Char Siu — Chinese BBQ Glazed Pork
Sticky, mahogany-glazed Cantonese roast pork with a sweet-savoury marinade and a honey lacquer, made in a home oven.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 40 min
- Serves
- 4 to 6
- Level
- Easy
By Maya Chen
Method
- 01
Whisk together the hoisin, both soy sauces, Shaoxing wine, sugar, 1 tbsp honey, garlic, five-spice, bean curd and sesame oil into a smooth marinade.
- 02
Coat the pork strips thoroughly, reserving a few tablespoons of marinade for basting. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- 03
Heat the oven to 220 C. Line a tray and set a rack over it so air circulates under the pork.
- 04
Lay the strips on the rack and roast for 15 minutes, then turn and roast another 10 minutes, basting with the reserved marinade at each turn.
- 05
Mix the remaining 2 tbsp honey with the hot water to make a thin glaze.
- 06
Brush the pork generously with the honey glaze and return to the oven for 5 minutes until the edges begin to caramelise and char.
- 07
Turn, glaze the second side, and roast a final 5 minutes until lacquered and sticky with charred edges.
- 08
Rest the pork for 10 minutes, then slice across the grain and serve with steamed rice or in buns.
Char siu is the glossy, red-edged roast pork that hangs in the windows of Cantonese barbecue shops, sliced over rice or tucked into buns. The restaurant version uses tall roasting ovens, but the marinade and the lacquer translate cleanly to a home oven, and the results are close enough to satisfy.
The marinade does the work
A good char siu starts with a balanced marinade: hoisin and soy for savour, sugar and honey for sweetness, Shaoxing wine for fragrance, and five-spice for warmth. Give the pork as long as possible to soak it up, overnight if you can. The longer it marinates, the deeper the flavour penetrates the meat rather than sitting only on the surface.
Glaze late, char hard
The signature sticky finish comes from a honey glaze applied near the end of the roast, not the start. Brushing it on too early simply burns the sugar. Roast the pork until nearly done, then glaze and return it to high heat so the honey caramelises into charred, lacquered edges in the last few minutes.
Slicing and serving
Rest the pork before slicing so the juices settle, then cut across the grain for tender pieces. Char siu is happy over plain steamed rice, chopped through fried rice, or as the filling for bao, and it keeps and reheats well.
