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Taiwanese Five-Spice Pork with Rice (Lu Rou Fan)
This Taiwanese dish, called lu rou fan, is a one-bowl meal consisting of richly flavored, soy-simmered pork served over steamed rice. Pork belly is traditional, but we found ground pork faster and just as delicious. Hard-cooked eggs are common, but we preferred soft-cooked eggs for their runny yolks. To make soft-cooked eggs, bring 2 cups of water to a simmer in a large saucepan fitted with a steamer basket. Add eggs, cover and steam over medium for 7 minutes. Transfer the eggs to ice water to stop the cooking, then shell and halve the eggs before serving. We liked serving steamed or stir-fried bok choy or broccoli alongside, a nice balance to the richness of the pork.
6
Servings
Tip
Don’t use regular soy sauce; when reduced during cooking in this recipe it will become too salty. And don't use cooking sherry, which contains added salt; use an inexpensive dry sherry.
40 minutes
Ingredients
-
1½
pounds ground pork
-
1
cup low-sodium soy sauce, divided, plus more, as needed
Directions
-
01In a medium bowl, mix the pork with ¼ cup of the soy sauce. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
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November 15, 2022
Tasty
Relatively quick recipe that produces a delicious dinner. I added additional vegetables, like arugula to the pork and sautéed red bell peppers as a topping.
June 4, 2022
Delicious and Not Difficult
The dish has a sweet and savory blend of flavors, from the cinnamon in the five spice powder contrasting with the smoky flavors of browned onions and garlic. It has become one of my regular recipes, it is that good!! It was fabulous! I'd love to upload a photo, but do not see that as an option.
If this had stars, I would give this a zero star review. It was too sweet and there was too much five spice. The only way to make it taste better was to put in three times the amount of the pork in rice. It didn't have much flavor, all I could taste was five spice, the soy flavor didn't come through. I would put in half full sodium soy sauce next time. This was pretty disappointing, since I was getting pretty worked up about and because Milkstreet in usually pretty reliable.
My husband and I really enjoyed this dish. We did not find it too sweet or think the 5-spice was too strong. It reminds me a lot of a Taiwanese noodle dish I had in Chelsea Market several years ago. We added sauteed baby broccoli with sesame seeds and used a poached egg instead of a soft boiled egg and it was really enjoyable. We will definitely make this again.
I made this last night. Instead of the rice, I used ramen noodles. After reading reviews, I have decided to mix the soy sauce and sherry together in the small bowl. I have added 1/4 tsp of 5 spice powder and 1 tablespoon of sugar then I have added another 1/4 tsp of spice and 1 more tablespoon of sugar. I was testing after each addition. You can always add more spices and sugar later. It came out great. My family loved it. Because I did not add all the sugar, it did not caramelized in 5 min. I had extra liquid in the pan but it worked out great because it soaked into noodles. After the meat was cooked, I turned off the heat and added thin sliced carrots and bok choy. It sat for a few min then I have served it over ramen noodles and scallions.
I started making this last Spring and my husband and both loved it. I have made it several time since. It also freezes extremely well, which is a bonus. This was my first introduction to 5 spice powder and now it is a pantry staple. I tend to lean more toward savory than sweet and generally cut the sugar in most recipes .... but cooked this recipe as written. Loved it and it is part of my rotation. Last thing, I serve this with a salad and can stretch the servings to 6 instead of 4.
I did not find it too sweet nor did it have too much five spice for me. I made it at my mom's home and she didn't have low sodium soy so I used a mix of regular soy and tamari. I could taste the five spice more in that version than when I brought it home. When I brought it home it was neither too sweet nor too five spicey. In fact I could have used MORE five spice--I suspect mine is old and losing its mojo. At home it was definitely too salty and I'm going to try dark soy and less of it for the sauce, thinned with water. I do have concerns about the amount of sugar but not because its too sweet. So maybe I will cut back on that. I guess I don't see why people can't tweak this to their taste. I definitely would add a green like chinese broccoli to the serving. Despite it being salty we had zero left over so I couldn't do at home what I did at my mom's which was make eggrolls with this plus chopped water chestnuts and scallions as a filling. Now THAT was a great use of leftovers.
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What about using dark soy sauce instead of low sodium soy sauce? I know dark is less salty than regular light soy sauce but not sure how it compares to lower sodium soy sauces. I’d guess it’s fine mixed in the ground pork and I’ve seen it used for braising in other recipes but I don’t want to end up with a salty mess.