Honey Glazed Char Siu

Honey glazed char siu (蜜汁叉燒) is often referred to as Chinese barbecue pork. You can often see them hanging in the window of Cantonese restaurants.

Literally ‘char’ means fork and ‘siu’ means roast. Traditionally, the pork meat is skewered with long forks and roasted while it is hung inside a tall Chinese oven. But it is possible to make char siu using a conventional home oven.

It is important to get the right cut of meat. Pork neck or shoulder will work well. But my favourite joint is the marvellously marbled meat between the neck and the shoulder blade, right next to the spine. My butcher sells this as the “spare rib chop”. I ask him not to cut it into chops but sell it to me as a big piece with the bone removed.

Nowadays a lot of char siu are made with artificial colouring and commercial char siu marinade, which has MSG and does not have much flavour. I have experiment with different combinations of ingredients and have come up with this version of the marinade which is more than satisfying. Char siu gets its red colour from the fermented red bean curds. Another key ingredient of the marinade is Chinese rose wine (Mei kuei Lu Chiew). It is very fragrant, and adds a sweet and delicate scent to the char siu. There is really no suitable substitute for rose wine, although some cookbooks have suggested Shaoxing wine or sherry.

The pork is glazed with honey in the final stage of cooking. The char siu will be caramelised on the outside with a sticky and delicious layer of honey.

Honey Glazed Char Siu (蜜汁叉燒)

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Serves: 4 Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hour 1 hour

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

• 1.5kg pork "spare rib", neck or shoulder, without the bone and rind, cut into 4 elongated pieces of 3-4cm
• Runny honey for glazing

For the marinade:

• 1 fermented red bean curd cube, mashed, and 1 tbsp of the red juice
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Chinese rose wine (Mei kuei Lu Chiew)
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp ground yellow bean sauce
• 4 tbsp (60g) sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 garlic cloves, pureed
• 1 tbsp groundnut oil

Instructions

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Marinate the pork for 6 hours or overnight.
2. Place the pork pieces on a rack. Save any remaining marinade in the bowl.
3. Preheat the oven at 160°C. I prefer to roast the meat at a low temperature to keep it tender and moist. Roast for 20 minutes and remove the meat from the oven. Brush the meat all over with the extra marinade.
4. Turn the pieces over and roast the meat for another 15 minutes. The internal temperature of the meat should just reach 75°C (use a meat thermometer to test this if you have one).
5. Brush the meat all over with honey. Grill the meat on both sides under the oven upper grill until the meat surface starts to sizzle.
6. Let the meat cool down and slice the char siu across the grains. Char siu may be served on its own as a cold cut. You may also serve the char siu slices with cooked white rice and Chinese vegetables such as pak choy. In addition, char siu may be chopped into dices, and used in making fried rice and scrambled eggs.