Hunan pork feast (湖南杀猪菜, hú nán shā zhū cài, literally 'Hunan pig-slaughter dish') is a hearty, rustic stew born of village tradition. When a family slaughtered a pig — usually for New Year or a celebration — they would cook a big pot combining all the fresh parts: chunks of pork, slices of liver, strips of tripe, cubes of congealed pork blood, and sometimes lungs or intestines, all simmered together in a spicy-savory broth with pickled chilies, garlic, and ginger. It is the ultimate nose-to-tail celebration, where nothing is wasted and every part contributes its own texture and flavor. The result is a rich, complex, deeply comforting stew that tastes of community and abundance. Once a once-a-year village treat, it is now served in specialty restaurants celebrating Hunan rural food.
In rural Hunan, slaughtering a pig (杀猪, shā zhū) was a major event, usually before the Lunar New Year or for a wedding. The whole village would be invited, and the fresh pork was cooked in enormous pots over wood fires. The 'sha zhu cai' tradition comes from this: rather than waste any part of the just-slaughtered pig, cooks combined the blood, offal, and meat into one big, generous stew that could feed a crowd. Each household had its own recipe, but all shared the spirit of abundance, sharing, and using everything. Pork blood (血豆腐) was a particular prize — fresh, set into cakes, and prized for its iron-rich, silky texture. Today this dish is a nostalgic emblem of Hunan rural life, served in restaurants that celebrate old village cooking, especially in the Xiangxi mountains.
In Hunan Pork Feast, the wok must be smoking hot so the ingredients sear instantly, locking in moisture while developing the smoky wok hei (breath of the wok) that defines Hunan stir-fry. What sets this apart is the pickled vegetables that add the sour dimension Hunan cuisine is famous for. In Hunan, this dish is more than sustenance — it is a reflection of the region's love for bold, unapologetic flavor.
Ingredients
Pork blood cake, liver, and tripe are sold at Asian markets. Use a mix of whatever fresh pork parts you can find — the more variety, the more authentic.
- 300 g pork belly, sliced
- 200 g pork liver, sliced
- 200 g pork tripe, cleaned and sliced
- 200 g pork blood cake, cubed
- 3 tbsp pickled chilies (pao jiao)
- 2 tbsp doubanjiang
- 8 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 thumb ginger, sliced
- 3 tbsp cooking wine
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp cooking oil
- 5 cups water or pork stock
- 3 scallions, cut into sections
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step-by-Step Visual Guide
Preparation
Building Flavor
Cooking & Finishing
- Prep and blanch the offal. Soak the sliced liver in water for 10 minutes to draw out blood, then drain. Scrub the tripe thoroughly with salt and flour, rinse well, blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes, then slice into strips. Cut the pork blood cake into cubes and rinse gently — it is fragile, so handle with care. Cut the pork belly into bite-sized slices. Blanching the liver and tripe separately removes strong odors and keeps the final broth clean. Set each part aside separately, as they go into the pot at different times.
- Build the spicy base. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the doubanjiang and stir-fry for 30 seconds until the oil turns red. Add the pickled chilies, garlic, and ginger. Stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes until the aromatics are fragrant and the pot smells deeply spicy and savory. This bold base is what will season all the different pork parts and unite them into one cohesive stew.
- Brown the pork belly. Add the pork belly slices to the pot and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes until the edges brown and the fat renders slightly. The pork belly provides the rich fat and meaty backbone of the stew. Add the cooking wine, light soy sauce, sugar, and salt, and stir well. Pour in the water or pork stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Let the pork belly simmer for 20 minutes to build a flavorful broth — it needs a head start on the more delicate offal.
- Add the offal in stages. After the pork belly has simmered 20 minutes, add the tripe strips — they need the longest cooking of the offal, about 25 minutes, to become tender. After 10 more minutes, add the blood cake cubes, which need only 10 to 12 minutes to heat through and absorb flavor (overcooking makes them crumbly). In the last 5 minutes, add the sliced liver, which cooks fast and turns dry and grainy if overcooked. This staggered addition ensures each part is cooked perfectly: tender tripe, intact blood cake, and just-done liver.
- Finish and serve. Taste the broth and adjust with salt and soy sauce — it should be rich, savory, and gently spicy, with depth from all the pork parts. Add the scallion sections and simmer for 1 minute. Ladle the stew into large bowls, making sure each serving gets a mix of belly, liver, tripe, and blood cake. Serve hot with steamed rice. To eat, enjoy the variety of textures in each spoonful: soft pork, silky blood cake, tender-chewy tripe, and delicate liver, all bound by the spicy-savory broth. It is a dish that rewards the adventurous and tells the story of Hunan village abundance.
- Blanch the offal separately. It removes strong odors and keeps the broth clean and appetizing.
- Add parts in stages. Tripe first, blood cake next, liver last — each needs different cooking time.
- Don't overcook the liver. 5 minutes is plenty — longer makes it dry and grainy.
- Use pork stock if you can. It deepens the broth and ties all the parts together.
Variations
Like most Hunan home cooking, this dish welcomes small adjustments to suit your taste and pantry.
With pork lungs and intestines
Add cleaned, blanched pork lungs and intestines for an even more authentic village version — the more parts, the truer to tradition.
Sour pickled mustard green version
Add a cup of chopped pickled mustard greens (suan cai) for a tangy, sour note that cuts the richness — a popular Xiangxi variation.
Nutrition
Estimated values per serving (recipe serves 6). The mix of pork parts provides protein, iron (especially from liver and blood), and moderate fat.
| Nutrient | Per serving |
|---|---|
| Calories | 380 kcal |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Total fat | 24 g |
| Saturated fat | 8 g |
| Carbohydrates | 10 g |
| Sodium | 820 mg |
| Sugar | 4 g |
Values are estimates. Actual nutrition will vary depending on specific ingredients and portion sizes.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Wok not hot enough — the oil should be shimmering but not smoking before you add ingredients.
- Overcrowding the wok — cook in batches if needed; too much food at once causes steaming instead of stir-frying.
- Cutting ingredients unevenly — uniform pieces ensure everything cooks at the same rate.
- Adding sauce too early — let the ingredients sear first, then add sauce in the final 30 seconds.
Serve immediately with steamed white rice — the dish should still be sizzling when it reaches the table. A simple soup like egg drop soup or tomato egg soup provides a cooling contrast. For a full Hunan spread, add one cold appetizer and one vegetable dish.
What Makes It Hunan
Hunan Pork Feast is a quintessential Hunan dish that showcases the bold, unapologetic flavors of Xiang cuisine. Unlike Sichuan's numbing-spicy heat, Hunan cooking relies on dry, direct spiciness from fresh and dried chilies, complemented by the deep umami of fermented ingredients like duojiao (chopped salted chilies) and douchi (fermented black beans).
In Hunan kitchens, pork is treated with reverence — whether smoked into larou (cured pork belly), braised slowly like this version, or stir-fried with fresh chilies. The province's mastery of pork cookery comes from centuries of preserving meat through smoking, salting, and fermenting, techniques born of humid southern winters and refined into high cuisine.
Whatever the technique, the goal is the same: clean, layered flavors with a clear throughline of chili heat and the savory depth that only slow building — through fermentation, smoking, or patient braising — can produce.
The Americanized version of Hunan pork uses pre-made sauces and often includes vegetables not found in Hunan cooking. Hunan pork relies on high-heat wok cooking with fresh ingredients and fermented condiments.
Related Recipes
If you enjoyed this dish, try these other Hunan favorites next.