EASY 12345 Chinese Ribs (5-ingredients)
These Chinese Spare Ribs are delicious, finger-licking Asian-style pork spare ribs that are as simple to cook as 12345 (a mnemonic device that will also help you recall the recipe.) Using only the Asian pantry staples of wine, dark soy sauce, vinegar and sugar to braise the meat, with only a few minutes of active cooking, this is the best easy sticky Chinese Spare Ribs for a lazy food lover.
- Prep time
- 5 min
- Cook time
- 45 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1 lb Pork ribs, cut into small pieces (i.e. 454g Ask the butcher to cut it for you to make your life easier!)
- Salt & Water to brine the meat overnight (Optional step)
- For the sauce (See Variations in the pot above for how to vary the sauce once you've got the basic one down.)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (Substitute: a dry sherry)
- 2 tablespoons dark soya sauce
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar (Substitute: granulated white sugar or rock sugar)
- 5 tablespoons water
- Sliced green onions, sesame seeds, coriander etc
Instructions
- 1
Optional: Mix the salt and water till the salt has dissolved to make the brine. Place the pork into the brine and refrigerate overnight.
- 2
Half an hour before cooking, remove the ribs from the fridge, rinse and pat dry. Leave till the ribs are room temperature/ about 20 minutes. Note: Cooking cold meat turns it hard and dry!
- 3
Put the meat in a pot over high heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and give them a stir to make sure everything is mixed well. Once it's come to a boil, turn down to low heat whilst maintaining a gentle simmer.
- 4
Cover and leave it for 40 minutes over low fire. Give it a stir every now and then, making sure there's enough liquid in the pot and that you give the ribs a toss.
- 5
After 40 minutes, uncover the pot and increase the heat so that everything comes to a sizzling boil. This is the key step to making the pork caramelised you want a thick, sticky sauce but you don't want it to burn. (Turn the heat down if the sauce looks like it's burning.)
- 6
Keep stirring till most of the sauce has evaporated and is a thick glaze consistency. Serve with white rice!