Yan Jian Rou
盐煎肉·(yán jiān ròu)
Jiachangcai: The Weeknight Wok
If you grew up in a Chinese-American household, the smell of fermented chili bean paste hitting hot pork fat is the smell of a Tuesday night. This is the infinitely faster, lesser-known sister to Twice-Cooked Pork. By skipping the boiling step and frying the pork raw, you unlock a deeply savory, caramelized flavor in exactly ten minutes of active cooking. There are no fancy restaurant tricks here—no deep fryers, no rare spices. Just pork, leeks, and the magical alchemy of Sichuan fermented pastes doing exactly what they were meant to do.
Before you start
Chill the pork for precise slicing.
Place the pork belly in the freezer for 30 to 40 minutes before cutting. Firming up the fat makes it vastly easier for a home knife to achieve the required paper-thin slices.
Separate the leeks by cooking time.
Keep the dense white and light green parts of the leeks in a separate pile from the dark green leaves. They cook at different rates and must enter the wok sequentially to avoid burning.
Stage your ingredients.
Wok cooking waits for no one. Once the oil is hot, the entire dish is finished in under five minutes. Have all your aromatics chopped and your wet seasonings measured before you turn on the stove.
Ingredients
- skinless pork belly10 oz
- med leeks2
- kosher salt1 tsp
- neutral cooking oil2 tbsp
- Pixian doubanjiang1 1/2 tbsp
- fermented black beans1 tbsp
- Shaoxing wine1 tsp
- dark soy sauce1 tsp
- white sugar1/2 tsp
Method
- 01
Heat the wok.
Place a carbon steel wok or a large, heavy skillet over high heat. Let it sit until a wisp of pale smoke appears, then add the neutral oil, swirling it to coat the lower half of the wok.
- 02
Render the fat.
Immediately add the sliced pork and spread it out. Sprinkle the kosher salt evenly over the meat and reduce the heat slightly to medium-high. Stir-fry steadily. The salt draws out moisture, allowing the meat to brown and the fat to render into a clear pool. Keep frying until the edges of the pork are tinged with a crispy golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- 03
Bloom the ferments.
Use your spatula to push the crispy pork up the sides of the wok, creating a clearing where the rendered fat has pooled. Lower the heat to medium. Drop the doubanjiang and fermented black beans directly into the hot fat. Stir constantly for 30 seconds until the oil turns a brilliant, deep ruby red and the kitchen smells intensely savory.
- 04
Combine and season.
Push the pork back into the center of the wok, tossing it in the red oil to coat completely. Pour in the sugar, dark soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine. Toss rapidly for 15 seconds to let the sugar melt and the alcohol evaporate.
- 05
Wilt the aromatics.
Add the dense white and light green parts of the leeks. Stir-fry for 60 seconds until they just begin to soften and lose their raw bite. Finally, toss in the flimsy dark green leafy parts for an additional 15 to 30 seconds until vibrant and slightly wilted, then immediately remove from the heat and serve.
Notes
Remove the pork skin.
Do not leave the skin on the pork belly. Because this dish uses a fast, raw fry instead of a long boil, any skin left on the meat will seize up and become impossibly leathery.
Trust the minimal ingredient list.
Resist the urge to add sesame oil, fresh chilies, or Sichuan peppercorns. Authentic homestyle Yan Jian Rou relies entirely on the pure, savory depth of fermented pastes. Cluttering it with extra spices masks the flavor.
From Cook Sichuan in America.