My streamlined at-home adaptation of one of my favorite dishes. With jasmine rice, serve.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 35 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 pounds pork spareribs, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 green onions, cut in 2-inch lengths
- 1 green chile pepper, chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon Asian (toasted) sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon green onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings
Instructions
- Place a large heavy skillet or wok over high heat, drizzle the oil into the pan, and pour the sugar over the oil. Cook and stir constantly until the sugar dissolves and turns a light brown color. Be careful, the melted sugar is very hot. Stir in the pork, 2 green onions, chile pepper, black pepper, shallots, garlic, and salt, and toss them in the caramelized sugar until the pork turns golden brown. Drizzle the sesame oil over the pork and vegetables, reduce the heat to low, and let simmer to reduce the juices.
- When the juices have been mostly absorbed, turn the heat back up to high, and cook and stir the pork and vegetables until the sauce has thickened and coated the pork, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of green onion rings.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 657 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 57 g |
| Cholesterol | 120 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 30 g |
| Saturated Fat | 12 g |
| Sodium | 98 mg |
| Sugars | 52 g |
| Fat | 35 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was quite tasty. I used a poblano pepper, and cut the sugar to 3/4 cup and added 1 t of fish sauce per other’s suggestions. I intended to use boneless country-style ribs, but mistakenly purchased bone-in. Now that I have some experience with this recipe, I’m definitely going to use the boneless next time, but am thinking about cutting them into pieces to help them cook evenly. I never worked with molten sugar and didn’t know what to expect, but the instructions were great and there were no surprises.
I made this per directions, but couldn’t find spare ribs, so I used country style boneless pork loin ribs like some others have done. Cooking time increased, but it still turned out tender and delicious. I used a large cast iron skillet. I served it with brown and jasmine rice, and the “Eggplant with garlic sauce” recipe. The whole house smelled like an Asian restaurant for the next few days, but it was worth it! I used 2 serranos instead of green chile peppers, but it wasn’t that spicy. I also added a tiny bit of fish sauce when adding the sesame oil, but I don’t think I added enough for it to taste much different. I cooked 4 lbs of pork, but cooked in 2 batches. For the 2nd batch, I just added 1 cup of sugar to the sauce already in the pan.
It was a really nice dish and straight forward to make.
DELICIOUS! The meat was not fully defrosted when I made this so I boiled it for about 15 minutes. I really wanted to try it with fish sauce but I was out of it. I added 1.5-2TBSP of Hoisin Sauce. I’ll be making this again next week with some fish sauce.
I had a lot of juice in my pot while cooking. I didn’t want to over cook the pork so I remove the pork. Cook liquid on medium to reduce the it to my liking. Then I re-added the pork. Yum. Thanks for sharing. This recipe is a great tip for making palm sugar by caramelizing the sugar first. I never have to buy palm sugar anymore.
Great tasting dish. I used less sugar than called for, just a bit over half a cup. I realized I didn’t have any sesame oil so I toasted white and black sesame seeds to throw in the dish. I followed the suggestion of others about adding the fish sauce. The dish took a while for the sauce to cook off. My son went for seconds which is always a great indicater for dish of approval.
I chose to Slow cook the ribs so the meat was more tender and it worked just fell off the bone but the flavour wasn’t there. Maybe this was due to the juices of the meat diluted it. Next time i will add more flavour maybe Paprika or BBQ!
Made it as written. It’s too sweet.
I added fish sauce and it tasted great.
Definitely a keeper. Quick, easy and surprisingly delicious. Used two pounds of fairly lean boneless, country-style ribs; otherwise followed recipe to a tee. It seems like it would be high in sugar, but it’s actually not (only 2g/serving). Plus, low in sodium, high in taste — love!
Very, very good recipe. Made it for Christmas dinner (unorthodox, I know), and it was a hit.
This is an absolutely excellent recipe! I’ve tried it the first time and my whole family loved it! I add fish sauce and it really went well! I lessened the amount of sugar, less than 3/4 cup, and it’s perfect! I’ll keep this excellent recipe for the future! Thank you, all recipes, for your amazing and easy recipes!
This is a good dish.. coming from an asian woman woth many vietnamese ppl in the family. Good job. This method is used among many southeast asian dishes. The basics are caramelized sugar and fish sauce for ingredients. One can add extra onion or even make it spicy if they like it.
I’ve made this and my family and friends all liked them. The fish sauce is the key.