Gua Bao.
Taiwanese Steamed Pork Belly Bun
割包 · gua bao · say it: gwah BAO
Gua bao is a pillowy steamed bun, folded like a clam shell, holding a slab of pork belly that has been braised in soy sauce, rice wine and rock sugar until the fat turns to jelly. Around the pork go three things that stop it being merely rich: suan cai, the salty-sour pickled mustard greens; a thick dust of peanuts crushed with sugar; and a tuft of fresh coriander. The bite is fatty, sweet, sour, crunchy and herbal all at once, and the bun itself is barely sweet, spongy enough to soak up the braising liquid without falling apart. Taiwanese people eat it standing up at night markets and sitting down at year-end company dinners, where its shape has earned it a lucky nickname.
- Gate
- TaiwanIsland-wide, strongest in Taipei night markets
- Prep
- 45 min
- Cook
- 1 hr 45 min
- Total time
- 4 hr incl. 1 hr 30 min rest
- Serves
- 4
- Status
- Medium
- Nutrition / serving · estimated
- Calories 780 kcal
- Protein 27 g
- Carbs 62 g
- Fat 47 g
- Fiber 4 g
- Sugar 17 g
- Sodium 1250 mg
Why this recipe works.
- Braises the belly in a proper red-cooked liquid, then rests it so the slices firm up and cut cleanly instead of collapsing.
- Includes a reliable hot-milk bun dough that steams up white, soft and matte rather than wrinkled.
- Treats the peanut sugar and pickled greens as structural, with quantities that actually balance the fat.
- Both parts can be made a day ahead, which is how night-market stalls do it anyway.
Ingredients.
21 itemsFor the buns
For the braised pork
To fill
Equipment
- Bamboo or metal steamer with a lid
- Heavy lidded pot or Dutch oven
- Rolling pin
- Round cutter about 10 cm across
Instructions.
Blanch the belly
Put 900 g of pork belly in a pot, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Skim off the grey foam that rises for two or three minutes, then drain and rinse the meat under the tap. The water should be scummy and the belly noticeably paler and firmer.
Tip This blanch is what keeps the finished braising liquid clear and clean-tasting instead of muddy.
Start the braise
Wipe the pot dry, add a film of oil and fry the ginger coins, garlic and spring onions over medium heat until they smell sweet and the ginger edges curl, about 2 minutes. Return the belly, add both soy sauces, the rice wine, sugar, star anise and five-spice, then pour in hot water until the meat is three-quarters submerged.
Braise low and slow
Bring to a bare simmer, cover, and cook on the lowest heat for 90 minutes, turning the belly once halfway. It is done when a chopstick slides through the meat with no resistance and the skin wobbles when you nudge the pot. Uncover and boil hard for a final few minutes if the liquid is still thin — it should coat a spoon.
Tip If the sauce reduces too far before the meat is tender, top up with hot water; the flavour will not suffer.
Mix and prove the bun dough
While the pork braises, whisk the flour, yeast, sugar, baking powder and salt together, then work in the lukewarm milk and oil until you have a firm, slightly stiff dough. Knead for 8 minutes until it is smooth and springs back slowly when pressed, then cover and leave until doubled, about 60 minutes.
Shape the buns
Knock the dough back and roll it out 5 mm thick. Cut eight rounds about 10 cm across, brush the top of each with oil, lay a chopstick across the middle and fold the round over it, then slide the chopstick out. Sit each folded bun on a square of baking paper and prove for 25 minutes, until puffy and light when lifted.
Steam the buns
Arrange the buns in a steamer with 2 cm of space between them, wrap the lid in a clean cloth, and steam over medium heat for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and wait 5 minutes before lifting the lid, so they do not shrivel from the temperature shock. They should be matte white, dry to the touch and slightly domed.
Fry the pickle and crush the peanuts
Chop the drained mustard greens and fry them in a dry pan over high heat until the moisture has gone and they smell sharp and toasty, 3–4 minutes, adding a pinch of sugar at the end. Separately, crush the peanuts with the sugar in a mortar or under a rolling pin to a coarse, gravelly rubble.
Slice and assemble
Lift the belly out and cut it into 1 cm slabs across the layers, then warm the slices through in the braising sauce. Open each bun, lay in a slab of pork with a little sauce, then the fried pickle, a heavy spoonful of peanut sugar and a tuft of coriander. Eat immediately, over a plate.
Tip Chilling the belly for an hour before slicing gives far neater slabs — do this if you have braised ahead.
Tips from our kitchen.
- Buy pork belly in one thick piece with the skin on if you can — the skin melts into the braise and gives the sauce its body.
- Chill the braised belly before slicing. Warm belly smears under the knife; cold belly cuts into tidy 1 cm slabs that reheat in the sauce.
- Brush the inside of each raw bun with oil before folding, or the two faces will steam together into a solid lump.
- Rinse the pickled mustard greens and squeeze them dry, then fry them briefly — straight from the packet they are aggressively salty.
- Crush the peanuts coarsely, not to powder. You want audible crunch against soft bun and soft pork.
- Steam the buns with a cloth under the lid so condensation cannot drip and pit their surface.
