This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my privacy policy.
Braised Pork Belly in Soy Sauce (Tau Yew Bak) is a homey dish with pork belly simmered in an intensely flavorful soy sauce broth. This braised pork belly recipe offers a complex, sophisticated taste that's truly addictive.
Tau Yew Bak (Braised Pork)
Tau yew bak—sometimes spelled as tau yu bak—means “soy sauce pork” in the Hokkien dialect. It’s a cherished recipe in my family, passed down from my late mother. This slow-cooked braised pork belly features soft, fatty pork belly steeped in soy sauce, along with extras like firm tofu (tau kua), hard-boiled eggs, and sometimes potatoes and mushrooms.
It’s a comforting dish that brings back memories of shared meals and moments with my family, especially nostalgia for my childhood times with my parents and siblings.
Just the mere mention of tau yew bak sets my stomach rumbling and my mouth watering. I can already imagine the tender braised pork melting in my mouth, perfectly complemented by the savory and utterly appetizing soy sauce gravy. Served with steamed rice and accompanied by sambal belacan as a condiment, it’s an experience that’s truly lip-smackingly good.
The Best Braised Pork Belly Recipe
This is my late mother’s braised pork belly in soy sauce, passed down to me when my parents visited us in 2000. Her tau yew bak was legendary; the pork belly is slowly braised and stewed over low heat in intensely flavorful soy sauce, rendering it soft, tender and juicy. The overall taste is complex, sophisticated, addictive, and utterly delectable.
I added some cracked whole white peppercorns, the secret ingredient that elevates the deliciousness of the recipe.
This is definitely one of the best pork belly recipes I have ever tasted. You should also try these recipes for belly of pork: crispy Chinese roast pork, BBQ Char Siu, and Dongpo Rou stew.
I hope you get to experience the many great tastes of my childhood, where pork is the main meat of choice.
Ingredients
- Pork belly – Choose pork belly with a good amount of fat. The fat should be evenly distributed throughout the meat, as this will contribute to tenderness and flavor during cooking.
- Fried tofu – This is firm tofu, cut and deep-fried. You can make these fried tofu pieces from scratch, or you can buy them already deep-fried and packaged.
- Soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sweet soy sauce – These three ingredients form the basic building blocks of the soy sauce mixture that braises the pork.
- White peppercorn – this is the secret ingredient that adds a peppery note and a tint of heat to the recipe. Additionally, it helps to eliminate any potential “porky” stench from the pork belly, ensuring a more pleasant aroma and flavor in the final dish.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make This Recipe
Step 1: Heat up a pot or preferably a big clay pot with 4 cups of water. Bring it to boil and then add in the garlic, pork belly, and cracked peppercorns.
Step 2: Bring the pork belly to boil before adding the hard-boiled eggs, fried tofu, soy sauce, sweet soy sauce and dark soy sauce.
Step 3: Lower the heat to medium and braise the pork for 30 minutes or so until the pork belly is is cooked through and become tender. Add salt to taste. Continue to simmer on the lowest heat for another 15-20 minutes. Dish out and serve hot with steamed white rice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, braised pork belly can be made ahead of time and reheated before serving. In fact, the flavors usually improve and become better after sitting overnight in the refrigerator. Simply reheat the braised pork belly on the stovetop before serving
You can make this dish into a meat-free recipe by skipping the pork belly and adding more fried firm tofu, or firm tofu (without frying), as well as soy-based foods such as fu chuk (soybean sticks and sheets). You can also add potatoes (cut into pieces), dried mushrooms, and hard-boiled eggs. Enjoy!
When braising pork in dishes like Tau Yu Bak, you may notice foam or scum rising to the surface of the cooking liquid. This is caused by proteins and impurities being released from the meat as it cooks. To remove the scums, use a spoon or a fine mesh skimmer to skim off the foam and scum that rises to the top, This helps to remove impurities from the cooking liquid and results in a clearer and cleaner broth.
This recipe is 611 calories per serving.
What To Serve With This Recipe
Braised pork belly is often served with steamed rice to soak up the flavorful soy sauce braising liquid. It can also be served with stir-fried vegetables for a balanced meal. Additionally, Taiwanese people love to serve braised pork belly in guabao, or Taiwanese pork belly bun. You may also serve it with steamed buns mantou.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Braised Pork Belly in Soy Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups water
- 1 head garlic, lightly pounded with the back of a cleaver
- 1 lb (500g) pork belly, cut into small pieces
- 1 tablespoon white peppercorn, smashed and cracked
- 5 hard-boiled eggs
- 8 oz (230g) fried firm tofu , bean curd
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce , kecap manis
- 1-2 tablespoons dark soy sauce , add more for your desired color
- Salt , to taste
Instructions
- Heat up a pot, preferably a big clay pot, with 4 cups of water. Bring it to a boil, then add in the garlic, pork belly, and cracked peppercorns.
