Pai Gu Fan - Taiwanese Pork Chop Over Rice With Ground Pork Sauce

Pai Gu Fan 排骨飯 - Taiwanese pork chop over rice with ground pork sauce

- Part 1 -

Fried Pork Chops

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 60 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

2 thick bone-in pork chops

1 tbsp of minced garlic

2 tbsp of light soy sauce

1 tbsp of rice wine

1 tbsp of sugar

½ tbsp of Chinese five-spice powder

Cornstarch

Vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

1. Score the edges of the pork chop to keep them from curling when fried. Set aside while you prepare the marinade.

2. In a small bowl, combine garlic, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, and five-spice powder.

3. Place pork chops in a resealable bag, pour marinade over pork chops and seal. Gently massage the marinade into the pork chops. Refrigerate for max an 1 hour.

4. Heat enough oil to fill the skillet to a depth of about ½ inch.

5. Remove pork chops from bag without wiping off marinade. Coat both sides of pork chop with cornstarch.

6. Carefully add chops to skillet, turning once, until golden brown on both sides.

- Part 2 -

Ground Pork Sauce

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 60 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

1/2 lb of ground pork

1 package of fried shallots

4 tbsp garlic, minced

2 cups of water

up to ½ cup of light soy sauce

1 tbsp of sugar

1 tbsp of rice wine

1 tsp of five spice powder

½ teaspoon of black pepper

Vegetable oil for sautéing

Directions:

1. While the pork chops are marinating, start the ground pork sauce by sautéing garlic in a sauce pan.

2. Add the ground pork to the sauce pan and cook until brown.

3. Add a handful of shallots and stir a few times to evenly distribute.

4. Add water, soy sauce, sugar, rice wine, five-spice powder and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover, reduce heat and simmer for an hour.

Notes:

I like to ladle the sauce over rice, place a chop on the rice, pile a bit of minced mustard greens to a side and garnish with sliced green onions (optional).

You can pick up mustard greens from most asian super markets.

This goes well on noodles as well. With noodles this dish would be called Pai Gu Mian, 排骨面.

This dish may be salty for some people, important thing to remember is to adjust to your personal tastes. You can start off with less soy sauce and add more as you go along.