I didn’t learn to speak Sichuan dialect in Sichuan, but I learned to eat it and fell in love with Sichuan’s spicy taste.

Eating hot pot in Sichuan is indispensable without a food that can be used both as a hotpot and as a snack, which is crispy pork. The fried pork is crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, salty, tender and fragrant.

The reason why crispy pork is crispy is related to its ingredients. When frying crispy pork, do you use starch or flour? If you use it wrongly, it may not be so crispy. Below, I will share how to make crispy pork.

Method:

1. Cut the meat into small pieces or thumb-long strips, sprinkle in an appropriate amount of sweet potato starch, five-spice powder, pepper powder, salt, add 1 egg and a little water, stir evenly, coat the meat slices with starch paste, and let it sit for a while.

For meat, you can choose pork belly, or meat with alternating fat and thin, and a bit of fascia, so that the meat inside will be soft when fried. Don't make it purely thin, as it will become woody and hard when fried.

2. Pour oil into the pot over medium heat. When the oil temperature is 70-80% hot, add the meat slices. Use a slotted spoon to push the meat slices apart to avoid sticking. Fry until golden and remove.

In Sichuan, fried crispy pork is a must-have snack for every household during the New Year and festivals. Sweet potato starch is generally used to coat the fried crispy pork.

Why use starch instead of flour? This is because if you use flour to coat the batter, the skin will fall off as soon as you put it in the hot pot, affecting the taste of the hot pot, but using starch will not peel off the skin. Whether eating it directly or shabu-shabu hotpot, it tastes great.

Some people say this is just like fried tenderloin. It’s different. The fried tenderloin uses tenderloin, and the fried crispy pork must be fat and thin. Using pure lean meat will only make firewood as mentioned before.