Char Siew is worth making in multiple quantity of this recipe as it can be kept in the freezer for so many other recipes. It can be an appetizer, entree, filling and accompaniment to noodles and rice.
Ingredients:
500g pork - cut into 2 inches strips and score the strips(belly pork or marbled)
Seasonings:
2½ tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp soy sauce
1/4 -1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp wine - Mui Kai Lo
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
1/4 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
Glaze:
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp honey or maltose
1 tbsp oil
Method:
Marinade pork with seasonings for 2 hours.(optional). Pork can be baked as soon as it is marinated.
Line a baking tray or stainless steel dish with aluminium foil. Transfer marinated pork on to it and cover with foil.
Bake char siew at 220 C/425 F for about 10 minutes.
Remove from oven. Open the top foil and bake again until gravy thickens and coat the pork.
Alternatively, cook pork together with the marinade in a wok until the gravy thickens. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.
Preheat grill and grill the pork until it is charred(not burnt), turning all the time for even grilling.
Dip into glaze and return pork to grill just for a short while, enough to give pork a shine.
Serves
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Char Siew
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101 comments:
hi lily, im marinating the pork right now, and went ahead with 1/2 cup of sugar eventhough i'm a bit nervous because that's a lot of sugar!
tian
char siew has to be sweet and after grilling some of the sugar will turn into carbon. tell me how you like the sweetness. in fact my nephew branden, complains that my char siew is not sweet enough
helo aunty lily,
the char siew was really nice, reminds me of the ones back home as compared to the hongkie ones we get in Sydney. and I saved char shiew "chup" from the baking tray which you don't get with hongkie ones. went really well with rice. (-:
I chose to not do the honey part; the more "siew" blacker parts were perfect in terms of sweetness and the less "siew" parts were too sweet for me. maybe I should have grilled it longer?
will post a pic soon on my blog if you're interested!
thanks for your recipe and will be trying out your other recipes to cure my homesickness!
tian
i am glad the char siew turned out to your liking. my sister who makes very good char siew which is much sweeter and that is what her son branden likes. btw they are in sydney too.
you could email me lilyng_2000@yahoo.com and we can comfort ourselves with food from home
janet/lim
i hope you are one and only.
you certainly can make good char siew without the oven. cook meat with marinate covered in a wok until meat is cooked. then cook uncovered until marinate becomes thick and coats the meat. The meat will have a better shine if it is glazed and grill over a charcoal stove
mary
i do not add liquid as if meat is cooked covered, it will release quite alot of liquid which will be enough to cook the meat. You could remove some of the liquid for gravy when you open the wok cover. Thicken the gravy with a little cornflour or tapioca.
The Char Siew in your blog photo looks really nice. It doesn't have the "awful" fake red coloring that I've seen in so many shops. I don't really eat pork but boy your Char Siew looks good!!!! :-)
hie lily, your char siew looks absolutely delicious! i'm actually making mine in the oven now and it doesn't looks as nice. it's my first time. is there such thing as an overcooked char siew? btw, i reckon you are a malaysian right?
anonymous
yes, i am still a malaysian.
follow the method through. when you are done to the end, the char siew will look very charred and very siew
hie auntie lily, thanks for your reply. i actually worked without sugar that day and used honey..alot of honey so i had no gravy and had to make them again and with luck on my side it turned out fine. my boyfriend loved the char siew. i was shocked. so if i had worked with sugar i would end up with delicious gravy right? i find your site very useful and will be a regular visitor. how about making a forum so that way we can all post questions and the like? being a young malaysian who's learning to cook, there are certain things which i don't know what it is and where to find. for example, i didn't know mustard leaves were sawi. *blushes* hehehe =) if there's a need for translation could you please help me in future? thanks a lot.
siu wan
siu wan
i think it is a waste using honey as it will turn to carbon anyway. use the honey for the glaze. I have used whatever syrup for the glaze and maple syrup was very delicious.
you could email me anytime with whatever questions and i will try to help.
