A whole pork knuckle braised soft in a red sauce built on Pixian doubanjiang, the fermented broad-bean-and-chili paste known as the soul of Sichuan cooking. The knuckle is simmered until the skin turns gelatinous and the meat slumps from the bone, then dressed in a glossy red-brown sauce blooming with doubanjiang — savory and faintly spicy, the chili-bean fragrance soaked deep into the meat. Rich but, when done right, not greasy. It is the plainer, doubanjiang-forward cousin of the codified Meishan Dongpo knuckle, cooked in the everyday home-braising idiom.
Doubanjiang Pork Knuckle belongs to Sichuan's family of doubanjiang-flavored dishes (doubanjiang wei) — the same savory-spicy treatment that gives doubanjiang fish its name — applied to a whole pork knuckle. Its defining ingredient is Pixian doubanjiang, a fermented broad-bean-and-chili paste from Pixian on the Chengdu plain, one of Sichuan's three great pastes and so central to the cuisine it is called the soul of Sichuan cooking; cooks chop it fine and fry it in oil to release its deep red color and aroma. The dish is a home-style and restaurant staple rather than a single chef's creation, with no firm founding date. It is distinct from the famous Meishan Dongpo Pork Knuckle, which is defined by a codified boil-then-steam double-defatting method and named for the Song poet Su Dongpo; here the knuckle is simply braised and finished doubanjiang-forward.
A whole knuckle comes to the table half-sunk in a ruddy, glossy sauce, the skin amber and the joint so soft the meat parts at the push of a spoon. The skin is sticky and yielding with collagen, the fat beneath gone translucent and melting, the lean threaded and tender. The sauce reads savory and warmly spicy first, the fermented broad-bean depth of doubanjiang carrying through, with a faint sourness if pickled chili is used. It clings to the meat rather than drowning it; the richness should sit full on the palate without a greasy film on the lips.
The dish rests on two things: rendering a tough knuckle soft, and frying the doubanjiang right. A front knuckle is mostly skin, tendon and bone, so it needs a long wet cook held just below a boil — around 80 to 90C — to convert its collagen into gelatin: that is what makes the skin sticky and the meat slip from the bone, while a hard boil would only shred and cloud it. Defatting along the way, by skimming the simmer, keeps the final dish rich rather than greasy. The flavor base is built separately: chopped Pixian doubanjiang is fried in oil at a moderate heat until the paste blooms and stains the oil deep red — too hot and it scorches bitter, too cool and it stays raw and dull. That red, fragrant oil, with ginger, garlic and a little sugar to round it, becomes the braising sauce; the parcooked knuckle finishes in it and is basted until the sauce reduces to a clinging gloss.
Variations
Some cooks add pickled chili and pickled ginger alongside the doubanjiang for a brighter, faintly sour edge; others keep it pure doubanjiang for a rounder savor. The knuckle may be deep-fried briefly before braising for a blistered, tiger-skin surface that grips the sauce, a trick shared with other Sichuan knuckle dishes. The sauce is sometimes thickened with a light starch glaze at the end, though many leave it to reduce naturally on the knuckle's own gelatin. It is close kin to Sichuan's braised pork knuckles generally, and stands apart from the milder ginger-juice style and from the soy-and-sugar Hangzhou Dongpo pork.
On the Palate
Where Doubanjiang Pork Knuckle sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
7 steps · 2 hours 40 min
- 115 min
Clean and singe a whole front pork knuckle (about 1.2kg), scraping the skin, then blanch it in boiling water to remove scum and drain.
- 295 min
Simmer the knuckle in water with ginger, scallion, Shaoxing wine and a star anise, held just below a boil, for about 90 minutes until the skin is soft and the meat is nearly falling from the bone; skim off the fat that rises.
Watch outHold the knuckle just below a boil, around 80 to 90 degrees, and skim the fat — that gentle heat melts the collagen so the skin goes sticky and the meat slips the bone; a hard boil shreds it and clouds the liquid.
- 33 min
Lift out the knuckle and reserve some of the cooking liquid.
- 45 min
In a clean wok, fry 3 tablespoons finely chopped Pixian doubanjiang in oil over moderate heat until the paste blooms and the oil runs deep red and fragrant.
Watch outFry the doubanjiang in moderate oil until it blooms and the oil runs deep red and fragrant — too hot and the paste scorches bitter before its color and aroma come out.
- 54 min
Add ginger, garlic, a little rock sugar and dark soy, then pour in the reserved liquid to make a braising sauce.
- 620 min
Return the knuckle and braise gently, spooning the sauce over it, until the meat is meltingly soft and the sauce reduces to a glossy red glaze.
- 72 min
Transfer the whole knuckle to a deep platter, pour the sauce over, scatter green garlic or scallion, and serve.
