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Home / Recipes / Chinese Takeaway

Capital Spare Ribs Recipe

Last Updated: Jun 1, 2022 · Author: Acacia Deadrick · Jump to Recipe

Capital spare ribs, often called Peking ribs, is a tasty Chinese takeaway dish that’s beloved by many worldwide. If you’ve never tried it, one bite into this sweet and savoury will immediately make you a fan! 

Peking-style dish with sesame seed garnishing
Absolutely irresistible Peking-style dish that you can recreate at home! | Image from phobachoaviet

In this post, we’ll share how to make it, cooking tips, variations on the dish, and more. We’ve tasted countless Peking ribs recipes, and we’re certain this is the best one. 

Jump to:
  • What is it made of?
  • What is Capital sauce?
  • Taste
  • Calories
  • Capital spare ribs vs BBQ
  • Ingredients
  • Variations
  • Cooking Tips
  • Capital Spare Ribs Recipe

What is it made of?

Capital spare ribs are made of spare ribs and capital sauce, otherwise known as Peking sauce. After marinating, cooks double fry the pork meat before finally smothering them in Peking-style sauce once again.

Sometimes you will find that the dish includes sauteed vegetables like onions and peppers. Many people also eat this protein-rich side dish with rice.  

Crispy Capital spare ribs stacked on top of each other
Delectable and juicy pork meat drizzled with marinade | Image from ks_ate_here

What is Capital sauce?

Capital sauce is a sweet and spicy marinade similar to a barbecue marinade. Similarly, you can enjoy it as a dip, marinade, or rub. 

You can make Peking sauce in many ways. However, the marinade’s recipe usually has garlic and some variation of soy in it. Therefore, this Asian mix tastes fantastic on many types of meat, like pork, duck, chicken, and beef.

Taste

Capital spare ribs are sweet, savoury, and tangy. However, you can easily spice them up with red pepper flakes if you prefer spicy flavours. As for texture, the outside of the meat is crispy, but the inside is tender. 

Calories

There are about 494 calories in one serving of Peking ribs. That may seem high, but it’s a filling dish, so you don’t need to eat much.

Delicious meat with marinade on blue plate
The Peking-style marinade is often mistaken as BBQ marinade. | Image from mandaringardentakeaway

Capital spare ribs vs BBQ

The two dishes are very similar, but Peking ribs use capital sauce while barbecue ribs use barbecue sauce. Both of the marinades have many variations but are rooted in the same base ingredients.

As mentioned, you usually prepare capital sauce using soy and garlic. Meanwhile, you typically make a barbecue sauce with vinegar and some type of tomato ingredient. 

Ingredients

Capital spare ribs require particular ingredients to achieve their signature taste. So, read on to learn the main ingredients you need, where to buy them, and what you can substitute if necessary.

Peking-style dish with sweet sour marinade and onion
By getting the right ingredients and cooking steps, you can recreate this tantalizing Chinese takeaway dish at home. | Image from chungyinggroup

Spare ribs 

Spare ribs are ribs that come from the belly of a pig. You can make this recipe with other meat types, like baby back ribs or even other cuts of pork, but it’ll taste best when made with spare ribs.

This is because this section contains lots of meat, and when cooked slowly, are very tender. Fortunately, you can find any of these meats at your local butcher or grocery shop. 

Cooking wine

Many types of cooking wine will work for this recipe. We suggest either Shaoxing wine, Chinese rice wine, or dry cooking sherry.

You can usually find Shaoxing wine and Chinese rice wine at Chinese markets or online. Meanwhile, you should be able to source dry cooking sherry at your local market. 

Garlic

Garlic is essential to the capital sauce. It provides the marinade with its unique and robust flavour profile.

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is also essential to the capital sauce, and you can buy it at any grocery store. Tamari or liquid aminos are suitable substitutes if necessary. 

Sesame oil

You only require a small amount of sesame oil for this dish. Any oil will suffice as a substitute, but it will slightly affect the taste.