keep up the good cooking
Hi Lily, d char siew really looks very "sedap". Anyway, can u pls advise me after baking @220 deg for abt 10 mins, then approx how long more to continue baking with the foil opened. Also the approx time to grill . Thanks alot......
justina
baking with foil on high heat will cook the pork faster. 10 minutes will be enough to cook the pork. by opening the foil, this way, the sauce will dry out and coat the pork and the sauce will be thick. you could serve char siew this way after glazing but with grill the char siew has a more charred effect.
hie auntie lily, i tried to e-mail you and apparently if failed to deliver. is your e-mail address lilyng2000@yahoo.com?
siu wan
my email address is lilyng_2000@yahoo.com
hope to hear from you
hi lily, i have just discovered your site and amd motivated to try this recipe of yours. Could you tell me how to freeze it to keep? And how long can it be kept? Thanks so much.
poh hong
the char siew can be kept in a air tight container, ziploc freezer bags or in aluminium foil in the freezer for at least 6 months.
Hi Lily!
I was searching for char siew sauces and stumble onto your website. Looking at your ingredients, could i substitute the wine for something else?
Wanie, Singapore
wanie
you can sub mui kwai loh wine with whatever wine you have. you could omit the wine but the flavor is not the same
hi Lily, My chinese not that good, can you explain to me the difference between Mui Kai Lo and Shaoxing wine? tks_K
anonymous
both are chinese wine for cooking. i love mui kwai(rose) lo to marinate meat for roasting and for everyday cooking i will use shaoxing.
Hi Lily, tks for responding to both my queries. Btw, just to let u know that I really appreciate your blog of 'local' delicacies. _K
hi lily, i'm going to try making your char siew today. we've been craving for home food since we moved to country NSW, Australia and there're no roast shops here unlike Sydney. I'm so pleased to have found your blog and want to thank you so much for the beautiful recipes you've posted. I made the siew yoke last night and it was fabulous. My husband thought i'd found a fantastic roast shop in town and my toddler son gobbled it all up...he knows his food. I think we'll be ok for home food through all the country terms my husband's posted to. thank you once again. Mei.
Hi Lily,
I tried out the recipe yesterday and it tasted great! I love all the recipes you have here, thanks for sharing them. Looking forward to try all of them as I am craving for good malaysian home food. :)
Lily, just want to let you know, i make the char siew tonite for dinner and it turned out to be very very nice. TQ for sharing n posting this recipe. Will venture into others recipe. TQ again.
Hi... your recipe is for 250g pork, if i want to make larger quantities, since u said it can be frozen, do I double or triple the marinade ingredients accordingly? Please advise. Thanks
anonymous
yes you have to increase the marinate.
irene
i have made this recipe using boneless chicken legs(maryland) and they are just as delicious
Hi Lily, I made char siew today & it came out quiet sticky after grilling. The meat inside was a bit bland though. Any suggestion? Thanks,
anonymous
i usually cut the pork into 1 1/2 - 2 inches and then make slits on the surface of the pork so the marinate can reach the inside of the meat.
the sauce will be abit sticky after grilling because of the high sugar content.
Hi Lily!
I don't have a grill at home but was wondering if I could maybe pan fry it or do something else instead? I'm from Singapore but currently studying in London, and I have a few friends over here who really love eating char siew and I'd love to make this for them!
-daphne
daphne
you could put the cooked pork on a rack(so that it is not touching the baking pan) and continue to bake until it is charred. since you are baking them, i would suggest that you baised with the marinate as often as possible.
Hi Lily, Just want to let you know that 2nd time around I made the chasiew according to the recipe turned out very nice. We even marinated 2nd batch of pork with the left over from the 1st batch & it still tasted very good! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Yeni
Hi Lily,
I've tried your Char Siew the taste is great but the meat turns out to be abit stiff. Maybe I think I grilled too long. The time I take to grill is about 1 hour. Is it too long ?
jus
the grilling is only to char the meat and it will only take awhile depending on the heat of the grill as the meat is already cooked.
too lean meat and cut too thin strips tend to be hard.
thanks lily, I will try again cos I really like the taste. You are a Great Cook ! I will definitely visit your site for more great recipes. Good nite !
