My Aunt Emy made the best chili pork I knew. It’s an Indo-Chinese/Asian dish that is spicy, tangy and packed with flavor. I recently found that my mom had jotted down her sister’s recipe in one of my cookbooks and so I gave it a whirl with ingredients I had on hand and it turned out great. I had to do a recipe on it. So thanks Aunty Emy!
I tweaked the original recipe a little and added my very own dry rub on the pork for more flavor. The dry rub pork just roasted was so tasty, I could have just stopped there. But I wanted to serve it with rice so I made it with the sauce and it just took it to another level. Boy was it good!
I do have to say though, that the recipe is meant to be spicy, hence the name Chili Pork. But if you’d like to cut the heat a little, use less cayenne powder and use only half a de-seeded chili pepper. You can also pick out the star anise, before serving the dish, but my family knows not to eat it so I just left them in.
Do let me know in the comments below if you try this recipe and like it!


- 1 1/2 lb boneless pork
- 1 onion
- 1 green pepper
- 2 star anise
- 4-5 garlic cloves
- 1/4 inch fresh ginger
- 1 red pepper (fresno/serrano/jalapeno)
- 4 tbsp oil
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cayenne powder
- 1/2 tsp ginger powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp black bean paste
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp chili oil
- 3 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- – For the dry rub, start with 3 tablespoons of brown sugar. Add to it the cayenne, ginger, black pepper and salt. Then mix it all together.
- – Sprinkle the dry rub on all sides of the pork (I used boneless pork rib meat, but tenderloin works well too for this recipe) and rub it into the meat well.
- – Preheat your oven to 375F. Then heat an oven proof skillet or a regular skillet on high and add about 2 tablespoons of oil. Sear the meat on high heat to brown it on all sides, to give it some color. Then, if you were using a regular skillet (not oven-proof) transfer the pork to a greased baking sheet and pop it into the oven for 25-30 minutes. Turning the pork over once half-way through the cooking process.
- – While the pork is cooking, mix all the sauce ingredients (black bean paste, soy sauce, chili oil, ketchup and rice vinegar) together and stir it all well. Set it aside.
- – Prepare all the other ingredients for stir-frying too. Chop the onion and pepper in a large dice. Cut the ginger and garlic into thin slivers & finely slice the red chili (de-seeded for less heat).
- – After the pork is cooked, pull it out of the oven and let the meat rest for about 10-15 minutes. Once it has rested, slice the pork into thin slices & set it aside.
- – For the stir-fry, heat some oil in a wok or big skillet. Add the star anise and let it infuse the oil until it’s sizzling hot.
- – Add the ginger and garlic slivers and sautee them for a minute or two until they start turning a light golden.
- – Then add the chili peppers and onion and sautee them until the onion softens slightly.
- – Pour in half the sauce and mix it well until all the onion is coated in it.
- – Add the green peppers, pork and the remaining sauce. Saute everything on high for a couple minutes.
- – Garnish the dish with some fresh red chili peppers on top for some color and serve with plain steamed rice! Yummmm!
Lovely recipe and very well presented which itself speaks with bold yummy pictures…..
Will be trying it this week end,,,
Thx ..George
Great recipe. Went down well in this house.
Hi Noreen,
So happy to have stumbled upon this recipe , its become a big hit with my family. I loved the methodical presentation of your recipe which makes it so much easier to put it together.
Keep up this lovely blog, looking forward to some more yummy scrummy recipes.
Thanks
Esther
Wow, this looks so awesome. I can’t wait to make. It is one of the best looking and sounding recipes I have seen.
Tried it a cple of times, for me the honey goes better than the brown sugar…great job!
Loved this . Thanks for sharing
This was delicious. I would certainly make it again. I swapped around some of the veggies for what I had on hand but it was still delicious none-the-less