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My Most Popular Chinese Recipes ❤️
Tips, tricks, and recipes for perfect Chinese dishes
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My Most Popular Chinese Recipes ❤️
Tips, tricks, and recipes for Chinese dishes
Cha Siu Bao Recipe
Cha Siu Bao (also spelled as Cha Siu Bao or Char Siew Bao) is one of the signature dishes in dim sum restaurants around the world.
Called 叉烧包, or cha shao bao in Chinese, they are a Chinatown classic!
Originated from Guangzhou in mainland China, Cha Siu Bao is a delicacy.
These Cantonese steamed pork buns are found in many Cantonese-Chinese restaurants serving dim sum.
Imagine soft, fluffy white steamed buns filled with savory char siu or Chinese BBQ pork filling in a sweet and savory char siu sauce; they are absolutely delicious!
Ingredients
Ingredients For Char Siu Bao Filling
- Char siu
- Cooking oil
- Soy sauce
- Cornstarch
- Oyster sauce
- Sugar
- Salt
- Sesame oil
- Red food colouring
- Water
- Yellow onion
Ingredients For Char Siu Bao Dough
- Low-protein flour
- Wheat starch
- Baking powder
- Vegetable oil
- Active dry yeast
- Powdered sugar
- Water
- Chinese white vinegar
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make This Recipe
For soft and fluffy homemade steamed buns, you need a mixture of low-gluten flour and wheat starch.
The low-gluten flour is called Hong Kong Flour in Malaysia and you can get the flour from supermarket.
If you can’t find Hong Kong flour, you may use cake flour as the substitute.
The end result will be softer and fluffier steamed buns compared to all-purpose flour.
Cooking Tips
To make dim sum restaurant quality char siu bao or steamed pork buns, please following the cooking tips below:
- If bigger bun is desired, divide dough into 12 equal portions.
- There is no need to rest the char siu bao dough after adding in the baking powder. If time allows, rest it for 10 minutes to get fluffier buns.
- Add Chinese white vinegar into the steaming water to produce whiter buns. This is an optional step.
- The steamer must be preheated before steaming the buns. They will not rise properly without the hot steam.
- Spray the surface of the buns with water mist will help to produce steamed buns with beautiful and smooth surface.
- DO NOT open the steamer’s lid during the steaming process.
- If there are yellowish spots on the steamed buns, it means the baking powder is not properly dissolved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I freeze char siu bao (steamed pork buns)?
I don’t recommend freezing but you can certainly keep them in the refrigerator.
Pack the leftovers in a plastic bag and keep in the fridge for up to a week.
To serve, just reheat them in a steamer or microwave for 1 minute.
For the filling, use homemade char siu for the best results. You can also use char siu from restaurants.
How many calories per serving?
Each bun is only 193 calories.
What To Serve With This Recipe
Serve this dish with other Cantonese dim sum or Chinese appetizers. For a homemade dim sum meal, I recommend the following recipes.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please share your photo in the Comments section and consider giving it a 5-star rating. I can’t wait to see your creations! Want more easy and delicious recipes? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Char Siu Bao (Steamed Pork Buns)
Ingredients
Char Siu Filling:
- 1/2 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 250 g (9 oz) char siu, diced
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1-2 drops red food coloring (optional)
- salt, to taste
- 1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
- 150 ml water
Char Siu Bao Dough:
- 280 g (10 oz) low-protein flour (Hong Kong flour), cake flour or all-purpose flour
- 100 g (3½ oz) wheat starch
- 90 g (3 oz) powdered sugar
- 8 g (⅕ oz) active dry yeast or instant yeast
- 160 ml lukewarm water
- 1/2 teaspoon Chinese white vinegar or lemon juice (optional)
- 30 g (1 oz) vegetable oil
- 10 g (¼ oz) baking powder
- 10 ml cold water
Instructions
Char Siu Filling:
- Heat oil in pan, sauté onion for 1 to 2 minutes. Add in char siu, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, sesame oil and red food color, if using. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes and add salt to taste.
- Mix corn starch and water together, add to the filling. Simmer on low heat until the sauce is thickened.
