Auntie Ruby’s Char Siew (Asian BBQ Pork) – the Easy Way

Char siew (aka cha siu, cha shao, char siu) is a type of BBQ pork dish in which long strips of boneless pork are marinated in a mixture of maltose, five spice powder, red fermented beancurd, dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce and lots of red food colouring. They are then skewered and grilled in a hot oven. The obscenely red meat is then sliced and served often with rice, noodles or in buns.

I’ve been wanting to make char siew for the longest time ever but kept procrastinating for I-cannot-remember-what-reasons. And just suddenly one day, after seeing the recipe on The Food Canon, I decided to give the recipe a go. Tried and tasted by many other foodies, this recipe not only looks good – it is also easy as well. Instead of using the oven approach, the pork is braised in a pot with all the seasonings – brown sugar, white pepper, honey, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, five spice powder, a little wine and water – until tender. The pork is then pan-fried to obtain the slightly crisp and burnt exterior.

Recommended by the butcher, I chose to use pork butt, which is also known as pork collar, sometimes pork shoulder, and in Chinese, known as wu hua rou (五花肉). This part of the meat is found on the upper part of the of the pig’s shoulder. It has a very pretty marbling of fats in and has a very nice ratio of meat:fat (about 3:2), so it’s not excessively oily but still yields a very tender and melt-in-the-mouth texture. It is also the preferred part for making pulled pork. You can use pork belly if you want an even more fatty char siew, but it would have been too oily for me.

Char Siew Noodles

I ended up with a pretty watery sauce, so I boiled it vigorously and reduced it by half, yielding a thick and syrupy sauce (perfect to drizzle on top and to go with rice!). I also pan-fry the pork in a separate non-stick pan with a little oil – it was an extremely smoky and sticky affair and I have an additional pan to wash, but because the pan was non-stick, it is a lot easier to clean. If you char the meat directly in the pot, you’ll most likely end up with charred bits stuck all around the pot, which will be extremely hard to clean afterwards.

I originally wanted to serve the char siew with rice, but I was lazy so I ended up cooking a bag of instant noodles (would have opt for Chinese egg noodles but didn’t have them on hand), dressed it in a little home-made sauce (recipe at the end) and then spooned char siew slices and blanched greens on top – a yummy char siew noodles dish is ready to be served! The char siew was really delicious and I foresee myself making it again – and probably using the home-cooked char siew to make char siew bao (BBQ pork bun) next time!

Only 2 step-by-step-photos today as the recipe’s very straightforward and easy!

Step-by-step Photos
1) Marinate the meat overnight and then simmer it gently for 45 minutes to 1 hour until tender.	2) Pan-fry the meat in a non-stick pan to get it nicely charred on all sides.

Slice, drizzle with the sauce and serve!

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Auntie Ruby's Char Siew

Serves 4 to 6

By Jasline N.

0.511.523

INGREDIENTS

 

Char Siew

• ▢ 1 kg pork butt, slice into strips
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
• ▢ 1 teaspoon white pepper
• ▢ 2 tablespoons mild honey or maltose
• ▢ 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Chinese wine
• ▢ 250 ml water, 1 cup
  
  

Noodles (per serving)

• ▢ 1 teaspoon fried shallot oil
• ▢ 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dark soya sauce
• ▢ 1/2 to 1 tablespoon reduced char siew sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

Char Siew

• Rinse the pork butt, pat dry and place it in a pot. Add in all other ingredients except water and use a pair of chopsticks or your hands to mix all the ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours to marinate the meat.
• Place the pot, covered, directly onto the stove. Stir in the water and heat it up over high heat and bring the sauce to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer the pork until tender, flipping the pork occasionally. This will take about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Snip off pieces of meat now and then to determine if it's soft enough for you.
• Once the char siew is tender enough, remove the char siew and set aside. There should be plenty of sauce left in the pot. Bring the sauce to a rolling boil and reduce it until thick and syrupy. Scoop out the layer of oil floating on top if desired before straining it into a small serving bowl.
• Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat, and add in a little bit of oil. Pan-fry the char siew until the exterior is well-charred to your liking, flipping it frequently as they can burn quite easily.
• Let the meat rest on the table counter for about 5 minutes, then slice and serve with the sauce and rice / noodles.

Noodles

• Toss each serving of noodles with the seasonings and top with sliced char siew.

NOTES

Char Siew recipe adapted from The Food Canon
Noodles recipe adapted from Life is in the Small Things

Tried this recipe?Mention @foodiebaker or tag #foodiebaker!

Super Naggy:

[1] Note that pork butt = pork collar = upper part of pork shoulder. This part of the meat has a nice marbling of fats, fatty but does not give an overly greasy after-taste. If you prefer fattier cut, use pork belly. If you want to be a bit more health-conscious, you can go for leaner cuts, but it will lack the juiciness and tenderness of the fatty cuts!

[2] I asked my butcher to cut the pork butt into long strips, so that it looks more like char siew.

[3] Traditionally char siew is red in colour, but not wanting to add artificial food colouring into my food, I decided to omit them. Since food colouring doesn’t help in improving the flavours in any way, no harm to omit it!

[4] If you don’t have Chinese wine, you can use sherry instead!

[5] After marinating the pork, you can sear it first with a little oil, before adding in all the marinade and simmer it. You can also use a non-stick pot to cook the pork so that you can char the pork directly in the pot later on.