Slow Cooker Red Braised Country-style Pork Ribs

Red braising, a popular Chinese cooking technique adapted here for slow cooker, produces flavorful, fork tender pork ribs. Recipe below.

AH, IMPULSE PURCHASES! Not looking for country-style pork ribs at the grocery store recently, we came across some nice looking ones and bought them anyway. Then digging in the pantry, we came across not so much an impulse purchase as an over-purchase, a large bag of star anise. We do use star anise, just not in such impressive volumes. Looking for a way to use both, we came across a classic Chinese dish that I know we’ve had when eating out, but never heard it named: red braised pork.

Red braising, or red cooking, is a “popular Chinese braising technique that’s believed to have originated in Jiangnan, a region south of the Yangtze River that’s home to Shanghai,” according to epicurious. “Named for the deep reddish color they get from soy sauce, red-cooked dishes are exceedingly simple, deeply aromatic, and require just a few pantry staples.” As with most popular or traditional or “classic” dishes or techniques, there are countless variations. But most include soy sauce, sugar and Shaoxing cooking wine. The reddish-brown color the dish takes on comes from caramelizing the sugar and the use of soy sauce.

We used a slow cooker for our dish, so the sugar didn’t caramelize and we didn’t get the classic red coloring. But we did get deliciousness. We also got the pleasure of slow cooker simplicity, just mixing everything in it, setting it on low and letting it do its thing unsupervised. We even went out and ran some errands, returning home to fabulous aromas filling the kitchen.

A quick word about country-style ribs. They’re actually not ribs at all, but rib-shaped pieces cut from pork shoulder and the blade just behind the shoulder. You can read more about this brilliant cut’s invention by a savvy Chicago meat man in the 1960s right here.

Print Pin

Slow Cooker Red Braised Country-style Pork Ribs

Red braising, a popular Chinese cooking technique adapted here for slow cooker, produces flavorful, fork tender pork ribs.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 2

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 whole star anise
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
• 1 scallion, white part only, gently smashed
• 5 black peppercorns
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed chili pepper flakes
• 1 pound or so country-style pork ribs, bone-in (see Kitchen Notes)
• chopped scallions for garnish
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients (except for the pork ribs, scallions for garnish and cornstarch) in your slow cooker. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Add pork in one layer, turning to coat. Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours, gently turning pork halfway through (it may start to fall apart).
• Carefully transfer pork to serving platter. It will likely be falling apart now, with bones dropping away from the meat. Tent platter with foil.
• Strain the cooking liquid into a sauce pan and gently heat. Taste, adding water if it is too concentrated tasting. Mix cornstarch in a small bowl with a tablespoon of cold water, stirring until it is completely dissolved. Warm the cornstarch mixture by adding a little of the heated cooking liquid at a time to the bowl. This will keep it from clotting when you add it to the liquid. Slowly stir the cornstarch mixture into the liquid. Cook, stirring occasionally for 3 or so minutes, thickening the cooking liquid into a sauce.
• Spoon some sauce over the pork and add the scallion garnish. Serve with rice, along with the rest of the sauce.

Kitchen Notes

Country pork “ribs”—and substitutes. These aren’t really ribs at all, but pork shoulder and the blade just behind the shoulder. It’s a nice, versatile, inexpensive cut. You can substitute pork spare ribs, short ribs or pork belly.