{"id":36646,"title":"Authentic Bou Zai Faan – Claypot Rice","modified":"2025-06-22T12:32:12+02:00","plain":"A traditional Bou Zai Faan recipe: rice cooked in a clay pot\n\n\n\nIn Canton, Bo Zai Faan is THE ultimate winter dish, warming you up and delighting your taste buds on cold days. This bowl of steaming rice, traditionally cooked in a clay pot, is a Cantonese staple everyone can agree on. \n\n\n\nWhat is Bou Zai Faan? \n\n\n\nBo Zai Faan, also called Bao Zai Faan (\u9505\u996d), is one of the most indulgent and impressive dishes Chinese cuisine has to offer. You do not get the chance to cook in an earthenware pot every day. \n\n\n\nWhen you pull it out of the cupboard, it is for a good reason, and Bou Zai Faan is one of them. The dish is soft in the center and almost charred around the edges (which makes it crispy!), and it was once served on the streets of Hong Kong and Canton. \n\n\n\nTraditionally it is cooked in a clay pot (the shaguo) and topped with juicy meat, most often pork or marinated chicken, Chinese sausages, eggs, mushrooms, spring onions, and leeks. \n\n\n\nFor another classic Chinese dish, try my stir-fried vegetable noodles.\n\n\n\nYou can add all sorts of toppings, and because indulgence never stops there, everything is seasoned with fragrant Chinese oils and spices. \n\n\n\nWith Shaoxing wine, star anise, soy sauce, and Sichuan pepper, Bou Zai Faan transports you straight into authentic Chinese cuisine. Because all the elements cook together, the result is an explosion of flavors. \n\n\n\nSo why insist on a clay pot? In fact, a cast-iron vessel could work just as well. Earthenware, however, can both withstand and retain high heat, and it helps create that coveted crispy rice at the bottom. Comfort and warmth are the watchwords of Bo Zai Faan... and that is all we need! \n\n\n\nHomemade Chinese pork dumplings are delicious.\n\n\n\nAll right, the clay pot is great, but this recipe adapts the method developed by the bloggers \"Chinese Cooking Demystified\" so you can achieve the same result in a cast-iron Dutch oven using a combination of oven and stovetop cooking.\n\n\n\nThe main ingredients of Bo Zai Faan \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJasmine rice: the smartest choice for this dish. Its grains are long and fragrant, and they absorb the flavors of the other ingredients beautifully. Texture-wise, it is ideal: soft, just slightly sticky, and perfectly capable of forming the famous crust at the bottom of the pot. \n\n\n\nPork: many cooks use chicken instead, and some versions of Bo Zai Faan even feature fish. For this recipe I will use seasoned ground pork. The meat should be tender and juicy so it can mingle with the other flavors in the dish. Ideally, aim for about 30 percent fat.\n\n\n\nStar anise: an aromatic Chinese spice that gives Bou Zai Faan a slight licorice note. It adds a subtle, sweet, aniseed note that beautifully perfumes the oil. \n\n\n\nSichuan pepper: another quintessentially Chinese spice, known for its slightly citrusy note. It is spicy (even numbing!), lending the dish both character and complexity. \n\n\n\nMSG: it boosts the umami flavors in the meat marinade. MSG is a flavor enhancer that is used regularly in Asian cooking. \n\n\n\nLight soy sauce: whether for seasoning the meat or the sauce, light soy sauce is perfect for balancing the flavors without overloading the dish with salt, especially alongside Shaoxing wine and fish sauce. \n\n\n\nFish sauce: while its taste is salty and fishy, it pairs surprisingly well with Bo Zai Faan, adding essential depth and richness. \n\n\n\nShaoxing wine: while light soy and fish sauce deliver saltiness, Shaoxing wine brings gentle acidity. This rice wine is often used to deglaze or marinate meat and provides that \"Chinese cooking\" touch we love so much. \n\n\n\n\n\n\tAuthentic Bo Zai Fan \u2013 Clay-Pot Rice\n\t\t\n\t\tA traditional Bo Zai Fan: fragrant rice slow-cooked in a clay pot.\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tFor the meat300 g ground pork (ideally 30% fat)1 leek (save a few slices for the fragrant oil)For the fragrant oil6 tablespoons peanut oil6 leek slices (from the leek you saved)4 star anise1 tablespoon fennel seeds1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns1 teaspoon white peppercorns2 cloves garlic (peeled and gently crushed)For the fragrant water6 tablespoons water (just-boiled)2 ginger slices1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercornsMeat seasoning1 teaspoon salt0.5 teaspoon MSG1 teaspoon sugar0.5 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder0.5 tablespoon Shaoxing wine1 tablespoon light soy sauceFor the rice210 g jasmine rice230 g boiling water1 teaspoon vegetable oil1 teaspoon peanut oil (or your preferred neutral oil)1 egg1 green onion (finely chopped)For the seasoned sauce0.5 teaspoon sugarA pinch of MSG4 teaspoons light soy sauce2 teaspoons fish sauce1 tablespoon water\t\n\t\n\t\tFragrant oilWarm the peanut oil over low heat.Add the leek slices, garlic, and star anise; let them sizzle for about 2 minutes.Stir in the fennel seeds, Sichuan and white peppercorns, and cook for 2 minutes more.Remove from the heat and let the spices steep for 10 minutes.Strain out the aromatics, then let the oil cool completely.Fragrant waterUsing a mortar or the back of a spoon, bruise the ginger, then add the Sichuan peppercorns.Pour the just-boiled water over the mixture and steep for at least 10 minutes. Strain and cool completely.PorkThinly slice the leek.Place the pork in a large bowl and add all the seasonings.Stir vigorously in one direction with chopsticks or your hand.Drizzle in the fragrant water a tablespoon at a time, mixing until the meat turns tacky and clings to the bowl.Don\u2019t rush\u2014mix until everything is well incorporated.Add the sliced leek and the cooled fragrant oil; mix until evenly distributed.Cover and refrigerate.RiceRinse the rice at least three times until the water runs clear, then transfer to a bowl.Bring the measured water to a boil and pour it over the rice.Cover and soak for 30 minutes.Meanwhile, whisk together all the sauce ingredients and set aside.After the soak, heat a clay pot (or cast-iron pot with an oven-safe lid) over medium-high heat and coat the bottom with 1 tablespoon peanut oil.When the pot is hot, add the rice along with its soaking liquid and level the surface. At this point, preheat the oven to 230 \u00b0C \/ 445 \u00b0F.Cover and cook over medium heat for 8\u201310 minutes, until vigorous steam escapes.When the liquid has nearly evaporated, drizzle 1 tablespoon vegetable oil around the inner rim of the pot.Cover and cook 1 minute longer.Transfer the pot to the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.Carefully remove the pot, spread the marinated pork over the rice, and leave a well in the centre for the egg.Return the pot to the oven and cook for another 7 minutes.Take the pot out of the oven, pour over the seasoned sauce, and finish on the stovetop over medium-high heat, rotating the pot to evenly brown the base for about 30 seconds.Turn off the heat, crack the egg into the centre, cover, and let it sit on the still-hot burner for 5 minutes until just set.Sprinkle with green onion and serve right away.\t\n\t\n\t\tSwap the vegetable oil for duck fat\u2014it's sublime.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tMain courseChinese","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}