Anyone who loves char siu (aka char siew or Chinese BBQ pork) would know that the best char siu rice or char siew noodles we have in hawker centres serves the BBQ pork meat that’s oily and fatty. This homemade cha siu aka chinese BBQ pork is made out of slightly fatty meat (for health reasons obviously), although I love fatty char siew as the fats in the meat would have absorbed all the marinade sauce and it literally melts in the mouth.
The most ideal meat to make this homemade cha siu is pork belly, or 五花肉 in Chinese. Pork belly is a fatty piece of meat that is also used in braised meat dishes and roasted pork crackling.
I marinated my Chinese BBQ pork for about 8 hours overnight so I can start cooking the next day. And I always set aside some marinade sauce after marinating the meat, to baste the meat during the bake. The restaurants and food stalls normally have large commercial grills or grilling rooms for grilling the char siew in extreme high heat, for me, cooking it in the oven does the job. You’ll notice stall-made char siu are sometimes red in colour, that’s because some vendors uses red food colouring to give it a vibrant delicious looking colour.
The marinade sauce is made of:
- 3 tbsp Hoisin sauce
- 2.5 tbsp Manuka Honey
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp Chinese wine (Huatiao)
- 1 tsp five spice powder
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
Mix them well into a consistent mixture.
The pork belly I used is a long strip of meat thus the total cooking time is about 32 min, I would think that if you use a bigger and wider slab of meat, then you’ll need to cook it longer in the oven. During the bake, the meat dries up a little absorbing the marinade, thus basting it at least once during the bake will help keep the meat moist. I’ve also had to flip the meat 2-3 times to make sure it’s not burnt on a particular side.
This homemade char siew is best served with white fragrant rice or thin noodles. You might see it served as one of the main dishes on any Chinese dining table, it normally goes well with any Chinese styled dishes. Some people dip it in chilli sauce or dark soy sauce but given its heavy marinade flavour, eating it on its own is just as satisfying. Do also check out this egg noodles with homemade char siew recipe I made the following day.
Homemade Char Siu aka Char Siew aka Chinese BBQ Pork
Ingredients
- 1 kg pork belly
Marinade sauce
- 3 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 2.5 tbsp manuka honey
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp Chinese wine Huatiao wine
- 1 tsp five spice powder
- ½ tsp white pepper
Instructions
- Prep the marinade sauce and mix well into a consistent sauce. Set aside a smaller portion of the sauce for basting the meat during cooking.
- Marinate the meat with the marinade sauce evenly, cover up and place in fridge chiller for at least 8 hours.
- Take marinated meat out from fridge one hour before cooking.
- Pre-heat oven to 200 degree celsius.
- Place meat spaced out on a baking rack. I'd cover the baking tray with aluminium foil and fill it with about 1 cup of water as the marinade sauce with sip through and burn because of the sugar content.
- Bake for 20 mins in the oven. Flip the meat halfway through the bake.
- Baste the meat with the remaining portion of the marinade sauce evenly.
- Bake for 10-12 min more. Once done, take it out of the oven and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
- Ready to serve!
Baked lamb chops with roast potatoes
Summer salad with orange, avocado & pomegranate
2 January 2021 at 5:03 amThis is a interesting post by the way. I am going to go ahead and save this article for my sister to read later on tomorrow. Keep up the fine work.
6 January 2021 at 5:32 amDamn, awesome website. I actually came across this on Bing, and I am happy I did. I will definately be coming back here more often. Wish I could add to the posts here and bring a bit more to the table, but am just absorbing as much info as I can at the moment.
5 February 2021 at 11:10 pmI will surely foreward this post to all of my pals! Its very first-rate and a very superior check out!
11 April 2021 at 12:48 amTook me time to read all the feedback, however I really loved the article. It proved to be very useful to me and I am positive to all the commenters here! It is always good when you cannot only learn, but additionally engaged! I am certain you had pleasure writing this article. Anyway, in my language, there usually are not much good source like this.
4 May 2021 at 1:15 pmNice recipe!
27 June 2021 at 5:24 amThis recipe makes it looks so easy to do your own char siew! Any tips on the sauce which vendors used to pour over white rice? Thanks!
29 June 2021 at 2:24 amYou can use either the light soy sauce or dark soy sauce 🙂
18 October 2021 at 5:51 pmWhat’s up, just wanted to mention, I liked this post. It was inspiring.
Keep on posting!
26 December 2021 at 11:35 pmExcellent blog post. I absolutely love this site.
Continue the good work!
27 December 2021 at 6:10 amThank you!
4 January 2022 at 2:43 pmI’ll try make it soon. Can I use lean pork for this?
4 January 2022 at 2:43 pmYes you can! Though personally pork belly will yield a much better flavour and texture, simply because of the fats.