- Remove the filling from pan. Let cool.
- Divide the filling into 16 portions. Set aside.
Char Siu Bao Dough Recipe:
- Sift the flour, wheat starch and powdered sugar. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and add the yeast, lukewarm water and vinegar or lemon juice, if using. Gently dissolve the yeast with the water. Slowly bring together the flour mixture and add in the vegetable oil.
- Knead with hands for 15 minutes or until a soft dough is formed. It should be smooth and shiny on the surface.
- Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rise for 60 – 90 minutes or until it expands in size.
- Dissolve the baking powder with the cold water, sprinkle over the dough and knead until well combined. For fluffier buns, rest the dough for 10 minutes after baking powder is added.
- Cut and divide the dough to 16 equal portions.
- Using a rolling pin, roll and flatten each dough ball to a 3” (7cm) circle. Place a portion of the filling in the middle.
- Wrap and fold the dough up.
- Pinch and twist to enclose the opening. Make sure the char siu bao is sealed tight at the top. Place it on a 2" x 3" (5cm x 7cm) piece of parchment paper. Repeat the same until you make 16 buns.
- Arrange the buns on a steamer, leave about 1” (2.5cm) gap in between buns. Spray water mist over buns, and steam in a preheated steamer on high heat for 10 minutes. (You may add 1 teaspoon of Chinese white vinegar to make the char siu bao white.)
- Remove buns from the steamer, serve warm.
Notes
- If bigger bun is desired, divide dough into 12 equal portions.
- There is no need to rest the char siu bao dough after adding in the baking powder. If time allows, rest it for 10 minutes to get fluffier buns.
- Add Chinese white vinegar into the steaming water to produce whiter buns. This is an optional step.
- The steamer must be preheated before steaming the buns. They will not rise properly without the hot steam.
- Spray the surface of the buns with water mist will help to produce steamed buns with beautiful and smooth surface.
- DO NOT open the steamer’s lid during the steaming process.
- If there are yellowish spots on the steamed buns, it means the baking powder is not properly dissolved.
Hi Lydia and Bee,
Thank you for sharing this great bao recipe. Just made this and they turn out great. Fluffy and soft. Shiny outside and smooth outside. This recipe is gonna be a keeper. Thanks again.
What a super recipe! I found the flours I needed at a fantastic Chinese supermarket in Bristol, UK where I live and made these last night and they worked beautifully. I strained the baking powder/water mix through a tea strainer before working it into the dough as you suggest and there were no spots or discolouration and the buns had that lovely shine on them. Thank you so much for this!
Thanks Joanna.
I want very much to try this recipe but I don’t know the equivalent of grams. I always make recipes with cups and tablespoon as measurement. Thanks.
Please use a digital kitchen scale. I can’t do cup conversion for this recipe because it needs to be very precise.
Love your work!
Thanks again for another great recipe! Tried it yesterday and it was perfect!
Thank you so much for this fabulous recipe! I’ve made it, blogged about it, and linked back to your post for the recipe! :)
Thank you very much, Bee-sensei!
No. I used rice flour. What is Hong Kong flour?
You can use cake flour. Rice flour is not wheat flour. You can’t use rice flour to make this.
Hello Rasamalaysia,
A friend recommended your recipe so I will definitely try it. Question – Most recipe I look at, the bp is added to the dry ingredients before mixing and kneading. Here you have it added much later when the dough is form. What’s the purpose and different result will it do by adding the baking powder at the end?
My dough kept turning hard. How do I make it so it is fluffy all round?
Did you use the right flour – Hong Kong flour?
Hi… Can I use pao flour for this recipe?
Yes.
Hello from Aruba,
I tried this recipe and it turned out great. Still I have few questions: mine were not as white, but I used low-gluten flour which is the same as Hong Kong, right? Bought it at a chinese store and the buns were pictured on it. Why the baking powder with water at the end? Wouldn’t it work better if mixed with the flour? Also: do you need to allow the buns to rise after filling them? Not that they didn’t rise enough: they were nice and fluffy! Anyway, thanks, I will make these again