Dear Aunty Lily,
I know it's a bit late this comment coz i just fond your blog..hehe anyway may i know wats mui kai lo?And where can I get it in KL?
Thanks
Jane
jane
mui kwai loh is rose scented wine, ask any chinese medicine shop and they will have it
Hi Lily,
I found your blog some months ago and have been fascinated by all the good eats you are posting.
Finally worked up my courage to try your char siew. It's in the finishing stages of "charring" right now. It smells great.
I marinated my meat for about 2 hours. My question is that my char siew doesn't look as red as yours. It's a bit on the brown side.
Should I have marinated it longer, will it give that sort of reddish look?
Other than that, I think the char siew is going to taste great.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
wakkun
i think it is the camera lightings that gives the char siew the reddish look.
in fact, i do not marinate the meat and proceed cooking straight
Hi, tried your recipe! I used pork shoulder and I baked it in the oven on a rack over a pan at 350F for 45mins and then cranked the oven to 450F for 10mins... Looks, smells and tastes great. I think next time I would marinate over night and double the marinade to baste the pork with.
Hi Lily,
Your char siew look really good! I'm marinating the pork right now....
hopefully it will turn out well
Thanks for the recipe
Evon
The char siew that I made following your recipe turned out great. Thanks for the recipe.
I just had some. It was fantastic...far beyond expectation!
Thanks for sharing it.
Fei Ling
Hello, Lily..just starting visiting blogs and found yours so helpful. I made your char siew this afternoon and so far it is the best. It has the right taste, texture, looks and the only thing I regret is....my husband did not buy more of the pork butt I asked him to...otherwise, we would have more to enjoy the next few days. I had given up on making my own char siew as I had tried so many recipes, from gourmet magazine, Cooks Illustrated to Chinese cookbooks that were brought here from Asia...Finally, one that I like! The meat pieces really look like and taste like restauerant bought (sin the red dye) Yippe!
I started baking in the oven but switched to the the wok method then broiled them.
Thanks a bunch!
Hello Lily
Is the dark soy sauce for the marinate kechap manis or the salty dark soy sauce? I'm gonna try this one very soon!
From the bottom of my heart (and tummy) thank you very much for your wonderful, mouth-watering recipes :)
HM
Perth
hm
is the dark soy sauce runny like light soy sauce? do not use this as it is not thick and dark enough. i use koon chun thick soy sauce from hong kong and if you cannot get this, you can use kicap manis - kipas or abc but lessen the sugar as there are very sweet.
Hi Lily
The char siew was fantastic!! I used what can find-Pearl River Bridge Superior Dark Soy Sauce, runny but worked well.
During baking the marinate did dry up at fist but next thing i knew, it was all wet and soupy. Did I over bake it? Anyway I poured it out coz it was too wet to 'char' and it made great gravy. BTW I marinated it for 24 hours.
Thank you Lily! I'm definitely making this again and again:)
hm
hm
if you marinated the meat for 24 hrs you could go ahead and broil/grill until cooked.
there will be alot of liquid when the meat is cooked as the sugar will dissolve and the soya sauce is liquid too. you could thicken the liquid on the stovetop and like you said, make a good gravy.
Hi Lily. Just wanted to thank you for posting up this great blog! I've had so much fun trying to recreate all this food from home. Never tried cooking all of these things until I'm away because it's so much easier to just go out and eat it instead of making 1 portion at home. Tried the charsiew recipe couple weeks back and it tasted wonderful. Have a batch of pineapple roll dough resting in the fridge now. Hopefully it works out... :p
I've been following your blog for a while but only commenting now. I found you through this post cos I wanted to look for a new way to cook char siew & I love how you do it.
Thank you.
Lily, you are absolutely the best!
Hi Lily,
Thks for generously sharing this delicious char siew recipe. Been looking so long for this recipe - this char siew is so moist and yummy!!The sugar amt is kinda scary - i did cut down a little - i used 1 1/2 cups for 1.1.kg pork. I think can cut down to 1 1/4 cups. Im gonna make this again real soon!! Thks heaps!
