Gua Bao (Taiwanese Pork Belly Buns) - Cooking in Chinglish (2024)

Published: Jan 22, 2021 by Edwina · This post may contain affiliate links.

Melt-in-your-mouth braised pork belly balanced with fresh cilantro and crisp pickled carrots and daikon, all nestled in a fluffy bao bun!

An authentic Taiwanese gua bao includes a piece of tender braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens, cilantro and a mixture of coarse peanut powder and powdered sugar.

This recipe is a tweak of the traditional Taiwanese gua bao, and maintains all the essential elements, except that I replace the pickled mustard greens (not as easy to find or make yourself...) with pickled carrots and daikon. When you eat this gua bao, you enjoy many different flavors and textures all in one bite, the satisfaction is just indescribable!

Why You Should Try This Recipe

• You will learn how to make authentic Taiwanese gua bao at home that tastes better than most of what you can find elsewhere.
• It's often MUCH cheaper to make gua bao at home.
• You can prepare everything beforehand and simply heat up and assemble whenever you want to eat it.

Ingredients You'll Need

For Braised Pork Belly

Notes

• Pork belly - get skin-on pork belly. I usually get a big piece from my local butcher and cut into smaller pieces by myself.
• Spices - here I use star anis, cinnamon stick and bay leave, but it's totally optional. You can replace these with a bit of five spice powder or just omit it if you don't like the taste.

Pickled Carrots and Daikon

Notes

• Carrot - I find it easier to julienne a larger carrot than a very thin one. You can also use pre-shredded carrots from the store.
• Rice vinegar - I prefer the flavor of rice vinegar, but if you really can't find it, just replace it with white vinegar.
• Honey - adding honey adds another layer of flavor, you can replace it with sugar if you don't have honey.

Other

Notes

• Gua bao bun - you can use either homemade or store bought. Check out my recipe for how to make delicious homemade bao buns.
• Roasted peanut - either salted or unsalted will work.
• Sweet chili sauce - I like to add some Taiwanese sweet chili sauce, which you can find in your local Asian grocery store, or you can just use whatever you have at home.

Step by Step Instructions

Make Braised Pork Belly

Step 1 - Brown both sides of the pork belly.

Step 2 - Add all the seasoning in the pot and then add water, scallion and the spices (if applicable).

Step 3 - Cook for 1.5 hour and then let it sit for another 30 minutes or overnight.

Step 4 - Reduce the liquid until it's sticky and able to coat the meat before serving.

Make Pickled Carrots and Daikon

Step 1 - Peel and julienne carrot and daikon.

Step 2 - Toss with salt and let it sit for 15-20 minutes until softened and water comes out.

Step 3 - Rinse and drain the carrots and daikon, mix it with sugar, honey and vinegar and store in a container. Let it sit for 30 minutes before serving.

Make Coarse Peanut Powder

Step 1 - Add roasted peanut in a blender (I make it with my Vitamix using a Vitamix dry grains container, but any high-powered blender/container should work here).

Step 2 - Pulse the blender until the peanuts become a coarse powder. Scrape down the blender whenever you see peanut powder sticking to the sides of the container.

Step 3 - Pour the peanut powder into a small bowl and add 2 tablespoon of powdered sugar.

Step 4 - Mix well and taste to see if you want to add more sugar.

Assemble the Gua Bao

To assemble, simply place a handful of cilantro in the pocket of the bao bun, top with a piece of pork belly, sprinkle some peanut sugar mix on it (and sweet chili sauce if using), and stuff with pickled carrots and daikon according to taste.

Now you know how to make gua bao at home! I hope you all can give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Tips and Tricks

• Browning the pork belly before braising helps prevent the meat from falling apart during the long cooking time. I usually scoop out the fat that got rendered out and save it for making myscallion pancakeorscallion shaobing.
• The pork belly tastes even better the next day, so if you have time, I would recommend making it the day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight before reducing the liquid and continue the final step before serving.
• The peanut powder used in gua bao (and many other Taiwanese street food) is different from powdered peanut butter. I like to make it with myVitamix dry grains container, but if you don't have one, you can make it with any high-powered blender, just freeze the roasted peanuts for 15 minutes first before blending, and scrape down the blender between pulses.
• Homemade bao buntastes the best in this recipe, but if you are too busy to make it yourself, you can find the frozen ones at the Asian grocery store.
• Sometimes I usepickled onionsinstead of pickled carrots and daikon

Recipe FAQs

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