Chinese Wuxi Pork Spare Ribs
My Wuxi Spare Ribs are a tender, fragrant Chinese delight. Juicy and packed with umami goodness, you won’t be able to stop… Learn how easy they are to make at home.
These Chinese Wuxi Pork Spare ribs are a taste sensation. I've long been a fan of pork spare ribs, so when I first tasted these little morsels in a fantastic Shanghai restaurant in Sydney a few years back I just knew I had to make them a regular in my household. They are meltingly tender pork ribs cooked in a delicious sweet and slightly sour sauce - they are finger-licking-sticking-fricking good!
What are Wuxi style Pork Ribs?
Wuxi is a City in the East of China in the Jiangsu region and close to Shanghai. It is an ancient city, dating back to the Bronze Age (1600 BC) and was an important hub for rice, silk and textiles. These days, the city is renowned and treasured for its cuisine; said to be the sweetest food in China! This makes it a major centre for Tourism, with visitors from all across the country.
Sweet dishes range from seafood to rice and all manner of meat. One of the most treasured dishes are the famous Wuxi pork spare ribs. Sweet, sour and salty pork ribs that fall off the bone, coated in a magical sticky sauce. Traditionally the sauce has a striking red colour thanks to the use of red yeast rice - a fermented rice with a rich red hue. Outside of China it can be tricky to track down, and given that it is used only for colour, the recipe doesn't suffer in flavour by omitting it.
Again, traditionally the sauce is sweetened using rock sugar (unrefined sugar in its raw, jagged form), but regular sugar works just fine too. My Wuxi pork spare ribs recipe, uses ingredients we can all get hold of with relative ease, while still holding on to the authentic Chinese taste.
The resulting ribs are cooked until meltingly tender then served coated in the sweet, sticky sauce. The sauce also has wonderful hints of star anise and cinnamon and a note of sourness from the vinegar. It's absolutely addictive and those fingers will get a good licking! Be sure to sample one of the cooked slices of ginger you'll use for the sauce too - they're out of this world!
What should I serve with Wuxi Pork Ribs?
I like nothing more than serving these ribs with steamed rice and some stir fried Chinese greens, like Chinese broccoli or maybe Stir fried Eggplant or one of my all time favourite Chinese dishes Snow Pea Shoots with Garlic - divine! You might also want to try the super tasty and super simple Chinese Cucumber Salad - cooling and tasty in equal measure. You might also want to sample some divine Chilli Oil Dumplings too - just because!
Whether it's a sit-down Chinese feast or just a bowl of Wuxi ribs in front of the game, I think you'll agree that they're an amazing little dish to have in your back pocket - ready to impress your friends, family or even just yourself!
How to make my Chinese Wuxi Pork Spare Ribs
Video Recipe
Ingredients
- 2.2 lb pork spare ribs
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- vegetable oil (for shallow frying)
- 2 inch ginger (peeled & sliced)
- 6 spring onion (cut into 1-inch pieces)
- 2 star anise
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 cup Shaoxing cooking wine
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
Instructions
- Place the spare ribs into a large bowl or plastic bag. Pour in the soy sauce then add the pepper and salt. Toss around to coat evenly, then cover and place in the fridge to marinate for 1 hour.
- Heat a deep frying pan with about 1-inch of oil and heat over a moderate heat until just hot (around 375ºF/190ºC).
- Sprinkle the ribs with cornstarch and toss around to coat. Carefully add them one by one into the hot oil (if you need to do this in batches, do that to avoid overcorwding the pan)Cook for 5 minutes each side then remove and set aside. Repeat as necessary with the extra ribs.
- Heat a wok over a medium heat. While it's heating add the ginger slices, spring onion, star anise and cinnamon. Place the ribs on top and roughly try to get in one layer.
- Pour in the soy sauce, Shaoxing cooking wine and then pour in enough water reach all the ribs but not fully cover. Bring to a simmer then reduce the heat to low and cover.
- Simmer gently, covered for 1 hour - Toss the ribs around every 10 minutes to ensure they all cook evenly.
- Remove the ribs from the pan and add the sugar and vinegar to the sauce. Let this gently reduce for about 5 minutes until thickened.
- Toss the ribs in the reduced sauce then tip them, sauce and all onto a waiting platter to serve hot!
Nutrition
Did you make my Chinese Wuxi Pork Spare Ribs?
How did you go? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to tag @cookeatworld at Instagram.
Really Really delicious! Thank you for this recipe, and for me, a new way of preparing spare ribs. After almost 50 years of pre-baking or boiling..this method of ‘pre-frying’ worked wonders!! The ribs came out finger licking good and falling off the bones. Ps, I finished everything in the oven in a Dutch oven for the hour of cooking, turned out more than wonderful! Will be using this method again!
Thankyou! They’re pretty delicious. Glad you enjoyed.