Char siu pork is a common ingredient in fried rice, wonton soup, lo mein and char siu bao (i.e pork buns). But purists eat love to eat the tasty BBQ pork on its own with just rice and greens. We like it all of these ways.

Your can find char siu pork at Chinese barbecue (siu mei) shops where it’s often hanging enticingly in the window alongside roast ducks, soy sauce marinated chickens and roast pigs. The best versions are made in Cantonese Chinese cities like Guanzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. But the sweet fatty pork is ubiquitous in other Asian cities as well as in other parts of the world including Australia, Europe and the USA.

Char siu is relatively easy to find at Chinese restaurants in the US.

Many versions are sold at local strip mall bodegas and Cantonese grill houses like Sang Kee in Philadelphia and Great New York Noodletown in NYC. At its best, char siu is a flavorful, fatty, sweet, umami-filled wonder. At its worst, it’s an artificially colored, gray pork product often found floating in wonton soup.

In Hong Kong, char siu derives its red color from actual smoke. That bright shade is what most people identify with char siu today.

The process is different in America since cooking pork with wood isn’t the norm. Over many years, cooks have developed other methods of coloring and flavoring pork that simulate char siu’s desirable smoky look.

Our first response to this question would be – why not? But, seriously, in many cities it’s far easier to buy a take out container filled with char siu pork at a local Cantonese restaurant. That’s what we did when we lived in Philadelphia. Instead of spending days making char siu pork at home, we left the cooking to the pros. We’d either eat it all or save some juicty meat to cook with later.

But things are different now that we live in Lisbon. Portugal, despite having a former colony (Macão) in Asia, has a surprising dearth of Cantonese cuisine. Once we found the right quality and cut of pork at a local market, we gladly jumped into making char siu at home.

As we’ve learned, making char siu is a process that requires the following:

1. A need to make char siu pork – Making char siu pork in Lisbon is a necessity since the Chinese food staple isn’t readily available for purchase.
2. A recipe that works – We tried a number of recipes until we eventually discovered a wonderful method that gives us great results in our home kitchen.
3. The proper ingredients – Finding a well-marbled piece of pork was a key part of our char siu journey. We also needed to find the right combination of ingredients that would generate maximum flavor and char siu’s distinctive red color.

For flavor, we use a combination of hoisin sauce, classic Chinese condiments like soy sauce, sesame oil and oyster sauce along with the most crucial ingredient – five spice powder. All the other ingredients are Asian food stalwarts that contribute to the pork’s flavor. Here’s the full list:

Ingredient quantities are detailed in the printable recipe card below.

Our char siu pork recipe is a three step process. First, you marinate the pork. Next, you roast the marinated meat at a moderate temperate. Finally, you briefly broil the meat and caramelize it with an application of sweet Asian barbecue glaze.

The marination step takes the longest. To achieve maximum red color, you need to marinate the pork for at least 24 hours and as long as 48 hours. At 48 hours, your pork will be definitively red on the outside and slightly red on the inside.

Many recipes call for the pork to be roasted and marinated at higher temperatures and glazed at the same time. We, once again, followed a similar procedure as outlined on Chef Steps. However Chef Steps‘ recipe calls for lower heat, a closed cooking vessel (covered with foil) and a four hour cook time.

We suspecteed that we could accomplish the same results in 90 minutes with moderate heat and the same closed cooking vessel. Sure enough, with the aid of steam (which regulates temperature) from the marination liquid (which we poured in the roasting pan), we did exactly that. The char siu we produced was fatty and moist. It tasted even better after we reheated it with steam.

The first step is to mix the marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl

Once the marinade is complete, pour it into a large zip top bag and add the pork steaks. Place the bag in the refrigerator and let the pork marinate for at least 24 hours and up to 2 days.

A day or two later, once the pork is marinated, preheat your oven to 325°f / 160°c (or 300°f / 150°c if you’re using a convection oven) and place the pork along with the marination liquid in an oven-safe roasting dish big enough to comfortably fit all the of the pork. Cover tightly with foil and place the pan on the middle rack of the oven.

Pro Tip
Make sure you give your oven about 30 minutes to preheat.

Roast the pork in the marination liquid for 90 minutes.

Pro Tip
It’s important to both cover the pork and to cook it in the marination liquid. The liquid creates a steamy cooking atmosphere which regulates the temperature. The steam keeps the temperature low enough (around 190°f / 88°c in the roasting chamber) to prevent the pork from drying out.

Next, during the last 30 minutes while the pork is roasting, it’s time to make the char siu glaze.

Our glaze or ‘Chinese BBQ sauce’ is easy to make with hoisin sauce, maltose, water and (optionally) a small amount (one to two tablespoons) of strained marinade. We use about 1/4 cup of maltose, 1/4 cup of hoisin sauce and 1/4 cup (or less) of water.

Pro Tip
You can substitute honey in the glaze if you can’t find maltose or you find its stickiness intolerable. Note that you can control the stickiness by keeping your hand wet.

If you use maltose, wet a hand and scoop two generous scoopfuls of the sugar substance into a mixing bowl. The maltose will stick a lot, so have a spoon and paper towel on hand.

Next, spoon in about the hoisin sauce plus a little bit of water and stir. The maltose, which is relatively thick, will begin to combine if you let it rest for a few minutes. Keep stirring, adding more water until the glaze reaches the desired consistency.

Pro Tip
While we provide measuring guidelines for the glaze, it’s still important to use your eyes to gauge its viscosity. Ideally you want the glaze to have a slightly thick, syrup-like consistency. In other words the glaze needs to grip the meat.

You can speed this step by carefully heating the mixture on a stove. However, if you start preparing your glaze on time, the maltose will incorporate in the mixing bowl and you’ll minimize the clean-up. Optionally, once the char siu is roasted, you can add a couple tablespoons of the cooking liquid to the glaze. Make sure you strain it before you do this.

After 90 minutes, remove the pork from the oven and place it on a rack over a sheet pan.

Pro Tip
Since the sugary liquid will burn on the bottom of the sheet pan, it’s best to place a sheet of foil on the pan for easy cleaning.

Change the mode on your oven from bake to broil. If you’re using an electric oven, set the broiler on its highest setting.

Remove the pork from the baking dish and place it on a wire rack fitted in a sheet pan. Generously cover the pork with the glaze, using a brush so that it’s evenly covered. Leave enough glaze for brushing the bottom side of the meat (you’ll do this while broiling after you flip the meat).

Place the meat in the broiler and cook the first side for about 8 to 10 minutes. Flip the meat and brush it with the rest of the glaze and cook it for another 8 to 10 minutes.

Pro Tip
Keep a close eye on the meat while it broils. You want to see the glaze bubble but be aware that sugar can go brown to burnt in seconds.

Viola! You’ve created real-deal char siu pork.

You should have about five or six pieces which you can serve now or later. We like to eat one piece right away and individually wrap the rest in aluminum foil. We place one piece in the refrigerator to eat in the next few days and store the rest in the freezer where it will keep up to three months.

Slice the char sui pork against the grain into half inch strips before you eat the barbecued meat. If you reheat the meat, we find that it’s best to steam it.

There are so many ways to eat home-made char sui pork.

You can cube it and use it in fried rice. You can slice and steam it before adding it to a rice bowl along with green vegetables. You can also lay slices on top of instant ramen or in wonton soup.

You’ll likely have your own preparations for the tasty meat. However, we won’t tell anybody if you can eat a slice or two as a late night snack. We sometimes do that too.

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