Food Colouring

The red colour of Chinese spare ribs in Chinese takeaways come from red food colouring. If you would like to recreate this at home add ½ teaspoon red food colouring.

Alternatively, you can also add ketchup but this would make the dish sweeter. Our recipe will use ketchup to give it some colour and sweetness.

Variations

You can easily be adapt the recipe to accommodate your personal taste. For example, some of our favourite variations are:

  • Fried Chicken in capital sauce: Instead of pork, try making this recipe with chicken. It’s just as delicious too! 
  • Dry spare ribs: This is a unique way to change the dish just a bit, giving it a slightly different texture.  
Capital sauce fried chicken
Some say that the capital sauce fried chicken version is just as good as its pork counterpart! | Image from jamukabubba

If you’re in the mood for other Chinese takeaway dishes, some of our favourites are:

  • Chinese lemon chicken: This tangy, citrusy chicken dish is simple and tastes incredible. 
  • Chicken and sweetcorn soup: You’ll love this hearty soup on a cold night. It is also considered a healthy dish for those feeling under the weather.
  • Jing du style spare ribs: This is a slightly different variation of capital spare ribs, but still delicious. 

Cooking Tips

Make sure you’re double frying to get the most out of this recipe. Double frying refers to the step of frying the meat once, then letting it cool down before finally frying it again.

This technique is imperative to achieve a crispy texture. Therefore, make sure you don’t skip this step when trying out this recipe!

Peking-style dish with sweet sour marinade and onion

Capital Spare Ribs Recipe

This capital spare ribs recipe is a fantastic fakeaway recipe and simple to make in the comfort of your home. You won’t be ordering takeaway any time soon.
Author: Acacia Deadrick
5 from 29 votes
Print Pin
Course: Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: spare ribs
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 494kcal
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Marination Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs spare ribs cut 1-inch pieces
  • 1½ tbsps cooking wine
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 egg
  • 4 tablespoon ketchup
  • 4-5 cloves minced garlic
  • 2 teaspoon soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • ⅛ teaspoon sesame oil
  • 2 green onions
  • Sesame seeds
  • Oil for fying

Instructions

  • Marinate the ribs in cooking wine, salt, pepper, cornstarch, and egg for 1 hour.
    Marinate the pork with cooking wine, salt, pepper, cornstarch, and egg for 1 hour
  • While they are marinating, make your sauce. Mix ketchup, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil in a small bowl. 
    Mix ketchup, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil to make the capital sauce
  • In a wok, heat enough oil to fully cover the meat over medium heat until just boiling. 
    Heat oil until boiling just enough to cover the meat
  • Cook the meat until they turn light brown, then remove from the oil. Let rest, wait for the oil to heat, then cook again until golden brown. Remove the meat from the oil and let rest. 
    Double fry the pork once they have cooled down from the first frying cycle
  • Over medium heat, cook the sauce until simmering. 
    Cook the sauce until it simmers
  • Add the fried meat into the sauce, and cook until they are fully coated. 
    Coat the fried pork with the Peking style sauce
  • Garnish your Capital spare ribs with green onions and sesame seeds. 
    Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds

Notes

If you need to thicken your sauce, add a bit of cornstarch.

Nutrition

Calories: 494kcalCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 27gFat: 38gSaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 168mgSodium: 1031mgPotassium: 487mgSugar: 5gVitamin A: 198IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 40mgIron: 2mg

Calories have been calculated using an online calculator. Nutritional information offered on Honest Food Talks is for general information purposes and are only rough estimations.

Tried this recipe?Follow us @honestfoodtalks for more delicious recipes!

Not confident with the recipe? If so, do not fret as Chef Hsu on Youtube has a detailed walkthrough video on how to prepare this Peking-style dish at home! Check out his video recipe to learn the whole process before you attempt it yourself.

Peking style pork ribs 京都排骨

How did your homemade Chinese fakeaway dish turn out? Share with us photos of your fakeaway masterpieces by tagging us on Pinterest @honestfoodtalks!

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