Five tips for mastering Chinese barbecue pork

There are a few key points not to miss when roasting a char siu pork at home, like don't skip on the sugar, and ask for a nice fatty cut of pork.

Source: SBS Food

Char siu or barbecue pork, the sweet/savoury strips of marinated pork, have long been associated with red food colouring and Bain Marie’s at Chinese restaurants. The real deal, however, is beloved by many as a homely childhood favourite, adorning the tops of many other classic Chinese dishes still. If you’ve been dreaming about making those glossy strips of pork hanging at Chinese barbecue shops at home, you’ve come to the right place! 

Here are five key tips on how to make the best barbecue pork at home.

1. It's all about the surface area

Source: Remko Tanis/via Flickr

Unlike other roasts, Chinese barbecue pork uses long strips of pork belly or shoulder meat, which means that the marinade has lots of opportunities to flavour the meat. You'll notice the depth of colour all the way through each piece, as opposed to the bright white of cooked pork in other recipes. 

If you marinade too much, don't worry. Leftovers are great in steamed barbecue pork buns. Just chop up the leftover pork into a fine dice - you'll have the perfect sauce to meat ratio. Yum!

2. Booze it up

随着经济增长，中国酒精消费也连年增高。 Source: Getty Images/Ivan

Most recipes for barbecue pork call for a dash of rice wine in the marinade, and it’s for good reason! Some attribute the tenderising qualities of the marinade to the rice wine, but we love it for it’s slightly sweet and complex flavour. 

The rice wine really shines especially when the marinade is also used as a sauce, like in this recipe for barbecue pork bao. Fluffy buns sandwiching luscious pork drizzled in a glossy sauce. What’s not to love?

3. Sugar is not just a glaze

It might be tempting to lower the sugar amounts in a char siu pork recipe. However, both sugar and salt are essential to help the marinade penetrate the meat, and for that sticky glazed finish, resulting in a melt-in-your-mouth tender bite filled with flavour.

If you’re less of a fan of the sweet taste, the best way to enjoy your char siu is in something like a noodle soup, where the sticky glazed coating on the pork is tempered by the hot soup, letting you enjoy all the tenderness of the pork, without the extra sweetness.

4. Fat is flavour

Whether you choose to use pork belly or neck, be sure to tell your butcher to pick you pieces of pork that have a good amount of fat on them. This helps protect the lean protein, and renders slightly as it roasts, giving you a luscious finish and better eating experience. 

You can see this come into play with the char siu’ s Japanese cousin, chashu, where pork belly is rolled and braised, before being thinly sliced into meltingly rich and tender pieces.

5. Low and slow is the way to go

Char siu pork Source: Benito Martin

Whether you choose to cook your pork in a barbecue or an oven, it usually works best when cooked at lower temperatures, so as not to cause the meat fibres to seize up, and all your hard work go to waste! Don’t worry about this taking hours, though. Because of the pork being in strips rather than in a large piece, it’ll usually take less than half an hour for the meat to cook through. 

This means that your tender and delicate pork can also be used in the second round of flash cooking, like in fried rice. Just be sure to only leave the pork cooking for long enough to warm up and impart flavour, and you’ll have the best of both worlds!

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