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Authentic and homemade Chinese BBQ pork marinated with sticky char siu sauce and roasted in oven. This recipe is easy and tastes just like the best Chinese restaurants.
Chinese BBQ Pork
What is Chinese bbq pork?
This dish is called Char Siu in Cantonese dialect, or Chashao (叉烧) in Chinese language.
It is of Cantonese origin where marinated skewers of pork meat or pork belly are barbecued to charred, savory, and sticky sweet perfection.
This Chinese bbq pork recipe is 100% homemade and tastes just like the best of Chinatown.
For more Chinese pork belly recipes, check out my Braised Pork Belly (Dongpo Rou) recipe.
The Best Chinese BBQ Pork
For the best homemade Chinatown barbecued pork, here are the list of secret ingredients you will need:
- Choice of meat – if you love tender, juicy, moist and fatty pork, please use pork belly. If you prefer meaty texture, go for pork loin. If you like it somewhere in between, pork butt or pork shoulder will be a great choice.
- Maltose – called ” 麦芽糖” in Chinese, maltose is the secret ingredient that gives Chinese barbecued pork that sticky sweet taste and texture. If you can’t find maltose, you can use a good quality honey as substitute.
- Chinese rose wine (玫瑰露酒) – this Chinese wine has an intense fragrant and aroma. It lends the iconic taste and flavor to this recipe.
- Chinese five-spice powder (五香粉) is a mixture of fives spices used in Chinese recipes. It’s a key ingredient for Cantonese BBQ meats.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make Chinese BBQ Pork
This is the best recipe that is better than any Chinese restaurants.
The end result is juicy, moist, tender, delicious pork belly barbecued to sticky perfection.
First, make the Chinese BBQ pork marinade sauce in a sauce pan. Next, marinate the pork with the marinade overnight.
The next day, roast the pork in the oven. You may finish it off with the Broil function on your oven, or you may use an outdoor grill to barbecue the pork for perfect chars on the surface.
Slice up into thin pieces and serve immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
The red color is due to red food color used in the BBQ pork sauce or marinade.
Not all recipes call for red food color, however some Chinese or Cantonese restaurants use red food color to enhance the appearance of the bbq pork.
Yes, you can. It is the main ingredient for char siu bao pork buns.
You may use the marinade sauce as a dipping sauce. However, you can serve the pork as is because it’s flavorful and delicious without any dipping sauces.
I don’t recommend freezing because it will make the pork rubbery, chewy and tough.
You can keep the barbecued pork in the fridge for up to 3 days. Just make sure that you wrap it tightly with plastic wraps.
To serve, you may heat it up for 30 seconds before serving.
This recipe is only 259 calories per serving.
What To Serve With This Recipe
Chinese BBQ pork is best served with steamed rice or on top of wonton noodles or other Chinese dishes (such as shrimp and broccoli). For a wholesome Cantonese-style meal, I recommend the following recipes.
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Chinese BBQ Pork
Ingredients
- 1 lb (500g) pork belly, pork shoulder, pork butt or pork tenderloin, cut into 3 to 4 long strips
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
Chinese BBQ Pork Sauce:
- 1 1/2 tablespoons maltose
- 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
- 1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinese rose wine or Shaoxing wine
- 3 dashes ground white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients in the Chinese BBQ Pork Sauce in a sauce pan, heat it up on low heat. Stir to combine well. The sauce is ready when it thickens and becomes sticky. (It yields 1/2 cup sauce.) Transfer out and let cool.
- Rub the garlic on the pork. Add 2/3 of the sauce to marinate the pork for at least 4 hours, or best overnight.
- Add the cooking oil to the remaining sauce. Keep the sauce in the fridge.
- The next day, heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a baking tray with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Place the pork on the baking tray and roast for 20 minutes. (Shake off the excess sauce before roasting.)
- Transfer the pork out of the oven. Let cool and thread the pork pieces on metal skewers. Brush the remaining char siu sauce on the pork and grill them over a fire on an outdoor grill. You may also grill them over fire on a gas cooktop.
- If you don't have either, you may select the Broil function on your oven and broil each side of the pork, about 1 minute each, or until slightly charred.
