A simple pan-baked flatbread stuffed with spiced pork belly, fresh coriander and chilli, Chinese pork burger is flavourful and extremely comforting.
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What is Rou Jia Mo
A humble, tasty street food can be as memorable as a fancy restaurant meal. Since moving to Europe, I’ve missed Chinese street food so much that I’ve made great efforts to replicate them in my own kitchen. Chinese pork burger (Rou Jia Mo/肉夹馍) is among my favorites. I serve it for regular dinners, but it’s also become a very popular party dish.
Rou Jia Mo is one of the most well-known street foods in China. It’s one of the signature dishes of Xi’an Cuisine, but it has become popular across China.
Its name literally means “meat held by flatbread”, and the meat is usually braised pork belly (though it can also be beef or lamb). When I introduced this dish to my non-Chinese friends, they immediately dubbed it the ‘Chinese pork burger.’ Why not? It does resemble Western-style hamburgers.
Braise the pork
First of all, let’s discuss the filling for Chinese pork burgers. It primarily consists of belly, braised in water with aromatics, spices and some basic Chinese condiments. These include ginger, scallions, star-anise, bay leaf, cassia cinnamon, fennel seeds, cloves, Sichuan peppercorns, dried chilli, soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine, sugar, and salt.
Don’t be daunted by the length of the ingredient list. These components are what make the meat exceptionally aromatic and flavorful. You can find most of these ingredients in mainstream supermarkets, with the remainder available in Chinese/Asian stores. While it’s best to use the ingredients I suggest, missing one or two spices won’t be a major issue.
Cooking the pork belly is straightforward: simply place everything in a pot filled with water and let it simmer. The cooked meat should be very tender and almost melt in your mouth, like the iconic Chinese Red-Braised Pork Belly.
Make the flatbread
While waiting for the meat to cook, you can prepare the special flatbread (Bai Ji Mo, 白吉馍) used for Chinese pork burger. It’s not as soft as western burger buns and has a rather chewy texture, similar to Pan-Baked Scallion Flatbread. It’s made of leavened wheat-flour dough. I love its plain, natural flavour so sometimes enjoy eating it on its own.
Unlike Chinese Steamed Buns or Pan-Fried Scallion Pancakes, this flatbread is traditionally baked in a clay or mud oven. You can use a regular skillet (frying pan) to bake it over the stovetop without using any oil. It’s super easy and takes only 10 minutes to cook (see detailed instruction in the Recipe Card below).
Assemble the burgers
Right before assembling the burger, take the meat out of the pot and put it onto a chopping board. Place a generous amount of fresh coriander and chilli alongside. Chop them into small pieces (but not finely minced). The last procedure is crucial: spoon some broth from the pot then pour on the meat. This will add extra flavour to the filling and make it moist.
Unlike western burger buns, the bread for Chinese pork burger is not cut through. You just cut it open from one side to make it a pocket, then spoon in the filling.
How to improvise
Now you know how to prepare a Chinese pork burger, you are free to create your own version. Here are some alternative ideas:
- Use other braised meat as filling. Red-cooked pork belly is a perfect choice. If you fancy other meat, try my recipe of Spicy cumin lamb stir fry which is often used as a halal alternative. Chinese Braised Beef Shank works well too..
- Pita bread can be a nice substitute if you don’t have time to cook the flatbread.
- Cook the flatbread half of the regular size (or even smaller if you wish), then assemble the burger as normal. This makes a great dish for finger-food parties.
Other popular street food
Looking for more classic Chinese street food that can be made at home? Here are some great ones to try:
📋 Recipe card
Love this recipe? Please leave a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating and a comment. Thank you!
Chinese pork burger (Rou Jia Mo 肉夹馍)
Ingredients
For the flatbread
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup water
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast - see note 1
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon cooking oil
For the meat
- 1 lb pork belly
- 5 slice ginger
- 2 stalk scallions - cut into sections
- 1 star-anise
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 piece cassia cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon fennel seeds
- 2 pieces clove - optional
- ½ teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
- 4 dried chilli
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- ½ tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
- ½ tablespoon rock sugar - or granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
You also need
- 1 handful coriander
- 4 fresh chili - or to taste
Instructions
Prepare the dough
- Mix all the ingredients (including the oil). Knead with your hands or a stand mixer until a smooth, firm dough forms (see note 2).
- Cover the bowl with a wet kitchen towel then leave to rise until double in size (see note 3).
Braise the pork
- Blanch the pork in hot water then drain.
- Put the pork and all the other ingredients into a pot. Fill with water enough to cover the meat completely.
- Bring the water to a boil. Then leave to simmer for at least 1 hour until the meat becomes very tender.
Shape the bread
- Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces.
- Flatten one piece of dough into a long oval shape.
- Roll the dough into a cylinder. Stand the cylinder on one end.
- Press it down then flatten it with a rolling pin (about 4 inches/10cm in diameter). Repeat the procedure to finish other pieces of dough
Cook the bread
- Place the dough into a frying pan over low heat (without any oil). Cover the pan with a lid.
- Flip the bread over when the first side becomes golden brown.
- Cook the second side with the lid on (see note 4).
Assemble the burger
- When the bread is cool enough to handle, slice open from one side (do not cut through).
- Chop the pork, coriander and chilli into small pieces. Pour some broth onto the chopped meat.
- Stuff the bread with the filling mixture.
Store & reheat
- If you don’t wish to serve the burgers right away, you can assemble them in advance then wrap each one tight in microwave-safe cling film.
- Reheat on full power for about 40 seconds in the microwave.
NOTES
NUTRITION
NUTRITION DISCLOSURE: Nutritional information on this website is provided as a courtesy to readers. It should be considered estimates. Please use your own brand nutritional values or your preferred nutrition calculator to double check against our estimates.
Delicious. I even added a tea egg on top(I made them from your recipe yesterday).
Thank you so much for your great recipe’s
Pork burger with tea eggs! That’s double happiness!
Lovely. I made it once using your method for cooking the pork. Today I cooked the pork in an electric pressure cooker. Let’s see what the results are like.
Looking forward to hearing your cooking experience, Deborah!
Hi, thanks so much for sharing this wonderful recipe! Where the recipe calls for simmer the meat for one hour, do you bring down the heat and simmer with lid on or without? I tried to simmer with lid on, only to find that the flavor was not that intense. Thanks to clarify!
Yes, I typically simmer it over low heat with the lid on. To achieve a more concentrated broth, use smaller cookware so you don’t need to add too much water to cover the pork belly. Alternatively, you can intensify the flavor by reducing the broth at the end. Simply boil it over high heat without the lid. Hope this helps.
I’m so excited to make this! I had this in China and loved it. Can pork belly be substituted for anything? My local store doesn’t carry it 🙁
You can use beef to replace pork belly. Check out these two recipes: Braised Beef Shank, Beef Stew (omit the vegetables). Happy cooking, Lucy!
Thanks for this recipe, I used pork shoulder for the meat (less fatty than the pork belly) and I stewed with the same ingredient for 12h in my rice cooker, was just wonderful and magic.
Thanks for the recipe!!,
Slow cooking is even better! Glad you’ve enjoyed it!
Very excited to make this! Do you use skin-on pork belly or no skin? Thanks!
Skin-on pork belly is the best choice as the skin adds more flavour.
Looks wonderful. The recipe at one point says 2 cloves. Is this garlic? Do you leave whole or mash up?
Hi Lisa! In this recipe, clove refers to a type of spice. It would be less confusing if I had written “2 pieces of cloves” (will change it). By the way, if you don’t have any cloves, please feel free to skip it.