Kakuni or Japanese Braised Pork Belly is tender chunks of succulent meat coated in a savory soy sauce glaze. There‘s something about this dish that I cannot resist! The slow cooking method turns the pork belly into a delicious creation that simply melts in your mouth.
Kakuni (角煮) is a Japanese braised pork belly, and it literary means “square simmered” referring to the shape of this dish. I’m not usually into fatty meat but there is something about this dish that I cannot resist. The slow cooking method turns the meat into a delicious creation.
For my day-to-day cooking, I enjoy experimenting with existing recipes to see if I can improve them. I had been cooking a simpler version of kakuni until one day my husband asked if the meat can be softer after I made it. I kept experimenting with different methods and changing the ingredients’ portions, and I think I finally got the kakuni that will melt in your mouth.
Tips to Make Delicious Kakuni
The key to a good kakuni recipe is the initial simmering. For this recipe, I spent 2-3 hours simmering the meat, but you could spend additional hours doing so if you have the time. This important process renders out the majority of fat from the pork belly and makes the meat and the fat have that melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Although it takes hours of preparation (unless you have a pressure cooker), the result is really worth it. If you plan to cook this for your family, I would recommend you to make a double portion. Since you have to spend hours in the kitchen anyway, you might want to make extra for a second meal. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does.
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Braised Pork Belly (Kakuni)
Ingredients
- 1 lb pork belly
- 9–10 slices ginger (unpeeled; slice a 2-inch, 5-cm knob)
- 1 Tokyo negi (naga negi; long green onion) (or several green onions/scallions)
- 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell)
For the Seasonings
- 2½ cups dashi (Japanese soup stock) (use standard Awase Dashi, dashi packet or powder, or Vegan Dashi)
- ¼ cup sake
- 3 Tbsp mirin
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 dried red chili pepper (optional)
For Serving
- shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) (optional, to taste)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Pound 1 lb pork belly on both sides with a meat pounder (or the back of the knife) to tenderize it.
- Press and mold the meat back into its original shape with your hands. Then, cut the pork belly into 2-inch (5 cm) pieces. My pieces are roughly 1½ x 1½ x 2 inches (4 x 4 x 5 cm).
- Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When it‘s hot, add the meat fat side down on the ungreased skillet. Cook the meat until all sides are nicely browned. To prevent oil splatter, you can use a splatter screen. Tip: Searing the surface of the meat before boiling helps draw out excess fat and lock in the flavor.
- When the meat is nicely browned, transfer the pieces to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess fat.
- Cut the unpeeled ginger thinly into 9–10 slices ginger; set aside half of the slices for later. Next, cut the green part of 1 Tokyo negi (naga negi; long green onion) into 2-inch (5-cm) pieces. Set aside the white part to make Shiraga Negi later for garnish (see below).
To Cook the Pork Belly
- In a large pot, put the seared pork belly, green part of the negi, and half of the sliced ginger (saving the other half for the braising liquid). Next, add enough water to the pot to cover the meat. Tip: Boiling the seared meat removes the excess fat and scum. These two steps (searing and boiling) remove excess fat while keeping the meat juicy.
- Bring it to a boil over high heat, and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook, uncovered (so the unwanted odor goes away), for 2–3 hours. Turn the pork occasionally during this time. When the liquid is running low, add more water or hot water to the pot so the meat remains covered at all times. Tip: If you want really tender meat, cook for at least 3 hours.
To Prepare the Eggs and Shiraga Negi
- Meanwhile, hard-boil 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) and peel them. Set aside. For more details, see my post on How To Make Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs.
- Next, use the white part of 1 Tokyo negi (naga negi; long green onion) to make shiraga negi. First, cut the white part into pieces that are 3 inches (7.6 cm) long. Then, make a lengthwise incision to remove the soft green core (save for another use). Stack the outer layers, holding them flat against the cutting board, and slice lengthwise into very thin julienned strips. Soak in a bowl of iced water for 10 minutes to remove the bitterness, and drain well. Set it aside to use later as a garnish. Tip: For step-by-step photos, see my tutorial on How To Make Shiraga Negi.
To Braise the Pork Belly
- After cooking for 2 hours, drain the water and remove the pork to a paper towel to wipe off the excess oil.
- To a large, heavy-bottomed pot (I use a Dutch oven), add the cooked pork belly, 2½ cups dashi (Japanese soup stock), ¼ cup sake, and 3 Tbsp mirin. Start cooking on medium heat.
- Next, add ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup soy sauce, the rest of the ginger slices, and 1 dried red chili pepper. Tip: I remove the chili seeds so it won‘t be too spicy for my kids.
- When it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to low or medium low to maintain a simmer. Place an otoshibuta (drop lid) on top of the meat; do not cover the pot with the regular pot lid. Cook for 1 hour. Tip: If you don‘t have an otoshibuta, make one! See my post on How To Make Otoshibuta.
- After the halfway point (cooking for 30 minutes), add the peeled hard-boiled eggs to the pot. You can now remove the otoshibuta.
- Continue simmering, uncovered, for another 30 minutes. If the cooking liquid is pretty low, reduce the heat to low or lowest. Occasionally, baste the meat with the braising liquid and gently turn the meat and eggs. Make sure there‘s enough liquid in the pot so the pork and eggs don‘t burn. When the sauce is reduced and the meat has a nice glaze, it’s ready to serve.
To Serve
- Serve the Kakuni and eggs and garnish with shiraga negi on top. Season with shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) (optional) to taste.
To Develop Flavor (optional)
- If you prefer a more flavorful and less oily Kakuni, wait one day before serving. Let it cool completely, then refrigerate the pork belly in its braising liquid overnight. The next day, remove and discard the solidified fat (optional) before gently reheating the Kakuni. Heat thoroughly and serve.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days and in the freezer for a month.
