Lu Rou Fan (Taiwanese Minced Pork Rice)

The BEST savoury, rich meat sauce, braised to perfection.

Without a doubt, Lu Rou Fan (滷肉饭) is one of the most iconic Taiwanese dishes. It’s savoury, aromatic, and comforting, and served with steaming hot rice (but you can serve it on noodles too). This absolutely phenomenal meat sauce starts with minced pork that’s braised with soy sauce and aromatics like five-spice and star-anise. I am aware that a lot of recipes use pork belly but I can assure you that this lu rou fan recipe isn’t any less traditional – certain parts of Taiwan actually do serve the dish with minced pork. That said, feel free to use pork belly, minced pork, or even a mixture of both, but make sure that your minced pork has some fat to get that melt-in-your-mouth texture. Also, FAT = FLAVOUR.

Lu rou fan is not difficult to make at all – just a tiny bit of stir-frying and then it’s a matter of dumping everything else into the pot and letting it simmer away. If you’ve not tried braising your eggs in sauces, this recipe is a good place to start – I promise, these would be the most incredible hard boiled eggs you’ve ever had.

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Lu Rou Fan (Taiwanese Minced Pork Rice) Recipe

(38 votes, average: 4.03 out of 5)
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Serves: 4

The BEST savoury, rich meat sauce, braised to perfection.

Ingredients

Neutral oil

3 shallots, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 slices fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

500g minced pork (at least 10% fat)

2 teaspoons sugar

3 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1/3 cup Shaoxing rice wine

2 cups water

4 eggs, hard boiled and peeled

4 cups cooked white rice

Spring onions for garnish

Instructions

1

Heat up some oil in a pot over medium heat, then add in your shallots, garlic and ginger. Stir fry for a minute or so until fragrant.

2

Add in the five spice powder, cinnamon stick and stir anise, and cook for 30 seconds.

3

Add minced pork and use your spatula to break it apart, and ensure that the meat is well-combined with the spices.

4

Add the sugar, light & dark soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine and water and give everything a good mix. Pop in the de-shelled eggs, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer away for 1.5 to 2 hours.

5

Your sauce should be thick by this point, if not you can increase the heat to medium and reduce the sauce.

6

Serve over rice and top with scallions! Alternatively, the sauce freezes beautifully so just pop it into a container/bag and enjoy it another time.