Best Asian Food Blogs: Chinese Barbecued Pork (Char Siu)

November, with its chillier temperatures and 4:30pm sunsets, seems like a good time to revisit a quintessential Chinese comfort food dish. I first posted this recipe for Chinese barbecued pork back in February 2009 and it became an instant hit, all owing to the dish itself. I’ve changed very little of the first recipe, which was adapted from my mom’s, just tweaking the ingredient amounts ever so slightly. The ease of preparation and the impressive results make this one dinner that send you off into a long, happy deep sleep.

Along with wonton noodle soup, char siu (Chinese barbecued pork or Chinese roast pork) is the Cantonese people’s greatest contribution to mankind. Really, who can resist slices of half-fatty, half-lean roast pork, crisp and dripping with caramelized juices?

You know those enticing pieces of pork dangling in Chinatown restaurant windows? When you get char siu at a Cantonese restaurant, it will most likely be red from a little food dye, used to attract customers. A small amount of dye isn’t harmful (think of all those M&Ms and Skittles you’ve eaten). But sometimes a restaurant will go overboard. My mother still has nightmares of glowing magenta char siu from Boston’s Chinatown.

The solution, if you want to avoid unnatural coloring altogether, is to make char siu at home. Char siu is often translated as Chinese barbecued pork, but these days hardly anyone skewers the pork and cooks it over an open fire. (Cantonese or Chinese roast pork is a more apt description). Rather, the name has stuck because the outside of char siu is blackened from roasting.

My method for making char siu is very easy, and still produces very succulent and drool-worthy meat. Rather than food coloring, you can get good color (not ghastly color) from a dark soy sauce, a little hoisin sauce, and honey. The key is marinating the meat for 2 to 3 hours to allow the flavors to seep in, and roasting the pork belly whole. Lean pork doesn’t work as well, because the fat keeps the insides moist.

You can serve this as-is, as part of a multi-course meal, or add them to noodle soup with shiitakes and Chinese greens. Or make char siu bau (roast pork buns.)

Have you ever made char siu or other Cantonese roast meats at home?

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Chinese Barbecued Pork (Char Siu)

Serves 4 to 6 as part of a multi-course meal

1 pound pork belly, unsliced
2 tablespoons rice wine
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce, or substitute regular soy sauce
2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tablespoon hoisin sauce
½ teaspoon five-spice powder
2 tablespoons honey

In a large bowl, mix together the rice wine, dark soy sauce, sugar, garlic, hoisin sauce, and five-spice powder. Rub the pork belly with the marinade mixture and marinate for 2 to 3 hours in the refrigerator.Preheat the oven to 325°F. Rub the excess marinade off the pork belly (but don’t rub it all off!) and place in a roasting pan. Brush the top with the honey. Roast the pork for 40 to 45 minutes, flipping the pork belly over half-way through and brushing honey on the other side. The pork is done when the outsides begin to crisp and blacken, and the center of the pork belly strip feels firm.Remove the pork from oven and let it cool for a 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into thin slices. Arrange the slices on a plate and serve, either plain as part of a multi-course meal, or with rice or noodles.

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More pork belly recipes to try:

Red-Cooked Pork

Twice-Cooked Pork (Huiguo rou)

Japanese Braised Pork Belly

Vietnamese Caramelized Pork