Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork)
Cantonese barbecue pork with a lacquered mahogany glaze and charred edges. Oven-roasted, no special equipment, and better than the shop window version.
Char siu is the glossy red-edged pork hanging in the window of every Cantonese barbecue shop, and it is far easier to make at home than it looks. There is no smoker involved and no special oven — the name refers to the original method of roasting skewered strips over fire, and a hot household oven with a wire rack reproduces it closely.
The critical decisions happen before the meat ever gets hot. Cut the pork into long strips rather than roasting the shoulder whole. More surface area means more of the caramelized, slightly burnt edge that is the entire point of the dish. And marinate overnight — this is a thick, sugary marinade that needs time to work past the surface.
At the oven stage, the thing to understand is that char siu is glazed in layers, not marinated once and forgotten. Each brush of reserved marinade hits hot meat, its sugars set, and the next coat builds on top. That is what produces lacquer rather than sauce. Just keep the reserved glaze separate from the raw-pork marinade from the start, and never brush with anything the raw meat has sat in.
Leftovers are the real prize. Sliced char siu turns plain rice into a meal, tops a bowl of wonton noodle soup, and is the filling in char siu bao.
Instructions
- 1
Whisk everything except 1 tablespoon of the honey into a marinade. Mash the fermented bean curd smooth first if you are using it.
- 2
Reserve 3 tablespoons of marinade in a covered jar in the fridge — that becomes your glaze. Put the pork and the rest of the marinade in a bag, work it in, and refrigerate at least 8 hours, ideally 24.
- 3
Take the pork out 30 minutes before cooking. Heat the oven to 475°F with a rack in the upper third. Line a sheet pan with foil and set a wire rack on top, then pour a cup of water into the pan to catch drips and keep the sugars from burning.
- 4
Lay the pork on the rack with space between the strips. Roast 15 minutes.
- 5
Flip, brush with reserved marinade, and roast another 15 minutes.
- 6
Stir the remaining tablespoon of honey into what is left of the reserved marinade. Brush the pork generously, then roast 8 to 12 minutes more, watching closely, until the edges char and the surface turns glossy and deep mahogany.
- 7
Rest 10 minutes before slicing across the grain. Serve over rice, in noodle soup, or stuffed into steamed buns.
Cook’s Notes
- Pork shoulder only. Char siu depends on intramuscular fat basting the meat as it roasts; loin or tenderloin comes out dry and stringy no matter how good the marinade is.
- The water in the sheet pan matters. Without it the sugar that drips down scorches and fills your kitchen with acrid smoke.
- Red fermented bean curd gives the authentic color and a subtle funk. Skip it if you cannot find it — do not substitute red food coloring, which adds color and nothing else.
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