- Bring the pork belly to boil before adding the hard-boiled eggs, fried tofu, soy sauce, sweet soy sauce and dark soy sauce.
- Lower the heat to medium and braise the pork for 30 minutes or so until the pork belly is is cooked through and become tender. Add salt to taste. Continue to simmer on the lowest heat for another 15-20 minutes. Dish out and serve hot with steamed white rice.
Video
Notes
- Choose pork belly with a good amount of fat. The fat should be evenly distributed throughout the meat, as this will contribute to tenderness and flavor during cooking.
- Soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sweet soy sauce are three ingredients that form the basic building blocks of the soy sauce mixture that braises the pork.
- White peppercorn is the secret ingredient that adds a peppery note and a tint of heat to the recipe. Additionally, it helps to eliminate any potential “porky” stench from the pork belly, ensuring a more pleasant aroma and flavor in the final dish.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello, wondering if I could use a slow cooker/cook on low for this dish?
Hi Michelle. Yes, you can use the slow cooker for this recipe.
So yum!
Thanks for sharing your mom’s recipe, Bee. Have been craving flavorful tau-yew-bak for a long time & this is just awesome :)
:)
Hi again!
Came back to check on this recipe again & noticed ‘??’ on your Reply to my earlier comment. Any chance you could clarify reason for ‘??’?
Hi Lyann, there is a bug on my site after the design change. When we used a smiley emoji, it shows up as ?? now, instead of the emoji. Sorry for the confusion. I have updated the ?? to :) now.
Hi is this dish suitable for freezing?
You can freeze but you can just keep in the fridge.
Some stuff I think is worth trying to see if you can improve the taste:
-Add a cup of water once the liquid is first reduced from the simmering, and then once the liquid reduces a second time, then see if you like it better
-In the beginning of cooking, boil the pork in water until the pork scum are boiled out of the meat. Then dump the entire water and add new water and start the cooking process from there. This changes the flavor a bit, so it depends on your preference
I have followed your recipe exactly word for word.. and I love it! it’s delicious! and I love the simplicity of this recipe without having to put the Chinese 5 spice (am not so crazy about the taste).
My late grandma always make this dish and she use only pork belly and egg. We always have it with sambal belacan and rice. Unfortunately, I did not get to learn the recipe as I was so young that time but thank you for this recipe! Will try it soon. :)
hi,
1 pulp garlic means the whole garlic or just 1 clove? :)
1 head.
okay thanks. I suppose that’s make up of like 10 cloves or so. As i usually make with about 10 cloves of garlic :)
Yeah, that’s fine. I like a lot of garlic.
Thank you so much! :)
My grandma put star anise in the pot also! So delicious. One of my fav meals of my childhood.
Yes, you can put star anise but my family’s recipe doesn’t have star anise.
Hi Bee,
Tks for sharing this recipe! Can I replace the peppercorns with ginger instead? If so, how much ginger should there be? Also, I intend to replace the pork belly with chicken drummettes instead so I guess total cooking time will be much shorter am I right?
I won’t add ginger to this dish. Ginger is not supposed to be in this dish. You can skip peppercorns.
Hi Bee,
I’ve just tried out one version with peppercorns & the other with ginger & surprisingly, ginger actually tasted much better than peppercorns as it gives heat to the dish & enhances the flavour of the pork belly & sauce. In fact, my family actually prefers the ginger version than the peppercorn one so just thought of sharing with you on this :)
Hi Cheralyn, great that you like ginger, but I won’t add ginger personally. To me, ginger doesn’t belong in this dish.
Hi Bee, it’s really more of a personal taste then coz some people do not like ginger so perfectly fine to go with peppercorns. In any case, tks again for sharing! :)
Sure, this recipe is my late mother’s recipe so I wouldn’t change anything for myself. :)
As you say, taste preferences are personal. However to add more cultural context, I believe the Tau Yew Bak version with dark soya sauce, garlic and white pepper is more of a Hokkien/fujian provincial style tho maybe more popular in Malaysia and Singapore. The dishes with ginger And light soya sauce are usually more in the Cantonese Style and often called Red braised pork. Strictly speaking those are 2 different dishes much like western chili or bbq has regional variants.
Is extra firm tofu used in this dish?
Firm will be fine.
1 tablespoon of peppercorn is it spicy? Thanks.
You can cut it down if you like.
do we need to put the pot on when braising ?