Char Siu (BBQ Pork)

Variations

• Char siu rice (char siu fan): Over rice with a drizzle of the sauce.
• Ramen topping: Slice thin and lay over ramen.
• Air fryer: Cook at 180°C, turning, until glazed.
• Chicken/duck: Use the same marinade on chicken thighs or duck.

Tips

• A fattier cut like pork shoulder/collar stays juicy and tender.
• The longer it marinates, the deeper the color and flavor (overnight is best).
• Glaze with honey and blast the heat at the end for the sheen and char.
• No dye needed — hoisin and soy give plenty of red on their own.
• The red was never dye, and it was never hoisin either. Traditional char siu takes its colour from red fermented bean curd (nam yu) or red yeast rice, both of which carry a deep brick-red pigment along with a savoury, faintly funky depth. The bottled colouring in the ingredient list is the shortcut a shop takes to get the same look; hoisin and dark soy get you part of the way there but towards brown rather than red. Adding a cube of red fermented bean curd, mashed, is the single change that moves a home version closest to a Cantonese roast-meat shop.
• The honey goes on at the end because sugar burns before meat cooks. Grilling states it plainly — sugar colours fast but burns — so a marinade with honey and hoisin in it cannot take 230°C for thirty-five minutes. Hence the structure of the roast: twenty minutes, flip and baste, fifteen more, and only then the honey and the blast of heat. Peking duck is the other glossy Chinese roast and its own page draws the contrast — that one is about driving moisture out, this one about driving marinade in; the maltose it uses for the same gloss is what yeot is made of.
• Long strips, and the shape is the recipe. Cut this way a 600g piece has several times the surface a joint would, which is what lets a three-hour marinade reach a useful depth and what gives the glaze somewhere to sit. It also roasts in half an hour rather than two. Compare dongpo rou, where the whole point is one large square that holds its shape, and carnitas, where the meat is submerged in fat instead.
• Five-spice is a ground blend, so it belongs in the marinade. Blooming spices caps ground spice at about thirty seconds in hot fat; there is no such step here, so the star anise and cassia do their work over hours in the cold instead. Lu rou fan leans on the same blend. The classic use is sliced over rice or into char siu bao.