- Slice the Chinese BBQ pork into bite-size pieces, drizzle the remaining sauce over, and serve immediately with steamed white rice.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
The best Chinese bbq pork.
This is my comfort food from childhood! Can’t wait to try it out – this weekend maybe.
Pork butt is my favorite cut for this recipe. The extra fat in the meat helps to keep it tender. Tenderloin always comes out too dry for me. Belly meat is just sooo fatty, like if you only want to eat one decadent bite of delicious, melt in your mouth yummy bbq.
Shoulder is a good cut as well, butt is absolutely perfect. I’m still experimenting with different temperatures and glazes, but this is a great recipe to start with. I’lm going to go out looking in the Asian markets here where I live to see if they have that maltose stuff. that is exciting. thanks for the inspiration.
Hi,
I made your recipe yesterday and it was really juicy and charred. I think finding a marblely piece of pork butt was key for me. Thank you for posting such detailed instructions. As a mom, I really try to reduce the steps so I didn’t cook the marinade, but rather saved 1/2 instead of 1/3 of the marinade for brushing on top after cooking it for 20 min. I broiled it rather than roasting on the stove top because the marinade kept dripping onto my stove and I didn’t want to hold and char 3-4 sticks when I can just use my broiler function.
Hi Kathy, so glad that you tried my Chinese BBQ pork recipe. Yes a perfect slab of pork is the first important ingredient to have the best results. :)
Hi Bee,
Just want to let you know that your recipe for this char siu is really the best!!!! Just got them out of the oven few minutes ago. Looked sooo good and the taste…. FANTASTIC! It’s really yum. Will definitely be making some more in the future. Thanks so much for sharing.
Hi Janet, thanks for trying my Chinese BBQ pork recipe.
Dear Bee,
Thank you for sharing your recipe. I live in Singapore and even though Char Siu is sold in every food court and hawker center, it is very difficult to find really good Char Siu. This evening I just made Char Siu using your recipe.
I used Chinese rose wine, maltose, hoisin sauce and soy sauce, but skipped the 5 spice powder. For the meat I used pork armpit (不见天）which has some fat and is more tender compared to shoulder butt or pork tenderloin. I marinated for 8 hours, then bake in the oven for 30 minutes. There is no need to roast over open fire because the meat is already slightly charred and I don’t like char Siu that is too charred. I made extra sauce and added chopped ginger and onions. My husband and 2 kids finished all 1 kg of char Siu during dinner! Now I think that Char Siu sold outside is so tasteless in comparison and the artificial red coloring is so unhealthy. Home made Char Siu is the best!
Hi Rasa, many thanks for posting your receipe. I have found an oriental shop, and have been told I can use Wangzhihe
Chinese Cooking Wine (Peng Ren Huang Jiu) as a replacement. I have tried googling but cannot find exactly what this product is. Please could you help me and advise? Thank you.
Helloo Bee,
I’m a Malaysian living in Florida. I’ve been experimenting a with char siu lately since hubby caught the home char siu fever. I’ll be trying your recipe next and let you know how it turns out. On your note about it’s not possible to char the char siu on stovetop, I find that this is possible using the braising method. The downside to this though is that it takes a bit of work to clean the caramelized sugar off your wok. But it is possible. You can read more about it here – http://www.foodcanon.com/2011/09/auntie-ruby-char-siew-summary.html. I tried this yesterday and CS turned out really great. Anyway, I’ll be trying out this recipe in a couple of week. I’ll bet this will turn out great! :) Thanks again.
Hi Joyce thanks for your suggestion I will try it out.
Hi, do u have a video?? still not understanding how u cook it on stove top??
Just burn the over the fire on the stove top, if you have a gas stove.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I made it on the weekend and it was delicious !!! I live in a relatively small Canadian city and the only options for BBQ pork is whatever the small Asian grocery store brings in from the bigger cities (which is frozen). The meat is dry, a fake red color and does not have the aroma of real char siu.
I have also tried the sweet and sour pork on your website and it has become our favourite recipe. Both of these recipes tasted fresh and authentic and better than the take out.
I have so many recipes from you that I have pinned and I can’t wait to try them all.
Thanks again.
Hi Nora, thanks for your sweet comment and I am so happy that you love my recipes. :)