little more water if required. Alternatively, you can do this in your crockpot - cooking for 4-5 hours on medium or 6-7 hours on low.
2. Turn off the heat and drain the pork, reserving the the liquid.
3. Carefully chop the pork into individual ribs (the meat will fall off the bone if you're not careful enough). Add the oil to a large frying pan. Heat the oil and add in the ribs, salt and pepper, frying on a high heat until the ribs start to turn golden. Now, mix the remaining glaze ingredients plus 2 tbsp of the cooking liquor (save the rest for a tasty soup) in a small bowl and pour the glaze over the ribs. Bring the sauce to the boil and continue to cook whilst basting the ribs until they look dark and sticky. Remove from the heat and serve.