Recipe - Chashu Pork for Ramen

There seem to be some different schools of thought when it comes to the delicious, glorious meat known as chashu pork. I know it for its rich tender addition to any tonkotsu ramen, giving protein and purpose to the soup. One could easily use it for other reasons but my purpose for making it involved ramen, and the schools of thought I mentioned are about the cuts of pork to use when making chashu - do you go with pork belly or pork shoulder? To test them out, I made both! The consensus of everyone who tasted both was that they preferred the shoulder (me too!) over the belly but that was just among my own friends. I suggest you try it both ways as well and have eager people helping you "judge"...though I really preferred the pork shoulder. In terms of the recipe, I got a lot of guidance from this site linked here but made some tweaks myself. Below are the two versions that I made, and no, it's not exactly the prettiest of recipes to look at while in process.


Step 1: Ingredients (yields 6-8 servings)

• twine (not an ingredient but necessary)
• 2 lbs boneless pork shoulder or belly (if belly, skin-on)
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup mirin
• 1 cup sake (I use junmai grade for cooking)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 bulb garlic, cloves separated (about 10-12 cloves)
• 6-8 green onions, roughly chopped
• 3 inches ginger, skinned and quartered
• 2 shallots, halved with skin on

Pork Belly Version
Step 2: Prepping the Pork
Preheat oven to 275°F. Depending on how large the slab is, you may need to divide the portion. Roll together with the skin facing up - tie out with twine every 3/4" - 1". In an oven-proof pot with accompanying oven-proof lid, bring all other ingredients to a boil. Once boiling, add in pork belly and turn off heat.

Step 3: Braising
Place lid on pot but slightly ajar so steam can escape. Cook in the oven between 3-4 hours, turning the pork every hour to fully marinate. You will know it is done once the meat is very tender. I tested by seeing if a chopstick would effortlessly slide into the pork.


Step 4: Finishing
Once you have pulled the pork out of its marinade, keep the marinade and let the pork cool. Then slice thinly and reheat when you are ready to eat! The marinade is kept in case you want to make other dishes using it such as the seasoned ramen egg! Chashu pork belly is very fatty and thick in flavor so do this version if you like that style for your meats.


Pork Shoulder Version
Step 2: Prepping the Pork
Preheat oven to 275°F. Depending on how large the slab is, you may need to divide the portion. Roll together with the fatty/skin side facing up - tie out with twine every 3/4" - 1". In an oven-proof pot with accompanying oven-proof lid, bring all other ingredients to a boil. Once boiling, add in pork belly and turn off heat.

Step 3: Braising
Place lid on pot but slightly ajar so steam can escape. Cook in the oven between 3-4 hours, turning the pork every hour to fully marinate. You will know it is done once the meat is very tender. I tested by seeing if a chopstick would effortlessly slide into the pork.


Step 4: Finishing
Once you have pulled the pork out of its marinade, keep the marinade and let the pork cool. Then slice thinly and reheat when you are ready to eat! The marinade is kept in case you want to make other dishes using it such as the seasoned ramen egg! Chashu pork shoulder is a bit more traditional in style but it is also very tender and absorbs the marinade better since it doesn't have layers of fat or skin to get through (which the pork belly has).


Whichever way you like your meat, there are different chashu pork options. Regardless of which cut you decide on, just enjoy it in a hearty bowl of delicious tonkotsu ramen and share with friends! By the way, wasn't it just fantastic how quick and easy this whole process actually was? It was a pleasant surprise for me too.


Photography by Duc Duong.