Cha Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork) (2024)

Thank you to the National Pork Board for sponsoring this post!

Cha siu (叉燒/叉烧), usually called Chinese BBQ Pork in English, is a classic southern Chinese dish that’s often attributed to Cantonese cuisine. The phrase “cha siu” (cha1 shao1 in Mandarin, sometimes spelled “char siu”) literally translates to “fork roasted,” a reference to the traditional cooking method. If you’ve ever walked past a Chinese BBQ shop (燒臘店), you will have seen long strips of freshly roasted cha siu hanging by the window. Walk up a little closer, and you’ll see the honey or maltose glaze dripping from these red strips of barbecued pork. It is a mouth-watering sight.

Mama Lin knows that cha siu is one of my favorite things to eat. Every time I visit her, she’ll either buy or roast cha siu for me to take home. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to visit her as often this year, so I hadn’t eaten cha siu in quite some time. Finally, I asked Mama Lin to teach me how to make cha siu.

I am very excited that the National Pork Board asked me to share a recipe of this classic Chinese dish as part of their Pork as a Passport campaign. Many cultures from all over the world cook with pork. The Pork as a Passport campaign highlights the diversity of pork dishes from various countries and encourages us to learn more about different cultures by trying a new pork recipe.

As some of you know, pork is a prominent ingredient in Chinese cuisine. Pork is often used in stir fries, to make classic bone broth (豬骨湯), spring rolls, and for dumplings. My siu mai (shumai) and pork and cabbage potsticker recipes are great pork dumplings to try. For this Pork as a Passport campaign, I will be sharing two Chinese recipes, the first of which is this cha siu recipe.

HOW TO MAKE CHA SIU (CHINESE BBQ PORK)

CHOOSING THE RIGHT CUT OF PORK

For this recipe, I recommend using pork shoulder because it’s not overly fatty and not too lean (see photo below). You need some fat in the pork to ensure that the cha siu won’t be too dry once cooked. When you select the piece of pork at the store, make sure you can see marbling (streaks of fat) throughout the meat.

At the butcher counter of Chinese or Asian supermarkets, you can easily find boneless pork shoulder that’s sold in 1 to 2-pound pieces. Ask the butcher for about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of pork shoulder.

However, at your typical grocery store, you’ll usually find pork shoulder (also called pork shoulder roast, pork butt, or butt roast) sold bone-in. Find a piece that is between 2 to 2 1/2 pounds. Once you cut off the bone and the thick piece of fat that’s often on the edge of the meat, you’ll have the right amount of meat for this recipe.

You can often find boneless pork shoulder at the grocery store, but they’re often sold in 3 to 4 pounds pieces. You can buy a piece, cut it in half for this recipe, and save the rest for something else.

Some people like more indulgence and use pork belly to make cha siu. I prefer leaner cha siu, which is why I recommend using pork shoulder.

PREPARE THE PORK

If there is a thick strip fat on the outside side of the piece of pork shoulder, slice that off (see photo below).

Next, if your piece of pork shoulder comes on the bone, you’ll need to slice the meat from the bone because cha siu is not traditionally made bone-in. You’ll likely end up with several pieces of pork that are not uniform in shape (see photo below).

I usually end up with a larger strip of meat along with 2 smaller pieces. I often slice the large strip in half so that all the meat has roughly the same cooking time. My mom would say to leave the large piece in tact and just cook that piece for longer.

If you started with boneless pork shoulder, cut the meat into strips of about 2 1/2 inches wide. Make sure the meat isn’t much thicker than 1 1/2 inches.

MARINATE THE PORK

For the marinade, mix together soy sauce, dark soy sauce (老抽), sugar, rice cooking wine, hoisin sauce (or oyster sauce), paprika, and kosher salt. Paprika is not a traditional ingredient in cha siu, but I use it to give the pork natural red color.

Traditionally, cha siu gets its red color from red fermented bean curd (南乳), which can be difficult to find unless you go to an Asian supermarket. Many Chinese BBQ shops nowadays use red food coloring to give the cha siu the bright red color. I don’t keep food coloring in my pantry, so I had to figure out a substitute. By luck, the red color of paprika in my pantry drew my attention. I tweaked my mom’s recipe by using paprika and was surprised by how well the color of the Chinese BBQ pork turned out. Plus, the flavor of paprika complemented the other ingredients of the marinade.

Transfer all the pieces of pork into a bowl. Pour the marinade over the pork. Then, add the sliced ginger, scallions, and garlic to the bowl and mix everything.

Cover the bowl, and let the pork marinate for 6 to 8 hours or overnight. If you are making this during the day, toss the meat every few hours to ensure that all the pieces are evenly coated with the marinade. If you marinate the pork overnight, toss the meat once in the morning. Then, toss the meat again right before you roast it.

ROAST THE PORK

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and position an oven rack to the center position.

Get a half sheet baking pan (13” x 18”) or larger. Line the pan with aluminum foil. The marinade is going to drip down into the pan and burn during the roasting process. To ensure a swift cleanup, make sure to line the pan with foil.

Then, place 2 tall stainless steel steaming racks on top. Then, place a stainless steel cooling rack (12”x17”) on top (see photo below). Why the funny setup, you ask? You don’t want to place the pieces of pork directly onto the pan because the bottoms of the pork will steam instead of roast. My mom suggested this setup to elevate the meat while it roasts.

Carefully lay the marinated pieces of pork on the cooling rack. Make sure that there aren’t any pieces of scallions or garlic stuck onto the pork. Also, make sure there’s at least an inch of space between each piece of meat.

Carefully transfer the sheet pan into the oven and roast the meat for 20 minutes.

While the pork is roasting, pour the leftover marinade (including the scallions, ginger, and garlic) into a saucepan. Cover the saucepan and bring the marinade to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the marinade for another 2 minutes. Pour the leftover liquid marinade into a bowl. You’ll likely have about 3 tablespoons total.

Measure 1 tablespoon of the marinade and pour it into a separate bowl. Mix it with 2 tablespoons of honey.

Using oven mitts, remove the sheet pan from the oven. Brush the tops of the meat with the marinade (not the honey marinade mixture). Return the meat to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

Take the sheet pan out of the oven and flip all the pieces of pork over. This time, brush the honey marinade mixture over the meat. Return the meat to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

Take the cha siu out of the oven and check the temperature of the pork. You want the pork to be somewhere between 155ºF to 160ºF. If your pieces of pork are thicker, you’ll probably need to roast the meat for another 5 to 8 minutes.

Once the cha siu reaches the appropriate internal temperature, turn off the oven. Flip over the pieces of cha siu and let the meat rest for a few minutes. Brush any remaining honey marinade mixture over the meat.

Slice up the cha siu and serve with my jasmine rice and Chinese garlic cucumber salad.

CLEANUP

The steaming racks and cooling rack will have a lot of dark marinade stuck onto it. To clean them, I fill a large jelly roll pan with hot soapy water. Then, I lay the cooling rack and steaming racks upside down so that the feet face upwards (see photo above). Let them soak for about an hour before scrubbing them with a stainless steel scrubber. Steel wool works as well.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by the National Pork Board. You can find out more about them on their website, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter.