27 October 2025

Chinese Style Roast Pork | Easy Recipe

A simple yet flavour-packed recipe that’s guaranteed to impress! This Chinese-Style Roast Pork is juicy, caramelized, and irresistibly savoury – the kind of dish that will have your guests singing your praises long after the party’s over. All you need is a juicy, tender piece of pork belly, a handful of aromatic ingredients, a sprinkle of Chinese five-spice, and a spoonful of black bean paste to create this truly drool-worthy masterpiece.

For those unfamiliar with Chinese five-spice and black bean paste, here’s a quick introduction.

Five-spice powder is a traditional, aromatic blend widely used in Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisines. There’s a common misconception that it’s called “five-spice” because it contains exactly five ingredients – but that’s not true! In fact, a five-spice blend can include more than five different spices. The “five” actually refers to the five primary flavours in Chinese culinary philosophy: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami (or pungent). The blend is carefully crafted to bring these flavours into perfect harmony, creating a beautifully balanced seasoning that elevates any dish. As a suitable substitute for Five-spice, use Garam Masala along with a pinch of ground star anise. Alternatively use just ground All-spice.

Black bean paste, on the other hand, is a savoury, umami-rich condiment made from fermented black soybeans. A staple in Cantonese and Sichuan cooking, it adds incredible depth and complexity to stir-fries, braises, and marinades. Its bold, salty flavour enhances meat dishes beautifully – especially rich cuts like pork belly that’s used in this Chinese Style Roast Pork recipe. As substitutes for Black-bean paste use either Hoisin sauce, Miso paste or Oyster sauce.

How to make Chinese Style Roast Pork

To make the Chinese Style Roast Pork, first get your hands on a juicy, tender chunk of Pork Belly. Clean the meat and slice it into uniform quarter-inch thick strips. In a large enough pan/ wok, cook the Pork belly strips along with the five-spice, black pepper, salt and water on a medium-high heat, until all the moisture has evaporated. Take the meat off the heat and allow it to cool a bit. Cut the cooked pork slices into equal sized cubes of about 1.5 inch wide and set aside.

In the same pan used for cooking the pork, heat some sesame oil and stir-fry some onion (small diced) and capsicum (cut into 1-1.5-inch squares) on high heat for a couple of minutes. Push the veggies to one side of the pan and tilt it slightly such that the oil collects to the other side of the pan. Add some Black bean paste and fry it in this oil for a couple of minutes. Follow this with minced green chillies and minced garlic and fry for about a minute.

Add the Pork belly slices and gently mix everything well until the sauce coats the meat and veggies. Add some soy sauce and gently mix again and cook on medium-high heat for a few minutes. Do a quick taste test and add some salt and pepper if needed. Add the sugar, gently mix and take the pan off the heat. The Chinese Style Roast Pork is ready!

Serve the Chinese Style Roast Pork with some Fried-rice/ Noodles or enjoy it as it is!