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A futuristic Cyberpunk food photo. A bowl of oven-braised Kakuni (Japanese pork belly) is at the center, with a bowl of rice, chopsticks, and a cup of Sake around it.
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Oven-Braised Kakuni

The sweetest, most tender pork belly you've ever had, using the most fail-safe and low-effort recipe.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Simmering time3 hours
Course: Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine: Japanese
Servings: 2 people

Equipment

  • 1 cast-iron pot with a lid
  • 1 medium-sized skillet ideally heavy, e.g. cast iron or carbon steel
  • 1 spice ball optional

Ingredients

  • 500 g pork belly
  • 1 small onion about 50g each
  • 70 ml sake
  • 2 tbsp mirin
  • 70 ml light soy sauce
  • 60 g cane sugar or brown sugar
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 knub ginger
  • 0.5 packet dashi powder
  • 250 ml water
  • 2 green onions

Side dish

  • 200 g Japanese short-grain rice uncooked

Instructions

Preparation

  • Mix the appropriate amount of dashi powder (indicated on the packaging) into 250 ml (1 cup) of water (per 2 servings) and stir to dissolve.
  • Cut the ginger into large slices (peel first if you prefer).
  • Peel the garlic cloves.
  • Cut one of the green onions into 5 cm pieces.
  • Thinly slice the remaining green onion(s) for garnish at the end.
  • Optional: Put the aromatics (sliced ginger, long green onion pieces, and peeled garlic) into a spice ball.
  • Halve and then thinly slice the onion.
  • Mix the soy sauce, mirin, and sugar together in a bowl. Stir and set aside.
  • Pre-heat the oven to 150°C (300°F).

Sear the pork belly

  • Cut the pork belly into slices. I like very small bites at about 5 cm wide (and ~2 cm thick), but feel free to adjust to your liking. Keep in mind they will shrink in the process.
  • Put a heavy skillet (e.g. cast iron or carbon steel) on the stove and turn the heat to medium high.
  • Add the pork belly (without additional oil) until nicely browned.
  • Take out the pork belly. Put it in your cast-iron pot and set aside.

Make the sauce

  • Remove any leftover fat from the pan you used to brown the pork belly. Wipe down or rinse if necessary.
  • Turn to medium high heat and add onions. Once they turn fragrant, deglaze with sake.
  • Pour in the mixture of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar.
  • Let it reduce over medium low heat for about five minutes.

Oven-braise

  • Pour the sauce over the pork belly in the cast-iron pot.
  • Pour in the dashi as well, and add the spice ball (or loose aromatics).
  • Ideally, the pork belly slices and aromatics should now be completely submerged in the liquid. If they aren't, top up with water until they are.
  • Put the pot in the pre-heated oven with the lid on and leave it there for three hours. (But come back a little earlier to make the rice!)

Serve

  • Cook two servings of rice and distribute to bowls.
  • Take the pork belly out of the oven. Add the slices on top of the rice or distribute to separate bowls or plates.
  • Pour some of the sauce from the pan over the pork belly.
  • Garnish with sliced green onions. Enjoy!