Authentic Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork)
Authentic char siu is salty, sweet, and seasoned with Chinese spices. It creates moist and crispy slices of incredibly delicious Chinese BBQ pork.
Ingredients
- 4-4.5 pound boneless pork shoulder
Char Siu Marinade:
- 2 cubes red fermented bean curd
- 2 tablespoons red bean curd liquid
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine, or rose cooking wine
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ginger, grated, optional
- 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
- ½ teaspoon ground white pepper, optional
- 1 teaspoon red yeast rice powder, optional
Char Siu Glaze:
- ½ cup reserved marinade
- ¼ cup maltose, or honey
- 1 tablespoon boiling water
Directions
- Starting with the 4 - 4 ½ pound boneless pork shoulder, slice it into thick cuts about 1 ½ - 2 inches wide. If the slices are more than 2-3 inches in width when turned on their side, cut them in half lengthwise. You should end up with thick strips of pork shoulder.
- In a mixing bowl, or in a large glass measuring cup, add two cubes of red fermented bean curd cubes and 2 tablespoons of the liquid and smash with a fork or whisk until it resembles a paste. Add ½ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup hoisin sauce, 2 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine, 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, ¼ cup granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon grated ginger, 4-5 cloves minced garlic, 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder, and ½ teaspoon ground white pepper and stir/whisk until everything is well mixed together.
- Once mixed, reserve a half cup of the marinade in an airtight container and keep refrigerated until needed.
- Place the pork into a large zipper loc bag or use a large enough container that they can all fit in easily. Pour the marinade over the pork and mix it so that every surface is coated well with the marinade. Refrigerate the pork slices at least eight hours or overnight is even better. Rotate the pork once or twice during the marinading time.
- Remove the pork and allow it to sit at room temperature while you preheat your oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F / 210°C. Line a baking sheet with foil and set a cooking rack on top of that. Place the pork on top of the rack with a bit of space between each slice and pour enough water into the pan so that it’s not touching the pork. This helps keep the pork moist while also keeping dripping fat and marinade from burning and smoking in the oven.
- Cook the pork for about 25 minutes, flipping halfway through. While the pork is cooking, prepare the glaze. Microwave the maltose for about 20 seconds, and then in 10 second increments if it’s still too thick. Add ¼ cup maltose into a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon or so of boiling water and stir until loosened up and then add the reserved marinade. Heat over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened and then hold it at a low temperature.
- When the pork has cooked, remove it from the oven and turn the broiler on high. No need to move the oven rack higher. Brush the glaze over the pork on both sides and place back into the oven. Broil for 2-4 minutes, remove and brush with more glaze and repeat. You should glaze and broil a total of 3-4 times.
- Remove from the oven and add an optional final glaze, then allow to rest at least 10-15 minutes. Slice the pork into thin strips and serve immediately.
Notes
1) Ingredient Substitutions – If you cannot find the red fermented bean curd and/or red yeast rice powder, you can use red food dye if you want the color. The flavor won’t be quite the same without the bean curd, but you can use about ½ teaspoon red food gel or 2 teaspoons of red food coloring.
If you can find it, use mei kwei lu (rose cooking wine), but Shaoxing wine is more readily available. If you skip both, the closest to Shaoxing wine would be sherry cooking wine.
Maltose can also be a little harder to find, so you can use honey in its place. The flavor will be a little sweeter and with slightly floral notes and the glaze won’t have the same gloss, but it works fine.
You can order both the red bean curd and maltose online if needed. (Affiliate links)
2) Reserving Marinade – I prefer to make more marinade than needed and reserving some for the glaze. Technically you use the leftover marinade, but you’d need to bring it to a boil and then simmer it to kill off any bacteria from the raw pork. Reserving some instead eliminates the need to boil it and any concern of cross-contamination.
3) Serving Size – The serving size is based on roughly ⅓ a pound of char siu (roughly 5oz or 150g). So, you should get roughly 12-15 servings from a 4-4 ½ pound pork shoulder. With that said, I could heat a 1lb plate full of this and demolish it myself, it’s so good.
Nutrition
Serving: 0.3 poundsCalories: 272kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 37gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 91mgSodium: 716mgPotassium: 615mgFiber: 0.5gSugar: 12gCalcium: 37mgIron: 2mg
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