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BBQ Pork Recipe (Char Siu/Char Siew/蜜汁叉烧)
April 19th, 2009Recipes, Chinese Recipes, Recipes182 Comments
BBQ pork or “char siu” (also spelled as “char siew”) is a famous Chinese dish that everyone loves.
Char siu (char siew) is of Cantonese origin where skewers of pork meat is marinated in a honey hoisin sauce, and then roast in oven to charred, savory, and sticky sweet perfection. If there is a pork recipe that defines Chinese cooking, I think char siu (char siew) would be it.
The secret ingredients to the best-ever char siu (char siew) are.
- Choice of meat – if you love your char siu (char siew) tender, juicy, moist, and a little fatty, use pork belly. If you prefer a meaty char siu (char siew), then go for pork loin. If you like it somewhere in between, then pork butt will be a great choice.
- Maltose – called ” 麦芽糖” in Chinese, maltose is the secret ingredient that gives char siu (char siew) that sticky sweet taste and texture. Honey is just the icing on the cake.
- Chinese rose wine – this wine is very fragrant and lends a very nice flavor to this BBQ pork or char siu (char siew) recipe.
- Five-spice powder (五香粉) – mixture of 5 spices used in Chinese recipes.
Without further ado, here is the Chinese BBQ pork (char siu/char siew) recipe, which I learned from my friend S. This recipe makes KILLER char siu (char siew) that is better than any Chinese restaurants–juicy, moist, tender, delicious, and sublime.
(Click Page 2 for the BBQ Pork/Char Siu Recipe)
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Thanks for an amazing website! I love your recipes and came across it while looking for one for Ayam Masak Merah. :) I was browsing and saw this and it looks ALMOST identical to the one posted on userealbutter.com, even right down to the cooking method. But your post is older. :) Keep posting!
Hi Angie, yes, she used my recipe. ;)
Oops! Sorry, I just went back to the site and saw the acknowledgment. :) My apologies! Happy cooking!
No worries, thanks for looking out for me. :)
Do you have any recipe to make ” char siew chicken ” ?
You can use this recipe.
I don’t agree with food coloring. It’s an outdated practice and going back a 100 years, that would have been too hard to procure. You can get the red from natural sources if you do your homework. I never use rose wine. I use shao hsing wine since it has a natural red color. Again, do you homework and you will find you don’t have to use artificial colors.
Mike, of course I know there are natural alternatives to red coloring, so there is NO homework to be done on my part. I have clearly stated that the red coloring is optional so for people like you, you don’t have to use it.
Just tried the recipe, and it turned out great. I will use your recipe for this year’s New Year celebration for 50 people (I am thinking 15 lbs of pork butt?). I sure hope you will see my comment because I have two questions: 1). how do you cut the pork butt into four pieces? (horizontal or vertical or doesn’t matter?) 2). I will make the char siu a day ahead. What’s your recommendation for reheating? Thank you so much for the recipe!!
Hi bee!
I love your website and have tried many of the recipes and all turned out delicious especially your dong po pork recipe :) I was wondering about the soya sauce used in the recipe. Is it light soya sauce or dark soya sauce? Thanks in advance x