The Rice Bowl To End All Rice Bowls. The Clay Pot Rice Bowl That Launched A Thousand Ships. The rice bowl that needs only fifteen short minutes of cooking time before you’re happily scarfing it down.
This Clay Pot Rice Bowl is actually somewhat similar to a Korean bibimbap, in that you get those slightly crispy bits of rice at the bottom of the pot. You basically steam it with a bunch of Chinese charcuterie (cured pork belly and Chinese sausage), whip up a quick sauce, and stir it all together with fresh green onion.
The salty, savory sausage and pork belly flavor the rice, and when you’re stirring that glorious mess together, it’s like…Helen of Who? If Agamemnon had this rice bowl, that whole Trojan War debacle could probably have been avoided.
The key to the short cooking time in this Hong Kong Style Clay Pot Rice is soaking the rice for an hour beforehand (by the way, this recipe was written by my mom. I happen to just be writing the whole intro/preface/lead-in today).
Just put the rice and water into your pot and walk away for an hour. Read a magazine, get some errands done, binge-watch a few episodes of The Mindy Project. By the time you come back, the process of making this Hong Kong style clay pot rice bowl is incredibly simple. As for the main punch-you-in-the-face-with-flavor ingredients, i.e. the cured meats…you can find them at your local Chinese grocery near the butcher’s section.
Look for a dark-colored, cured pork belly and regular dried Chinese sausage, or “lap cheung.” Although pretty much anything in that cured meats section would probably work for this. You can buy a bunch and keep it—vacuum packed—in your fridge for a few months.
For other similar recipes check out Chicken and mushroom clay pot rice and if you don’t have a clay pot, you can use your rice cooker for ribs and rice or just use a normal pot! And now on to the recipe!
Hong Kong Clay Pot Rice: Recipe Instructions
Soak 1 cup of long grain white rice (preferably jasmine) rice in exactly 1 cup of water in your clay pot for 1 hour.
(See bottom of the post for instructions on making this in your trusty rice cooker).
After soaking, put the pot over medium heat and bring it to a boil. When it’s boiling, put the cured pork belly and sweet Chinese sausage on top of the rice. (Don’t stir at this point. Just plop ’em in.)
Also check out Judy’s recipe for homemade cured pork belly. It’s easy to make, and totally worth the effort!
Cover the pot, and turn the heat down to the lowest setting. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, seasoned soy sauce (or more light soy sauce), dark soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and white pepper.
After 10 minutes, uncover the pot and pour the sauce evenly over the rice. Cover it back up and simmer for another 3 minutes.
After that, uncover the pot, slice up the meats, and add them back to the pot along with your chopped scallion.
Add more soy sauce if you like!
And now, the best part. Stir everything together.
You can also make this clay pot rice bowl dish in a rice cooker. Just add the rice, water, and meat to the rice cooker, press the button, and cook normally. When the rice is done, take the meat out and slice it.
Add it back to the rice along with the sauce and the scallions. It’s an easier method than the clay pot, but the clay pot is what gets the crispy rice bottom thing going.
Let us know what you think in the comments below! If you’re looking for more dishes involving the life-giving grain that is rice, check out our Vegetable Fried Rice or our Roasted Chicken with Sticky Rice.