EASY 12345 Chinese Ribs (5-ingredients)

These easy Chinese Spare Ribs are a delicious, finger-licking Asian-style pork recipe that is as simple to cook as 12345 (a mnemonic device that will also help you recall the recipe.) Using only the Asian pantry staples of wine, dark soy sauce, vinegar and sugar to braise the meat, with only a few minutes of active cooking, this is the best easy sticky Chinese Spare Ribs for a lazy cook!

Jump to:

• ⭐ Why These Ribs Are So Good
• 🐖 Ingredients
• 📋 Step-by-Step Instructions
• 👩 Expert Tips
• 🥗 Other Asian Side Dishes
• EASY 12345 Chinese Ribs (5-ingredients)
• 💬 Comments

⭐ Why These Ribs Are So Good

1. These Chinese Braised Pork Ribs are delicious but effortless! Better than any from a Chinese restaurant, 12345 pork ribs are loaded with umami flavour but very low-effort. (Made in 1 pot, no cutting of aromatics involved- my pet peeve- and mostly passive cooking.) If you can mix things together- no rubbing the sauce into the meat necessary so you won't get your hands dirty!- and turn on the stove, you can make this perfectly. This easy recipe is also very forgiving, so if you leave it on the stove for longer than called for, it will still taste good (as long as it's not so long that it burns.)
2. It doesn't require special ingredients: All the ingredients in this recipe are kitchen staples which anyone who does some Chinese cooking before would have in their cupboard. You won't even need five-spice powder, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns or anything like that.
3. It is easy to remember and can be easily varied: This is a "ratio recipe" i.e. the amount of ingredients are added in a ratio that is easily memorised and/ or adapted. Depending on your preference for sweet, tangy or savoury, the proportions of the 1-2-3-4-5 condiments can be tweaked.

Note: Adapted from an Irene Kuo recipe to make it more juicy and tasty! This is so easy to cook that even someone who couldn't boil water till she was 18 (yes, me, true story) can make them perfectly on the first try. And healthier than Chinese takeout with no red food coloring etc!

🐖 Ingredients

You only need 5 ingredients for these 12345 Chinese Pork Ribs:

• pork spare ribs: Choose a cut with some marbling of fat to keep the meat tender, such as St. Louis style ribs. Remember to get meaty ribs, pre-cut (or ask the butcher to chop them up for you.) If you don't have a butcher and don't want to mess around with cleaving the meat on a cutting board, the recipe still works with bigger pieces. However, smaller pieces are easier to coat and stir in the pot when reducing the sauce. There's also a better meat: sauce ratio! An alternative to spare ribs are baby back ribs.
• shoaxing wine: This Chinese rice wine can be found at almost every Asian market. If not, you can use a dry sherry or one of these Shaoxing substitutes instead.
• Chinese dark soy sauce: Not to be confused with light soy sauce, thick soy sauce or sweet soy sauce. I use Lee Kum Kee or if you can't get it, here's a homemade dark soy recipe. (Highly recommend you buy it if you like Chinese food, as it's used in many recipes such as Hong Kong Cantonese Soy Sauce Chicken and Singaporean Braised Pork.)
• rice vinegar: if not, use white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar as a substitute. Chinkiang vinegar (Chinese black vinegar (浙江红醋)) tastes great but the ribs end up black, and look a little burnt, even though it's really just the colour of the sauce! You'll need to rely on the feel when stirring to tell if the sauce has been sufficiently reduced, or risk really burning it.
• brown sugar: regular sugar (white) or rock sugar work too

Variations

Instead of 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing and 2 tablespoons of dark soya, for example, you can invert the amounts e.g. 1 tablespoon of soy and 2 tablespoons of shaoxing.

Cooking is meant to be fun so play around with the ratios, see which combination is your favourite and let me know!

The only thing to be mindful of is the sugar and dark soya. If you reduce these too drastically (for example, from 4 tablespoons of sugar to 1 tablespoon), you may not get as thick, sticky and dark a glaze as I did in the photo as sugar is needed for the caramelization of the sauce. (I've only reduced the sugar by a maximum of 1 Tablespoon when experimenting.)

You can also use aromatics such as fresh ginger, garlic cloves, green onions, sesame oil, chili peppers, sriracha sauce or Asian spices to add a new dimension to the 12345 pork ribs sauce.

📋 Step-by-Step Instructions

Note: I have not tested this recipe in a slow cooker or instant pot.

👩 Expert Tips

Here are a few adaptations I've made to the original 12345 pork ribs recipe for more flavorful and tender meat!

Tip #1: Brine your meat. You should alwaaaaaayyyys brine your meat. The original Irene Kuo recipe didn't include brining, and though the ribs were good thanks to the savoury sauce- we never have any leftovers- the meat itself, sans sauce, lacked flavour. Brining ensures that the flavour goes right into the flesh and not just on the surface. It also makes sure that you get a juicy and tender rib!

Tip #2. Simmer the Chinese-style spareribs before adding in the sauce. If you want to eat these sticky glazed pork ribs Right Now, but don't have brined meat ready, an alternative is to simmer the ribs in water for 1 hour before adding the sauce in. (Keep the water the pork has simmered in: it's pork stock!) The meat then simmers in the sauces for another 40 minutes, after which it is perfectly juicy, tender and flavourful all the way through to the bone.

Tip #3. Use a light- coloured pot You don't want to over-reduce the sauce or burn it. Using a pot with a light coloured base makes it easier to see how much the sauce has boiled down by. Do make sure you keep it on the fire till it is nice and thick to get a nice, sticky sauce!

Tip #4. Pay attention when reducing the sauce This reduction is key to caramelizing the meat. Most of the recipe is passive cooking but, at the end, the sauce reduces super fast. Make sure you keep close watch on the braised pork ribs during the last few minutes!

🥗 Other Asian Side Dishes

This dish goes well with egg rolls or 1 of these Chinese sides:

Enjoyed this easy Chinese Spare Ribs Recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below! If you REALLY liked these 12345 ribs, please consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee! 🙂 (No obligation though!) Thank you and have a great day!

If you've enjoyed these caramelised Chinese Spare Ribs, please do sign up for my Asian recipes mailing list here!