Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice (Lu Rou Fan)
Taiwan's national comfort food: soy-braised ground pork over rice with a jammy egg — the bowl people fly for.
The story
Lu rou fan is Taiwan's unofficial national dish — every night market has its champion, and every family swears theirs is best. The ground-pork shortcut gets you the same addictive soy-caramel bowl in 30 minutes instead of two hours.
Ingredients (6 + pantry staples)
- Ground pork (fattier is better) — 1 lb / 450 g
- Fried shallots or crispy shallots — 1/4 cup (🔶 Asian grocery or the fried-onion shelf)
- Soy sauce — 3 tbsp
- Dark soy sauce — 1 tsp
- Eggs — 4, boiled
- Garlic — 4 cloves, minced
Pantry staples used (don't count toward the 6): sugar (1.5 tbsp), cooking wine or water (2 tbsp), five-spice (1/4 tsp, optional). Not stocked yet? See the pantry page.
Steps
- Fry pork and garlic until the pork is browned and the fat is clear, 6–8 minutes.
- Add shallots, soy sauces, dark soy, sugar, five-spice, wine and 1.5 cups / 350 ml water.
- Simmer 20 minutes until dark, glossy and slightly sticky. Halved eggs in for the last 5 minutes.
- Spoon over rice with the braised egg and some blanched greens.
Swaps
No fried shallots? Fry 1 sliced onion low and slow until dark golden — that is the homemade version of the same flavor.
More 30-minute dishes
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The soup this whole site was built around: a whole chunk of pork and a daikon, half an hour, then celery and salt. That is the recipe.
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The Cantonese gold standard of "let the fish be fish" — steam 10 minutes, smother in hot oil and soy.
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