Asian Style pork ribs!
Sticky
Sweet
Spicy
Garlic
Crispy
A child cries at the dining room table. Before her, a small plate of untouched noodles next to a small pile of sparkling clean rib bones. She demands more, more than the hefty portion she was given. Her request for more stems from an instinctive, innocent, animal greed rather than hunger.
Meanwhile, a man is hunched over devouring pork flesh. The carnage grows as the button on his pants becomes undone, allowing for his belly to expand with each greedy swallow. His upper lip and chin are trimmed with a sticky orange glaze which he sloppily wipes away with his equally glazed hand as a nearby pile of discarded wet-wipes grows ever larger. He is deaf to the pleas from his wife. ‘Please save some for me’. ‘Don’t eat half a kilo of fried ribs’.
It’s no use. He is under the seductive spell of Asian style pork ribs covered in a crispy coating that perfectly collects the sweet, salty, and spicy garlic sauce they are tossed in. There will be no leftovers at this mealtime. There will only be cries for more.
Asian Style Pork Ribs in a Spicy Garlic & Honey Sauce
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: Serves 3-4 1x
Description
Pork ribs marinated in Shaoxing wine and soy sauce then breaded and deep-fried and coated in an addictive sweet and salty spicy garlic sauce. Your new favorite rib recipe. #pork #ribs #Asian #fried #garlic #spicy
Ingredients
800 g / 28 oz pork riblets, pork spare tips or a mixture of both
2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
a light sprinkling of sea salt and white pepper
1 beaten egg
1 cup of potato starch
oil for deep frying
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Guilin style chili sauce
1/2 cup / 120 ml of water
2 tbsp chopped ginger
2 tbsp chopped garlic
Instructions
In a large bowl, toss together pork ribs, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sugar and a light sprinkling of sea salt and white pepper. Since soy sauce is already in the marinade, it is crucial to not add too much salt otherwise the ribs will be too salty.
Cover and let marinate for at least 30 min. I usually do this an hour or two ahead of time and chill them in the fridge while I get busy doing all the other prep work for dinner or lunch.
When ready to fry, toss ribs in beaten egg. Make sure everything is evenly coated.
Dredge in potato starch and set aside.
Heat oil for deep frying. You will know when the oil is hot enough when you add a drop of batter or the end of a wooden chopstick or spoon into the oil and you see bubbles sizzling. If the sizzling is too rapid, you might need to turn the heat down otherwise you risk burning the outside and undercooking the inside.
When the oil is nice and hot, carefully add riblets. Fry until the ribs are golden brown and crispy then removed with a slotted spoon and let drain on paper towels to soak up excess grease. This shouldn’t take any more than 10 minutes.
While the fried ribs are draining on paper towels, start working on the sauce.
In a medium saucepan, stir together honey, soy sauce, water, chili sauce, garlic and ginger together. Bring to a boil. Boil until sauce has reduced to a third and is thick like syrup. Turn off heat.
Transfer the ribs to a mixing bowl and pour the sauce over them. Toss together until everything is evenly coated in sauce.
Transfer to a plate or serving dish and garnish with sesame seeds or finely chopped scallions.
Notes
You can dredge the riblets in starch ‘Chinese grandma style’ by adding the potato starch directly to the ribs covered in beaten egg. This takes some finesse and can be quite messy not to mention tricky to make sure everything is evenly coated. For those who want less mess, simply put the starch in a separate bowl and dredge each riblet one by one.
If you are like me and have little ones at home that simply can’t take even the slightest hint of spice, just serve them a couple of place fried ribs without sauce. They are equally good and a BIG hit with my child.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 20
- Category: Main, Pork
- Method: Simmering, Frying
- Cuisine: Asian
Keywords: pork, pork riblets, pork spare tips, fried, crispy, chili, garlic, honey, ginger, Guilin chili sauce, soy sauce, pork ribs, Chinese
We made this tonight and it was delicious! We didn’t have any Guilin style chili sauce so substituted Sambal Oelek and we also didn’t have potato starch so substituted corn starch. It was amazing. I cooked mine in the air fryer and the rest were done on the stove. Soooo delicious. It’s a keeper!
★★★★★