Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork)

Method

1. Marinate the pork. Mix all marinade ingredients. Reserve 3 tablespoons for glazing. Coat the pork strips thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for 8–24 hours, turning once.

2. Roast the pork. Preheat oven to 375°F. Place a wire rack on a foil-lined sheet pan. Arrange pork strips on the rack. Roast for 25 minutes.

3. Flip and baste. Turn the pork over. Brush with some of the reserved marinade. Roast for another 20 minutes.

4. Glaze and broil. Mix the remaining reserved marinade with 2 tablespoons honey. Brush generously over the pork. Switch to broil and cook for 2–3 minutes, watching carefully — the honey caramelizes fast. The surface should be dark, sticky, and slightly charred in spots.

5. Rest for 10 minutes. The juices redistribute and the glaze sets. Slice against the grain into 1/4-inch pieces.

6. Serve over rice, in ramen, in bao buns, or as part of a Chinese BBQ platter.

Equipment

• Rimmed sheet pan with wire rack Recommended: Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Half Sheet Pan
• Pastry brush Recommended: OXO Good Grips Silicone Pastry Brush
• Aluminum foil

Chef Notes

• The most important thing: Marinate for at least 8 hours, ideally 24. Char siu marinade is thick and sweet — it needs time to penetrate the dense pork. A short marinade only coats the surface. Overnight marination flavors the meat all the way through.
• Use pork shoulder or collar — cuts with good fat marbling. Lean cuts like tenderloin dry out during the high-heat roasting. The fat bastes the meat from within and keeps it juicy.
• The final glaze is what makes char siu char siu. Brush with honey mixed with reserved marinade during the last 10 minutes of cooking, then broil for 2–3 minutes. The honey caramelizes into the signature sticky, lacquered crust.
• Traditional char siu is red — the color comes from red fermented bean curd or food coloring. It's purely aesthetic. Skip it if you prefer.
• Char siu is Cantonese BBQ pork — you've seen it hanging in the windows of Chinese BBQ shops. It's sweet, savory, slightly smoky, and impossibly sticky.

Common Substitutions

Ingredient	Substitution	Notes
Pork shoulder	Pork belly	Fattier, more indulgent
Hoisin sauce	2 tbsp soy sauce + 1 tbsp peanut butter + 1 tsp sugar	Approximation
Shaoxing wine	Dry sherry	Closest substitute
Five-spice powder	1/4 tsp each: cinnamon, cloves, star anise, fennel, white pepper	Homemade blend
Oven roasting	Grill over indirect heat	More smoky — closer to traditional

What You're Practicing

Char siu teaches you lacquer glazing — building layers of sweet, caramelized coating on roasted meat through repeated basting and high-heat finishing. This technique is used in Peking duck, honey-glazed ham, and teriyaki. Visit Techniques for more on glazing.

You're also learning Cantonese marinade building — combining hoisin, soy, oyster sauce, and five-spice into a complex, balanced marinade. Understanding how these sauces work together is the foundation of Chinese flavor building. Explore more at Brines, Cures & Marinades.