叉烧 Char siu, aka Chinese BBQ pork, is probably one of the most popular Chinese meat dishes around the globe. The pork is first marinated in a mixture of red fermented bean curd, Maltose, soy sauce, etc. then roasted in the oven. The exterior of char siu appears dark red, and it has a beautiful shiny glaze on because of the maltose/honey.
The BBQ pork is super flavourful with a hint of sweetness. It is delicious either by itself or served with some steamed rice and veggies. You won’t believe how easy it is to make restaurant quality Chinese BBQ pork at home!
Ingredients (serves 2-3)
- 350g pork shoulder
- 南乳汁(Nan Ru Zhi) red fermented bean curd sauce 30g
- 2 tsb soy sauce
- 1 tbs oyster sauce
- 20g maltose
- 2 cloves garlic optional
- 1 tbs cooking wine
- For brushing: 20g honey + 2tsb water
Instructions:
- Combine red fermented bean curd sauce, soy sauce, maltose, oyster sauce and cooking wine in a bowl, stir to mix. If it’s difficult to mix maltose with other ingredients, microwave everything for 30-60s to melt maltose.
- Rinse pork, pat dry with paper towel.
- Place pork, the marinade, smashed garlic cloves in a zipper storage bag. Make sure pork is fully covered by sauce. Close bag and refrigerate for 24-48 hours.
- Preheat oven to 200 C. In the meantime, combine and mix honey and water for later use.
- Line a sheet pan with foil and place a metal rack on top. Place pork on the rack, baste with remaining marinade and honey liquid. Transfer pork to preheated oven and roast. Brush each side with honey liquid every 10-15 min, flip the pork several times, so all sides are pretty.
- Roast pork for 40 min until it turns dark red and has a shiny glaze over it. Adjust cooking time according to size of the pork.
- optional: if there is a lot of leftover marinade sauce, you can heat it in a small saucepan until the sauce thickens, it can be used to garnish BBQ pork.
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