Nibuta - Chashu - Pork Shoulder

Sliced pork chashu topping Tokyo-style ramen (with miso tare)!

Pork Chashu, or Nibuta, is a classic ramen topping of rolled pork shoulder braised in a savory-sweet, aromatic-infused sauce. The pork is then allowed to cool and sliced into rounds that are placed on top of the ramen broth and noodles. For many, pork chashu stands alongside the seasoned soft-boiled egg as the most iconic and beloved ramen topping.

This recipe for pork chashu relies on a pressure cooker to cut down on the required cooking time to create nearly fall apart tender pork. The pork is seasoned with soy sauce, sugar, sake, and mirin to provide a pleasing savory-salty-sweet flavor profile with just a hint of aromatics from some added ginger and green onion. Pork belly can be used in this recipe instead of pork shoulder, but beware that the result will be much fattier (delicious, perhaps?). We have found that a standard pork shoulder has plenty of fat and, unless you are in the mood for a very rich bowl of ramen, pork belly is often a little overwhelming in its richness and fattiness.

Recipe from: Chef Shinya Asami (Cozymeal, Facebook)

Time: 2-3 hours (22 minutes cooking at pressure)

Servings: 4-8

Ingredients - Step 1

• 1 pound pork shoulder (also called pork butt or Boston Butt)
• Water, to cover pork

Ingredients - Step 2

• Water, to cover meat, measured accurately
• 1 Tbps fresh ginger, sliced
• 2 to 4 green onions, cut into 2" pieces
• 8% brown sugar (by volume of water)
• 8% sake (by volume of water)
• 8% mirin (by volume of water)

Note on measurements: the amount of sake, brown sugar, and mirin are determined relative to the amount of water used to cover the pork. For example, if it takes 1000 ml of water to cover the pork, you will use 80ml of sake, mirin, and brown sugar.

More generally, if you have N ml of water (e.g., N = 1000), multiply that by 0.08 to get the volume of brown sugar, sake, and mirin to add. In our example, 1000 ml * 0.08 = 80 ml.

Ingredients - Step 3

• 10-16% soy sauce (by volume of water)

Note on measurements: compute the amount of soy sauce as was done for the sugar, mirin, and sake in the Step 2 ingredients, using the amount of water from Step 2 as 100% volume.

Directions

Pork shoulder tied-off and ready for searing

1. Tie pork with cotton twine, sear on all sides, then place in pressure cooker and cover with water. Cook under pressure for 2 minutes and let stand until pressure releases naturally.
   
   

   

   Chashu with aromatics and flavorings, ready for pressure cooking

   
   
   
2. Drain the water, rinse inside the pot and pork, then return pork to the pressure cooker. Add enough water to cover the pork while accurately measuring the volume of water used. This volume of water will be equal to 100%. Add ginger, green onion, sake, mirin, and sugar. Bring to pressure and cook for 12 minutes, turn off heat and let stand until pressure releases naturally and pressure valve is down.
   
   

   

   Chashu cooling after adding soy sauce

   
   
   
3. Turn the meat upside down, add the soy sauce, bring to a boil, cover with a lid (use a drop lid if you have one), and simmer for 8 minutes. Turn off heat and let stand to cool for at least 20 minutes. Slice into ¼" slices and serve immediately or store in refrigerator for up to one week. When storing, keep meat and broth together.

Notes

• If using an Instant Pot for the pressure cooking use the High pressure setting with no delay and turn off the keep warm setting. Let the pressure release at least partially after each step, but you can use the quick release after 20 minutes each time.
• Chashu cooking broth should be kept and will be used to assemble a Tokyo-style ramen bowl!
• We typically use 10-12% (by volume of water) of soy sauce in Step 3. The meat still has a savory-salty-meaty flavor of pork and soy sauce, accented with sweetness and aromatics from the remaining ingredients.
• Chef Shinya's original recipe calls for 1% salt in Step 3. We omit the added salt in because soy sauce (even the less-sodium Yamasa we use) has plenty of salt. Ramen broth is also usually well seasoned, and we have never felt like our completed bowl was lacking seasoning! If you feel chashu could use more salt, try adding a small amount in Step 3 next time.
• Substitute pork belly for the pork shoulder for a richer and fattier chashu. Remove the skin before rolling the pork belly and tying with string.
• Tying the pork tightly with string ensures that it stays in the log shape while cooking and retains the classic spiral cross-section after slicing.
• Letting the pork cool at least 20 minutes (we often let it cool at least 45 minutes) is important for creating perfect slices. Hot or warm chashu will tend to lose its shape when sliced, while cooled chashu retains the spiral. Use a very sharp knife to slice!