Substitutions.
- Suan cai (pickled mustard greens) → Chinese pickled snow cabbage, Japanese takana, or finely shredded sauerkraut squeezed dry
- Sauerkraut is sharper and less funky, so add a pinch of sugar when you fry it. The role is sour crunch against the fat.
- Shaoxing rice wine → Dry sherry, or Taiwanese michiu (rice cooking wine)
- Avoid mirin, which is sweet enough to throw the braise off balance. Water plus an extra splash of soy sauce works at a pinch.
- Homemade buns → Frozen lotus-leaf buns from an Asian supermarket
- Genuinely good and what many Taiwanese households use. Steam from frozen for about 8 minutes.
- Rock sugar → Light brown sugar, using slightly less
- Rock sugar gives a cleaner sweetness and glossier sauce, but brown sugar reduces to a very similar place.
Variations.
- Fried chicken gua bao
- A Taipei student-food take: a piece of salt-and-pepper fried chicken thigh in place of the belly, with the same peanut and pickle setup.
- Vegetarian mushroom bao
- King oyster mushrooms braised in the same soy, star anise and rice wine liquid until dark and chewy — the pickle and peanut do most of the work anyway.
- Lean-cut bao
- Braised pork shoulder instead of belly for a much less fatty bun. Less traditional, but the braise itself is unchanged.
Storage & reheating.
Braised pork keeps 4 days refrigerated in its liquid and freezes well for 2 months — reheat the slices gently in the sauce so the fat softens again. Steamed buns are best the day they are made, but they freeze beautifully: cool completely, freeze flat in a bag, and re-steam from frozen for 6–8 minutes. Do not refrigerate plain buns, which go stale and rubbery within a day. Assemble only at the moment of eating, because the pickle and hot pork will make the bun soggy within minutes.
Serve with
A bowl of clear daikon and pork rib soup to cut the richness, and cold barley tea or unsweetened oolong.
The story behind Gua Bao.
The bun is older than the filling. Folded steamed breads of this shape have been made in Fujian province for a very long time, and they crossed the strait with Hokkien settlers who make up the bulk of Taiwan's population — which is why Taiwanese still call the dish by its Hokkien name, kuah-pau, rather than the Mandarin gua bao. In Taiwan the bun became attached to a specific braise: hong shao, red-cooked pork, dark with soy sauce and aromatic with star anise and five-spice, cut thick enough that each bun gets one proper slab of belly rather than shreds.
Its other name is more interesting. Because the folded bun with meat poking out looks like a fat purse or, less delicately, a tiger's mouth clamping down on something, gua bao is widely known as hu yao zhu, "tiger bites pig". It is traditional at wei ya, the year-end banquet a Taiwanese company throws for its staff, where the bun is said to look like a stuffed money bag and eating one is a wish for a prosperous year. That association is why gua bao turns up on catered tables in December and January far more than the rest of the calendar.
Since the 2000s the bun has travelled. Restaurants in New York, London and Sydney sell "bao buns" filled with fried chicken, mushrooms or short rib, and many diners now meet the shape before they meet the original. There is nothing wrong with the descendants, but the Taiwanese version has a specific balance worth protecting: the pickle and the sugared peanut are not garnishes, they are the counterweights that let you eat a piece of pure pork belly and want another. Skip either one and you will taste immediately what is missing.
Questions, answered.
Why did my steamed buns come out wrinkled and yellowish?
Wrinkling usually means the steam hit the buns too fast or the lid was lifted mid-steam, causing a sudden temperature drop. Start the buns in a cold or barely warm steamer, bring the heat up gradually, and leave the lid on for five minutes after the heat is off. A yellow tinge comes from over-proofing or from steaming with a lid that drips condensation onto the dough.
Can I make gua bao ahead for a party?
Yes, and you should. Braise the pork up to two days ahead and refrigerate it whole in its liquid, which makes it far easier to slice. Steam the buns ahead too and reheat them for a few minutes just before serving. Only the assembly needs to happen at the last minute, since a filled bun goes soggy quickly.
What are the pickled greens in gua bao and where do I find them?
They are suan cai, mustard greens fermented in salt until sour and slightly funky, sold in vacuum packs or tins in Chinese and Taiwanese supermarkets under names like pickled mustard greens or preserved vegetable. Rinse, squeeze dry and stir-fry them briefly with a little sugar before using, or they will be too salty to eat in quantity.
Is gua bao the same as the bao buns in Western restaurants?
The bun is the same folded steamed shape, but Taiwanese gua bao means one specific filling: red-braised pork belly with pickled mustard greens, sugared crushed peanuts and coriander. Western menus have borrowed the bun and filled it with fried chicken, short rib or mushrooms, which are perfectly good sandwiches but a different dish.
Do I have to use pork belly with the skin on?
No, but skin-on belly is better. The collagen in the skin dissolves during the braise and gives the sauce a glossy, lip-sticking body you cannot get otherwise. Skinless belly still works, and if the texture of soft skin bothers you, peel it off after braising and keep the sauce.
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Recipe by The DishRoute Kitchen · published August 21, 2026 · updated August 21, 2026