Susanna, Perth
Wow, this recipe is a 10 star.. i followed it to the letter with max sugar and it taste absolutely wonderful. Thanks lily!!
Some comments though, my wife tried it a second time with pork shoulder instead of belly and with minimal sugar. The results are not too good. I think readers should really stick to the letter of the recipe with max 1/2 cup sugar if not more.
We didnt glaze with honey even in both instance... hehe too lazy.
wow I cant wait to try this recipe. All thanks to Riza who introduced your blog. Saying Hi from Florida, Singaporean/Malaysian here!
ring-a-ding-a-ling
hi from denver and hope you are affected by the hurricane
wow the char siew looks great im gonna try this for sure. the supposed 'malaysian' restaurants here in NZ taste nothing like home (sigh). Can't thank you enough.
ps. any chance you got a recipe for foochwo mee sua?
lll
sorry, i do not have many friends of foochow dialect, so no mee sua recipe
Hello Lily,
I'm a new blogger and with fate I came across your blog and were following closely now. Would like to make the char siew very much but I'm just curious, how big were the cup you're using to measure the sugar? Sorry for the silly question as I'm new to cooking. Thanks.
deardaniel
our cup measure here is 240 ml.
For this recipe, if you like it sweeter you can add in more sugar
Hi Lily,
Its me again. Thanks for the info. I've made it. And the char siew really taste good except its a bit dry. However, I will do it again and hope the results will come out much better. Thanks.
Hi Lily:
I tried this recipe, but didn't use the glaze. It turned out really good - especially since I put it on the grill, the fatty part was all crunchy and the inner part was soft. The marinade is spot on of the Hong-Kong style char siew. Thank you so much for your recipe.
Hello Lily, or Aunty Lily?
I am in Sydney too, contemplating trying this dish, the char siu from the cantonese shops here are always so dry and unpalatable!
are u based in sydney too??
Nicolyn
nicolyn
no i am in denver, colorado but my brother and sister are in sydney. Sydney is the most beautiful place of all the places i have visited.
Hi Lily,
This is the 2nd recipe from your blog I've tried so far. The first was Wu Xi Pork. Both tasted orgasmic!
Thanks so much for sharing all your recipes. My dinners aren't going to be the boring same ol thing again!
Hi Lily,
Can i know how to freeze it? Do you freeze it after you marinate or after it is cooked?
anonymous
you cook them and you can freeze them before grilling or you can grill them and freeze. You can even continue cooking until the meat is charred without grilling.
Hi Lily!
I just made this Char Siew and it turned out exactly the same kind i used to eat in Malaysia! It is so wonderful that you shared this recipe because we don't have China Town here, and you don't get the same Char Siew in those Chinese Restaurant.
I skipped the whole final part when you put the maltose and grill, it was still as delicious, actually perfect! :-D
Thanks anyway and take care!
Eva from Finland
Hi Lily,
Have just tried out this recipe and it's so delicious, my hubby loves it! Thx so much for your recipe...thinking to attempt your siew yoke recipe next!
Hi Lily,
Your recipe works and I tried the char siew several times, it tasted so good. Thanks for sharing. :)
Hi Lily,
Oh MY Gosh!!! This Char Siew recipe is way too good not to try. My husband is addicted to Char Siew & I would like to try to make this for him. However I cannot find Mui Kai Lo wine. So, I would like to know what I can substitute it with? Hopefully something that I can get from Wla-mart would be nice since I live in a real "Kampung-ville"
Thanks!
Soo
soo
use sherry and it is available in walmart. it is only 1 tbsp, so use whatever wine you have at home.
Hi Lily,
I have a silly question. I plan to use chicken thighs instead of pork. Should I remove the skin?
Thanks for the wonderful recipes!
Try one with the skin and one without. Then decide which to keep in the future. Your taste buds help to decide
anonymous and fern ng
thank you fern for answering the question. i am sorry i missed your comment.