I LOVE buta no kakuni! And I’m always looking for a good recipe! Definitely a must-try…I can’t wait to try this, Nami! I can eat pork belly all day long…if only they’re not so fatty…I guess moderation is key. But my oh my, I can eat LOTS of this. I have a hard time controlling my appetite when faced with a delicious kakuni dish like this! Will actually try this this weekend! I need to buy one of those otoshibuta! I don’t know why we don’t use this more! It really helps the meat to become more tender.
Hi Jen! Glad to hear you enjoy Kakuni! 🙂
For Otoshibuta, you can make one with aluminum foil. Here’s how: https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to/how-to-make-otoshi-buta/
Hope you will like it!
We know fat is not good, but is soooooooooo good, it makes the meat to have more flavor.
This is very similar like Chinese braised pork that we usually like to cook, next time I must try this recipe as my family love braised meat and eggs.
I am into fatty meat, I am telling ya, esp. pork belly. What is braised pork belly without the fats? Thanks for sharing the step-by-step instructions including the photos. The Chinese also braise pork belly, and often five-spice is being used in the braising liquid.
oh gosh, braised pork belly is absolutely wonderful and yours looks and sounds divine!
Mmm pork belly! This sounds like a good dish to make while doing other things – homework, washing, etc as it cooks itself! Must try 🙂
Nami, I also love pork belly… Smoked or not, I love it as much as ribs. I have never tried slowly braising it, however. It sounds very intriguing and tempting!
And if it’s served with eggs, then it is definitely my kind of meal.
I had no idea about the collagen in pork belly. It will be probably an excuse next time I buy it 😉
Nami, I will make sure to order some pork belly to try this dish. I absolutely adore these flavours and to hear that it is good for the skin? Even better!
Hi Nami – I attempted to follow your recipe as written but I am unsure what I might have done wrong. I managed somehow to make the pork belly dry and tough – I even simmered it for three hours. Do you think browning it too much could have caused it to dry up? Also even though I simmered it for an hour the sauce did not permeate the pork. Could it be because of the pan I used?
Thank you!
Hi Jessica! Hmm, so your end result became dry and tough. Did you use pork belly? It has lots of fat so I try to understand why it became so tough. We only need to cook just 1.5 hours and I feel 30 minutes would make the meat too salty and it might have made it tough? Browning is okay as long as it’s not burnt. Pork belly is a fatty piece so it’ll render the fat. What type of pan did you use? I doubt that’s the reason though. I’m sorry it didn’t come out well. I make this often and I’d love to help you.
Hi Nami – thanks for your reply! Yes I used pork belly. And also the flavor did not soak into the pork belly either. Perhaps it was because my sauce pan was too wide and the pork was not submerged in the sauce? I’ll have to try it again because I love Kakuni!
Hi Jessica! Depending on the size of your meat, I recommend using a smaller pot, which will increase the height of the liquid as you mentioned. Hope that will help. And don’t forget to use a drop lid (otoshibuta). 🙂
I didn’t realize that pork belly is essentially bacon, haha. Oh goodness do I love bacon… this would be heaven.
Yummy! We sometimes enjoy this in our family, as our cozy lazy dinner menu. 🙂 Pretty much just place everything in the slow cooker and let the magic happens. I definitely love your version by having sake and mirin. Yum!
What a great recipe, really useful pictures too. I don’t cook enough pork belly so I need to remember this one!
Hi Nami
I just bought dashi in a box that
stated 4gram per packet,I was
wondering how many cups of water
should I dilute with?
Thanks
Hi Rena!
Sorry for my late response. My dashi pack is 9 gram per packet and I use 3 cups of water. Your package might have instruction written in the back (but could be in Japanese?), but you probably need 1 1/2 cup.
Hope this helps! 🙂
I wished you put that in your recipe above. I used a whole cup of dashi (dry) … of course after diluting it down after cooking, everything was extremely bitter. After all that long time cooking… anyhow, diluted it down, and it just wasn’t the same. too much water offset everything else. Maybe I will try again at another time, but after all these hours, I am deeply disappointed. I’m sure it was a good recipe. Just please be more specific on what type of dashi you used (liquid/powder, and if powder to mix with water… 2 1/2 cups of dashi was pretty specific).
After I put all the ingredients in the pot, I said, wait this is not going to go well, needs water…. because too much dashi!!!
Oh well. Strike one off my drawing board.
Hi Adam! I did not use dashi powder for this recipe (as you see in my ingredient pictures – it’s dashi (liquid).
As stated in the recipe ingredients, I use 2 ½ cup dashi. Dashi can be made three ways: dashi powder, dashi packet, and making from scratch. Whatever your method is, dashi should be 2 ½ cup.
Rena asked me that her dashi powder packet is 4 grams, and wanted to know the water amount for 4 grams. So I said 1 1/2 cup. To make this recipe, she will need more than 1 dashi powder packet.
A lot of Japanese recipes require dashi. Depends on accessibility and time, you can choose powder, packet, or make from scratch to make dashi.
When you click “dashi” in my ingredient list, you can see the dashi guide:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/how_to/how-to-make-dashi-jiru/
Hope that makes sense. Did you use 2 ½ cup dashi POWDER? That’s crazy amount of dashi… I mean dashi powder doesn’t come with that much in a bag, right?
Oh, this tender pork sounds fantastic, Nami! Can I come for dinner????
you had me at pork belly and melt in the mouth! ^^ initially i thought it’d be something like the braised pork belly served in most chinese homes, but it isn’t. your recipe sounds interesting and i’d really love to try this ^^
I can only drool over your photos lol! I am lost here, too many steps!