How to Make Char Siu

What Is Char Siu?

Char siu is Chinese barbecue pork that is traditionally cooked on skewers over coals which gives the meat a smokey flavor.

Chinese BBQ pork has red color on the outside, and this is because red food coloring is mixed into the marinade.

🌟 About This Recipe

This recipe for How To Make Char Siu won’t give you the smokey flavor or the red color, because it’s cooked in the oven, and by choice, we prefer not to use red food coloring for this dish.

But if you wish to, you can add about ⅛th of a teaspoon of red food color to the marinade or be traditional and use one red fermented tofu with ½ tablespoon of the tofu sauce.

Types of Pork Meat To Use

You can use just about any cut of pork meat, such as pork neck, pork shoulder, pork fillet, pork loin, and pork belly.

We choose to use pork shoulder because it’s a cheaper cut of meat, relatively lean, and tender to eat (provided you don’t overcook it).

When using pork shoulder, you will need to cut the pork into strips of equal width and length – about 5cm (2 inches) wide and about 12cm (5 inches) long would be ideal and ensures even cooking.

An additional step we like to do is to poke the pieces of meat all-over with a fork so that the meat will absorb more flavor from the marinade.

🍳 Instructions

The most important part of this recipe is the Chinese barbecue pork marinade.

So, what goes into a Chinese pork marinade?

This char siu marinade is made from a combination of light and dark soy sauce, rice wine, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, Chinese five spice powder, minced ginger, white pepper, minced garlic, honey, and maltose.

These can all be placed into a large zip lock bag along with the meat which then can be left to marinate in the fridge overnight or for up to two days before cooking.

How To Cook BBQ Pork

Cooking the Chinese BBQ pork is easy enough. All you need to do is turn and baste the meat a few times with the left-over marinade sauce in a hot oven.

As it cooks some of the marinade and juices will dribble into the tray, these will caramelize and burn which can be difficult to clean. To make cleaning up easier, line the tray with baking paper or foil and oil the cake rack before adding the meat.

It is important to baste the meat several times during cooking, it will help keep the meat moist, increase the flavor, and will give the char siu a nice golden color.

💭 Recipe Tips

• A few things to consider when making the marinade:
• Don’t go overboard with the garlic 1-2 cloves is sufficient, using more will affect the taste.
• Also, the type of honey you use will affect the taste. So, if you make this recipe and find that the flavor is not quite right it could be the honey, try using a different brand of honey next time.
• Don’t skip the maltose, this clear, thick and sticky liquid gives the Chinese barbecue pork it’s shine. It is very thick and can be difficult to get out of the container at room temperature. However, when warmed in the microwave oven in short bursts, it softens and can then be easily spooned out.

👪 Serving Size

Serves 6 as part of a main meal.

🍬 Calories Per Serve

One serving of char siu is about 275 calories.

🥗 Serving Suggestions

• Serve thin slices of char siu on white rice with steamed bok choy or other Asian greens.
• Char siu can be eaten on its own as a snack.
• Use it in stir-fries or add it to fried rice.
• Mix it into Asian-style noodles.
• Use it as a filling for char siu bao
• It's also nice in white bread with butter.

🌡️ Storage

If you have any leftover char siu it can be frozen, It does lose a little flavor when frozen but is good to have on hand for cutting up and putting into dishes like fried rice and stir-fries.

🍲 More Easy Recipes

• Easy pork mince stir fry with noodles
• Balti chicken thigh curry
• Slow cooker beef and pork ragu