Glazed Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siu)

Known for its distinctive red color and shiny glaze, Char Siu pork is both incredibly delicious and also very easy to prepare at home. By following these steps, you can make your own barbecue pork that tastes just like take out.

Step 1: Prepare Ingredients

The traditional ingredients that create the sought after look of Char Siu are red fermented bean curd and maltose syrup. These ingredients can be hard to find however, so in this Instructable I substituted soy sauce and optional food coloring for the red bean curd, and honey/molasses for the maltose.

Serves 5

Ingredients:

Meat

- 2-3 lbs Pork Tenderloin (or other cut)

Marinade

- 3.5 Tbsp Soy sauce

- 2 Tbsp Fancy molasses or honey (I used 50/50)

- 2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce

- 2 Tbsp Sherry

- 2 tsp Sriracha (very mild spice)

- 1 tsp Five spice powder

- Few drops food coloring (optional, for red color)

- 2 Cloves garlic (chopped)

- 5 Round slices ginger (chopped)

Glaze

- 2 Tbsp Honey

Step 2: Marinate the Pork

Mix together all the ingredients for the marinade, excluding the extra two tablespoons of honey. This will be used later on when we do the glazing.

The cut of pork I got was a 2-3 inch thick tenderloin, and I did not cut the meat before marinating and grilling. If you get a different cut of meat, cut into two to three inch thick strips.

Place the marinade and meat into a plastic bag and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours.

Step 3: Prepare Grill

Now, remove the pork from the fridge about an hour before grilling to let it warm up, and prepare the grill. I moved the coals to one side of the grill, which allowed me to use indirect heat to cook the meat. Once the grill reaches 300 to 325 degrees, it's ready to go.

Step 4: Cooking

Oncer the grill is up to temperature, I placed the cuts of meat on the side of the grill without coals, and cooked with the lid closed for about 18 minutes on one side, and flipped it and cooked another 15 minutes. The cooking time will vary depending on the grill and method used. Once the meat reaches 145 degrees internal temperature, it's ready for glazing.

Step 5: Glazing

After the meat is cooked, you can move on the glazing the pork. To make the glaze, either use the marinade that was made earlier (boiled for five minutes to kill germs) or make a new glaze. Add the additional two tablespoons of honey to the glaze.

Drizzle the glaze over the top of the meat, let it sit for 30 seconds, then flip it and glaze the other side. keep repeating this until the glaze is gone or you have the result you're looking for.

Char Siu should be a little charred when it's done, and this comes from the sugars in the glaze, so don't worry too much about it looking burned.

Let it rest for five minutes, and cut into strips and enjoy!

Thanks for reading, and good luck if you decide to make it!