Little Crispy Pork, or xiǎo sū ròu (小酥肉), is a Sichuan dish of small strips of battered and fried boneless pork, seasoned with toasted Sichuan peppercorn.While you may not see it outside of China, it’s a delicious meal that you can now enjoy with this recipe!  These little morsels are very tasty on their own, but you also see them served in soups and hot pots.Imagine these little fried pieces of pork soaking up the flavor of a spicy hot pot broth!  A Recipe You Can Riff On  Even in Sichuan restaurants here in the U.S., we don’t often see this dish.

We’ve seen plenty of fried pork chops, fried chicken, and fried fish dishes, but not these little crispy pork pieces served simply, without any sauce.I made a point to try it during our last trip to Shanghai, but later discovered that, just like braised pork, each region has its own distinctive approach.  The spices used in different variations include ginger, Shaoxing wine, ground pepper, soy sauce, salt, five spice powder, or 13 spice powder.The batter variations involve regular flour, rice flour, cornstarch, sweet potato starch, and whole eggs.

Just to be clear—there’s no water in the batter.So you can be pretty creative with this dish! Like Bill’s fried pork ribs that include fermented bean curd as part of the seasoning, why not experiment as long as it turns out tasty? This recipe is heavy on the Sichuan peppercorn, making it distinctly from the Sichuan region.Serving On

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