Chinese Barbecue Pork (Char Siu 叉烧)

Char siu (Chinese: 叉燒; Cantonese Yale: chā sīu; literally: "fork roast") is a popular way to flavor and prepare barbecued pork in Cantonese cuisine. It is classified as a type of siu mei (燒味), Cantonese roasted meat.

Pork cuts used for char siu can vary, but a few main cuts are common:

Pork loin
Pork belly - produces juicy and fatter char siu
Pork butt (shoulder) - produces leaner char siu
Pork fat - fat
Pork neck end - very marbled (chu kang yuk)

Serves: 3-4
Prep Time: 1 day before (30 mins)
Cook Time: 15 mins

INGREDIENTS

~500g pork belly (sliced in half lengthways – reduce thickness so that more marinade can be absorbed)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, finely diced/grated
1 ½ peanut oil

Char Siu Marinade:

1½ tbsp maltose
1½ tbsp honey
1½ tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rose wine
10 white peppercorns, ground
pinch of salt
1 piece of wet/fermented bean curd (red)
½ tsp five spice powder
½ tsp sesame oil
For colouring – ½ tsp red powder + ¼ orange powder (optional) - I omitted

DIRECTIONS

Add all char siu marinade sauce ingredients together into a saucepan, heat it up and stir well until all blended together. Transfer into a bowl to cool (around 20 minutes).
Marinade pork with 2/3 of the char siu sauce and the garlic and ginger. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight, turning the pork a few times.
Add 1 ½ tbsp of peanut oil to remaining 1/3 char siu sauce and keep covered in refrigerator (this will be used to baste pork when roasting).
Preheat oven ~175C, roast the pork for 10 minutes then turn and baste in remaining marinade, roast for another 10 minutes and then turn and baste in remaining marinade again. Turn up oven to 200C and then roast for a further 15 minutes (turning up the heat at the final cooking stage provides charred texture to pork)
Total roasting time = 35 minutes. Pork should have glazed red appearance and be slightly charred.
Remove pork from oven and let the pork rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing, to let the juices settle/dry.
Slice pork and serve with rice.

Notes:

Place aluminium foil sheet at the bottom of the oven for drips. If the remaining char siu marinade for basting is too tough when you take it out of the refrigerator, microwave it for 20 seconds to soften.
Use the remaining char siu sauce to baste pork when roasting, if using char siu sauce which the pork has been marinated in to baste, simmer the marinade for 5-10 minutes to kill bacteria which may have been left by the raw meat.
To make sure that the pork gets cooked through without too much charring on the surface, keep the heat down as the marinade contains high sugar content which burns fast.
Baste at least twice to build up good layer of marinade on the pork for a crunchy/crispy, caramelized savory and sugary outer coating to build up as it cooks. This also helps to keep the pork moist so that it doesn’t dry out during roasting.