Sichuan Crispy Pork (小酥肉)
Today we are making 小酥肉, translated as little crunchy bites of pork. What’s special about it is that it comes with an aromatic dipping spicy powder, which is like a bomb of flavors. You got to give it a try because It brings any crunchy goods to another level.
- Prep time
- 14 min
- Cook time
- 31 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- 500 g (1.1 lb) of pork shoulder
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 2 tsp minced ginger
- 1 tsp five-spice powder
- 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/3 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup red dried chilies
- 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
- 1.5 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1/2 tsp white peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 small piece of dried orange peel
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, keep whole
- 1/2 tsp roasted cumin seeds, keep whole
- 30 g (1 oz) of all-purpose flour
- 120 g (4.2 oz) of sweet potato starch
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 whole egg
- 80-90 g water
- 25 g vegetable oil
Instructions
- 1
Cut 500 grams of pork shoulder bite-size strips. Besides the pork shoulder, this dish can be made with pork belly, pork loin, and short pork rib.
- 2
Marinade the pork with garlic, ginger, five-spice powder, Chinese cooking wine, salt, soy sauce, and baking soda. Mix well and let it sit for 30 minutes.
- 3
During this time we will make the aromatic spice powder or what we called 蘸料, which is something like a dry rub but you serve it as a dipping component for crunchy stuff.
- 4
Roast the red dried chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, white peppercorns, sesame seed, cumin seeds, and dried orange peel in a wok over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes. Remove from the wok and let it cool. Grind all the spices into a fine powder. Mix with salt, and sugar. Roast more sesame seeds, and cumin seeds. Keep them whole. Mix into the spice powder and set it aside.
- 5
In a big mixing bowl, add all-purpose flour, sweet potato starch, 1/2 tsp of baking powder, egg, water, and 25g of vegetable oil. Mix until smooth. If you don’t have sweet potato starch, you can use potato starch or tapioca starch
- 6
Combine the batter with the pork and mix thoroughly.
- 7
Bring the oil to 370 F. Add the pork piece by piece and fry over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. Stir constantly to ensure even cooking. This is the first frying. We are just trying to cook the pork through. It doesn’t need to be golden brown. When you see they don’t bubble viciously anymore, you can take them out
- 8
Once you finished all the pork, let it rest for 20 minutes and we will double fry it later to reinforce the crust.
- 9
For the double frying, we will bring the oil to 400 F and fry the pork for 2-3 minutes. When the outside becomes golden and crispy, you can remove them. Use some pepper towels to absorb the excess grease. Serve with the spice powder.
- 10
Souped Up Tips: Once you finish the first frying, you can freeze it for future use. Whenever you want to eat them again, don't even need to defrost, just directly double fry and it will be ready right away.