September 16, 2020

Easy Char-Siu Pork

Name: Easy Char-Siu Pork
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 165 min
Total time: 75 min
Ingredients: 3 Lbs. Pork Belly (3" - 4" pieces); 1/3 cup Brown Sugar; 1/2 cup Honey; 2 tsp. Ginger (grated); 4 cloves Garlic (grated); 1/2 cup Light Soy Sauce; 1/4 cup Chinese Rice Wine or Apple Cider Vinegar; 1/4 Cup Hoisin Sauce; 3 Tbsp. Oyster Sauce; 1 tsp. Chinese Five Spice Powder; 1 tsp. Sesame Oil; 1 tsp. Red Food Coloring

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Char-Siu Pork

Sticky, sweet & salty, red Char-Siu pork also called Chinese BBQ pork just like you get in Chinese restaurants! Basically, you combine the ingredients together to make a marinade which the pork would be placed into, traditionally, it is roasted then sliced thin to serve. However, my recipe is a easy short cut version which I promise to be just as flavorful. It is so good and surprisingly easy to make at home, I promise, you will love this recipe.

Char-Siu is a popular way to flavor and prepare what we call Chinese BBQ pork in Cantonese Cuisine. It is a sweet and salty pork dish with a sticky sauce that is formed after cooking. It has a redish color to it that comes just from a little food coloring. This is a popular dish in many Chinese restaurants, but I find not many people take on the challenge of making it at home as it is percieved as difficult to make. Most restaurants season and cook a whole piece of pork roast and then slice it thin to serve.

On my venture to create my own recipe, I tried quite a few different ways before finally getting it perfect with this recipe. This came out well and allowed the salty, sticky, red sauce that you are looking for to come together nicely. I use pork belly pieces as i find it is more tender andeasier to cook.

Ingredients for Char-Siu Pork

Pork – I recommend a fattier cut such as pork belly.
Brown Sugar – Contributes to the sweet taste and brown is best for the caramelising however, white may be substituted.
Soy Sauce – I like to use light , a dark soy sauce flavor may be too strong.
Chinese Five Spice – Contributes to the authentic Chinese flavor.
Hoisin Sauce – A popular Chinese Sauce which has a sweet & savoury flavor.
Oyster Sauce – Another popular Chinese Sauce with a savoury salty taste.
Ginger – Contributes a nice flavor to compliment the other ingredients
Garlic – Paired with the ginger to give this dish more flavor
Sesame Oil – To contribute to the Chinese flavor
Shaoxing Rice Wine – helps contrast the sweet.
Red Food Coloring – To give that crimson red color of traditional Char-Siu. However, it can be omitted and still have the same great taste.
Honey – Contributes to the sweet and gives it the nice, shiny, caramelized coating.

Preparation Steps for Char-Siu Pork

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So in my recipe, I use about 3″ – 4″ long pork belly pieces.
I then combine the ingredients to make up the marinade.
I then place the pork pieces in the marinade to soak overnight in my tight seal Tupperware seasoning bowl.
When ready to cook, i pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees, place the pork strips in a baking pan about 1″ apart with some of the marinade and cover with foil. Total baking time is 2 – 2-1/2 hrs. or until tender.
Turn pieces and baste every 30 minutes.
Uncover to brown for about 15 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes and cut into 1″ or 2″ pieces to serve.

I realized that making char-siu at home isn’t that hard at all, to me this is even tastier than restaurant quality. Another option some people use is to grill the shoulder steaks, however, I haven’t tried that method. So if you decide to give this a try, leave me a comment below.