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Ming-Na Wen’s 12345 Spareribs

Jennifer Chong

BY The Editors

PUBLISHED October 14, 2026

This dish never fails to be everyone’s favorite. My mom always said that the only difficult part of making these ribs is finding the balance between sweet and savory. During some kitchen experimenting one day, she discovered a nifty, easy-to-remember way to make the mix for the sauce. If you can count to five, then you can make this! Ready? Get your tablespoon out: 1 cooking wine, 2 soy sauce, 3 vinegar, 4 sugar, 5 water. Easy, right?

Mom was so excited when she cracked the code. I don’t think she realized this might be the first dish where she actually measured the ingredients! How very un-Chinese of her! But finally, it was the perfect savory-sweetness every time. She’s never been stingy with sharing her recipes, so she shared it with her friends and me, and now, it seems, you! I’ll tell her you said thank you. – Ming-Na Wen

 

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Ming-Na Wen’s 12345 Spareribs

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Makes 4 servings 1x

Time about an hour and a half

Units Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 pounds pork spareribs, uncooked and cut into 2-inch bone-in pieces (see Cook’s Note)
  • 2 tablespoons Shaoxing Chinese cooking wine
  • 6 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar (or rice vinegar)
  • 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Instructions

  1. Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Add the spareribs to blanch the meat and cook for about 4 minutes. Drain and discard the water. Rinse the cooked ribs and return them to the pot. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the cooking wine, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and 3/4 cup water, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer gently until the meat is tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour, turning the ribs occasionally.
  2. Remove the cover and bring the remaining liquid to a full Stir until the water is mostly evaporated and only a shiny sauce is left on the ribs, about 5 minutes.
  3. Serve hot!

Cook’s note: If you don’t have a cleaver to do the job, have your butcher cut the spareribs into 2-inch pieces.

– Excerpted from Have You Eaten Yet? Copyright © 2026, Ming-Na Wen. Photography copyright © 2026 by Jennifer Chong. Reproduced by permission of Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.

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