This recipe for braised pork with 40 cloves of garlic is a Chinese-inspired riff on the classic French dish. The garlic is meltingly sweet, and when combined with pork belly and steamed rice, it is simply delicious.
Do You Really Use 40 Cloves?
Yes! 40 cloves of garlic in one dish. That’s about 4 to 6 heads of garlic with medium to large sized cloves. (We have a quick method to peel them!)
If you’ve ever had the French dish, Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, you know that the garlic melts into the dish and mellows into sweet morsels.
While it may sound like a lot, it’s not overwhelmingly garlicky in the slightest. It just goes very well with the rich pork belly. I love eating the softened chunks of garlic with pork and rice.
A Great Way to Use A Lot of Garlic
Garlic has a long list of health benefits, from antioxidants to antimicrobial properties. It has been prized for its medicinal properties for thousands of years.
According to some research, it may help boost your immune system, reduce blood pressure, and lower cholesterol levels. Some studies suggest it could even play a role in preventing certain types of cancer!
We use a lot of garlic in our house, but in this dish, it is the star. We especially love cooking this dish after we harvest the garlic from our garden every year.
We mostly grow hardneck garlic, which has a stronger flavor. Hardneck garlic tends to have fewer cloves per head, but the cloves are larger and more uniform in size.
Softneck garlic tends to have smaller cloves in the middle of the head, which take more time to process. But you can use store-bought garlic, which is usually of the softneck variety. Learn more about how to grow garlic in our gardening series!
Like Sarah’s recipe for forty garlic chicken (which some say originated as a French country dish) with an Asian twist, this braised garlic pork belly recipe also has Asian flavors.
It is home cooking at its best, and if you love pork and garlic, make this your next dinner!
What cut of pork should I use?
The leanest cut of pork belly you can find is great in this dish, but you can also use chunks of pork from boneless country ribs, pork shoulder or pork butt. These are leaner cuts than pork belly, but do have enough fat to braise well.
A very lean cut like pork loin is too lean for braising (it will turn out dry), though you could potentially use bone-in center cut pork chops!
Pork with 40 Cloves of Garlic: Recipe Instructions
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Blanch the pork belly pieces for 2 minutes. This step cooks off the impurities and starts the cooking process. Drain, rinse the pork belly pieces, and set aside.
In a large measuring cup or medium bowl, combine the chicken stock, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper.
To peel the garlic, grab a relatively large but lightweight metal pot with a lid (or any large closed container with hard sides—we used a casserole dish).
Place all of the individual garlic cloves (they should be separated) into the pot, and close the lid. Holding the pot tightly closed, vigorously shake the garlic in the pot for 30 seconds. This will shake the garlic skins loose and make peeling much easier.
You can also do this in a closed mason jar. Just shake the garlic in 3 smaller batches.
Another method for peeling garlic!
Another method is to pour boiling water over the top of the garlic in a heatproof bowl. After 1 minute, the skins should come right off.
Heat wok or deep pot over medium-low heat. Add the neutral oil, ginger slices, star anise, and all of the peeled garlic cloves. Cook, stirring often, until the garlic is lightly browned.
At this point, you can remove half or all of the garlic cloves with a slotted spoon and set them aside.
Choose your own garlic adventure:
Leaving the garlic in the pot creates a deeper garlic flavor in the dish. Removing them now and adding them back later gives you whole garlic cloves to enjoy with the chunks of pork belly. Removing half gives you the best of both worlds—half of the garlic cooked down into the sauce and the other half in whole soft tender cloves.
Next, add the pork belly and fry in the garlic infused oil for 6-7 minutes, or until lightly browned. Stir in the wine and ½ teaspoon of sugar.
Add the chicken stock mixture to the pot, along with the shallot. Bring the mixture to a simmer, cover, and continue to cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
If you decided to remove any garlic after you infused the oil, now is the time to add them back. Continue to cook for another 15 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. The liquid should gradually reduce, but should never dry out during the 30 minutes of cooking.
After 30 minutes, uncover and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and coats the pork belly.
If needed, turn up the heat to reduce the sauce. Garnish with the chopped scallion…
And serve! Enjoy your braised pork with 40 cloves of garlic with some steamed rice on the side!
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Recipe
Pork with 40 Cloves of Garlic
Ingredients
- 1¼ pounds skin-on pork belly (cut into 1½-inch/4 cm pieces)
- 2 cups low sodium chicken stock
- 2 ½ teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- 40 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil
- 2 slices ginger (1/4-inch/6mm thick and smashed with a knife)
- 1 star anise
- ¼ cup Shaoxing wine (or dry cooking sherry)
- ½ teaspoon sugar (or brown sugar)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot (or red onion)
- 1 scallion (chopped)
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Blanch the pork belly pieces for 2 minutes. Drain, rinse the pork belly pieces, and set aside.
- In a large measuring cup or medium bowl, combine the chicken stock, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper.
- To peel the garlic, grab a relatively large but lightweight metal pot with a lid. Place all of the individual garlic cloves (they should be separated) into the pot, and close the lid. Holding the pot tightly closed, vigorously shake the garlic in the pot for 30 seconds. This will shake the garlic skins loose and make peeling much easier. You can also do this in a closed mason jar. Just shake the garlic in 3 smaller batches. Another method is to pour boiling water over the top of the garlic in a heatproof bowl. After 1 minute, the skins should come right off.
- Heat a wok or deep pot over medium-low heat. Add the neutral oil, ginger slices, star anise, and all of the peeled garlic cloves. Cook, stirring often, until the garlic is lightly browned.
- At this point, you can remove half or all of the garlic cloves with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Leaving the garlic in the pot creates a deeper garlic flavor in the dish. Removing them now and adding them back later gives you whole garlic cloves to enjoy with the chunks of pork belly. Removing half gives you the best of both worlds, half of the garlic cooked down into the sauce and the other half in whole soft tender cloves.
- Next, add the pork belly and fry in the garlic infused oil for 6-7 minutes, or until lightly browned. Stir in the wine and ½ teaspoon of sugar.
- Add the chicken stock mixture to the pot, along with the shallot. Bring the mixture to a simmer, cover, and continue to cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- If you decided to remove any garlic after you infused the oil, now is the time to add them back. Continue to cook for another 15 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. The liquid should gradually reduce, but should never dry out during the 30 minutes of cooking.
- After 30 minutes, uncover and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and coats the pork belly. If needed, turn up the heat to reduce the sauce. Garnish with the chopped scallion, and serve.