Hi Lily,
Can I roast the char siew on rotisserie?
audreycmw
of course you can, as long as the char siew gets charred, any method is fine
Lily,
When I thought of making char siew, first thing I thought of was to check your website for char siew recipe coz I like all your recipes and know they taste good. Glad to have found it and your char siew looks so yummy. Am going to try my hand at it today but will use the braise then grill method since I am a bit lazy to keep an eye on it in the oven. Thanks
Hi lily,
Can we use just normal rice winefor this recipe?
Thank you
Shirlene
shirlene
absolutely but you are only sacrificing some flagrance.
Thanks for this recipe. I really enjoy pork,especially sweet pork. Here in the Netherlands they serve this kind of meat on sandwhichbuns in chinese takeaways so I have been looking for this recipe for some time now. It tastes heavenly!
Greetings from the Netherlands!
Dear Lily,
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I love it so much. Can I feature it in my blog (with links and credit back to you of course) :)
the chicken herder
of course you can feature your char siew in your blog. glad you like the recipe. i am so excited to know that i have another friend nearby. please do keep in touch
Thank you! :) we are planning on doing sprouts in the near future so if you're in the neighbourhood, please feel free to stop by for some soybean sprouts for your Korean recipe. On the house for your wonderful recipes!! :)
Hi Lily. Thank you so much for sharing all your delicious recipes! We overseas Msians really appreciate your efforts! :)
If we use the pork belly (like the ones for roast pork), should we cook with or without the skin? Thanks!
gfad
if using belly pork for char ssiew, remove the skin.
See Foo Lily - wow this is the best char siew ever ! So easy, fast and no fuss.Cooking the char siew in the wok is the best. I can make it every day. The char siew recipe is so versatile that can be used for so many of your dishes. Not only i love the char siew but i love u See Foo Lily
i ve finally got a chance to try this out. I also tried making the ginger chill to go with it and it was AMAZING . Thanks for all your recipes.
Hi Aunty Lily
I have just started cooking Malaysian food, feeling homesick in UK for my family in Australia. I tried your char siew recipe with mei kuei lu chiew and maltose-delicious and authentic! Thank you, my Mum will be impressed.
Hi aunt Lily,
I have leftover glaze and have no plan to make more char siu soon. Do you have any idea what to do with it? Thanks! - Lenny -
lenny
the glaze is only dark soya sauce, honey and oil, you could use it to cook any stew meat dishes that need to be dark and sweet.
hi lily,
i have tried some of your recipes and
used your recipes whenever i cooked something that don't turn up to my expectations.i would read your recipes thoroughly to check where i went wrong or missed something. it always help and i improved on my cooking.thanks. but i want roast char siew that is soft and melts in my mouth but your char siew is just as chewy. got anyway to roast soft char siew without using tenderizer.
raymond
raymond
the cut of meat used determine the texture - use belly pork or meat with alot of marble fat.; Overbaking/grilling will also give chewy meat. Just cook until meat is cooked and then grill on high.
u are really good u taught me to cook the then grill on high it worked very well my char siew turned out very soft. i always use belly or shoulder cuts. and i use a char coal a "apollo" oven. don't use electric oven the flavor don't come out as good. thanks for your help.
raymond
Hi Lily
I love your blog and would like to know is it okay to add the glaze and marinade the meat together overnight.
Thanks
Amy
amy lim
absolutely, you can marinate as long as it is in the fridge.
in fact, l love cooking it on the stove and no marinating time at all.
Thanks very much for the share .. it's the best and true way i think.
One day, can you give us the recipe of lap cheong ;-))
anonymous
i have always wanted to make some lap cheong and perhaps this year i will attempt to make some. if i like the taste of this recipe that i will try, will certainly share it.
Best recipe I ever tasted! Thank you!
Hi Lily,
Your char siew looks absolutely gorgeous and makes me miss home (Malaysia) a lot!!
I'd like to check, is there any other wine that I can use to replace the rose wine?
Thanks!!
eesadora
you can use any wine available
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