The Chinese cooking technique of slowly simmering meat in soy sauce and spices is called red braising. It is commonly grouped under the broader technique known as red cooking, or hongshao, which gives food a reddish-brown color and a deep, savory flavor.
Red-braised dishes typically use light and dark soy sauce, Chinese rice wine such as Shaoxing wine, rock sugar, ginger, and aromatic spices including star anise, cassia, fennel, or black cardamom. The meat cooks gently until tender while the liquid reduces into a glossy sauce. Some versions use a shorter braise, while lu-style preparations can simmer for several hours.
The name refers to the finished color rather than a single fixed recipe. Pork belly, beef, chicken, eggs, tofu, and vegetables can all be prepared this way. A common mix-up is confusing red braising with stir-frying: stir-frying is a fast, high-heat method, whereas red braising depends on slow cooking in a seasoned liquid. Another famous example is hong shao rou, or red-braised pork belly.