Sous Vide Char Siu (BBQ Pork)

This Sous Vide Char Siu recipe is tender and juicy with a sweet and savory Chinese BBQ glaze. Sit back and relax while your sous vide machine does all the heavy lifting.

Do you like Asian sous vide cooking? Try my Sous Vide Hainan chicken or Sous Vide Teriyaki Chicken next!

This Sous Vide Char Siu recipe is so easy to make. It only requires a handful of steps and takes less than 10 minutes of active cooking time. Most of the time is just waiting for the sous vide to do its magic. You can turn on your sous vide machine at lunch and have a delicious meal by dinner. How simple is that?

Sous vide char siu is made by slicing pork into wide strips, marinating them in a sweet and savory marinade, and slow cooking for 3-4 hours. A quick broil caramelizes the meat and creates a crispy, charred exterior. Pure BBQ bliss.

Char siu can be eaten as a first course or sliced into thin pieces and stir-fried with rice or noodles. Click here for my Char Siu Fried Rice recipe!

If you're looking for a healthy side dish, try my easy Yu choy recipe.

Jump to:

• 🐖 The Best Cut Of Pork
• 🧂 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Top Tips
• 🥡 Storage & Leftovers
• 📖 Recipe FAQs
• 🍽 More sous vide recipes
• 📋 Recipe

🐖 The Best Cut Of Pork

Pork shoulder or pork belly is the best cut for char siu. These cuts have enough fat and marbling to keep the meat moist and tender during cooking. Leaner cuts like Pork tenderloin tend to dry out under the heat of the broiler.

🧂 Ingredients

If you do a lot of Asian cooking, you'll probably already have most of these ingredients.

• Pork shoulder or belly - either will work for this recipe, but I prefer shoulder since it has more muscle and less fat, but if you only have belly, by all means, use belly.
• Honey - use high-quality, organic honey if possible. If you don't have honey, you can substitute it with equal parts white or brown sugar.
• Ketchup - Yes, ketchup. It provides a sweet and tangy flavor that brightens the whole marinade and gives the sauce a reddish hue. Ketchup is quite common in Chinese cooking.
• Oyster sauce - I love the flavor of oyster sauce in meat dishes. It's sweet, salty, and deeply savory.
• Shaoxing wine - helps mask gamey flavors in the pork. It's salty and slightly sweet.
• Chinese five spice powder - this is a pre-made spice mixture typically made with cinnamon, star anise, fennel, and cloves. You can make your own or buy it at an Asian grocery store.
• White pepper - freshly cracked gives the best flavor.
• Dark soy sauce - dark soy sauce is sweeter and less salty than light soy sauce. It has a slightly thicker texture and gives a deep color to the marinade.
• Chinese preserved red bean curd (Optional) - also known as Chinese red fermented tofu. It has a salty and slightly cheesy flavor profile and adds a ton of umami and depth of flavor. You can find it in the condiments section of most Asian grocery stores.
• Red food coloring (optional) - adds a vibrant red color to the char siu sauce. It's not necessary unless you care about how it looks.

🔪 Instructions

Step 1. Prepare marinade

In a small bowl, mix honey, hoisin sauce, ketchup, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, Chinese five-spice powder, salt, Chinese preserved red bean curd, dark soy sauce, and red food coloring. Reserve 1 tablespoon for the glaze.

Step 2. Prepare meat

Slice pork into long 1-inch thick strips, ensuring they're short enough to fit in a large ziplock bag. Try to make each piece about the same thickness so they cook at the same rate. Using a fork, repeatedly poke each side to create tiny holes for the marinade to penetrate.

Step 3. Marinate meat

Transfer pork strips to a large bowl along with the marinade. Massage meat for 15-20 seconds to coat evenly in the marinade.

Seal pork in a vacuum-sealable bag or a large ziplock bag, then refrigerate for at least four and up to 24 hours.

📋 Note
To remove air from a ziplock bag, slowly submerge it in a large bowl of water, letting the water pressure push air out the top of the bag. Once most of the air is pushed out, seal the bag.

Step 4. Cook pork strips

Preheat your immersion circulator to 150°F. Allow the water bath to come to 150°F before putting in the bags of pork.

Place bags of pork into the water bath, making sure all parts of the bags are below the water. If some parts are sticking out, you can place a heat-resistance cup, bowl, or plate to weigh them down. Cook for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours.

Place cooked bags of pork in a tub of cold water for at least 20 minutes to cool them down.

Step 5. Make glaze

In a small bowl, mix the reserved marinade with 2 tablespoons of honey.

Step 6. Prepare pork for broiling

Preheat the broiler to 500°F.

Broiling meat creates a lot of smoke from excess fat burning on the pan. To prevent burning, place pork strips on a wire rack over a baking sheet sprinkled with 1 cup of salt. The salt absorbs the fat when it drips into the pan, preventing it from burning.

📋 Note
If you don’t want to use salt, fill the pan with a few cups of water instead.

Brush the top and sides of each pork strip with a thin layer of glaze.

Step 7. Broil pork strips

Place pork strips on the top rack and cook for 3-4 minutes until the marinade starts caramelizing. Add another layer of glaze and broil for another 3-4 minutes.

📋 Note
Keep a watchful eye on the pork strips. Depending on the pork’s thickness and the strength of your oven, it could overcook quickly. Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature; keep it below 160°F for juicy pork.

Let sous vide char siu rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting. Serve with a bowl of steaming rice and stir-fried veggies.

💭 Top Tips

• Use the fattiest cut of pork shoulder you can find. The fatter, the better - it gives the char siu its juiciness.
• Marinate the pork for at least 4 hours to give the marinade enough time to flavor the meat. But only marinate for up to 24 hours; otherwise, the meat will be too salty.
• Try to cut the pieces of pork into even thicknesses so that they cook at the same rate. If some pieces are smaller, you can remove them from the broiler earlier, so they don't get overcooked.
• Watch out for smoke! Meat can create a lot of smoke while it's being broiled. You can reduce the smoke by spreading 1 cup of kosher salt at the bottom of the roasting tray.
• Let the sous vide char siu rest for at least 20 minutes before broiling to let the temperature come down. Otherwise, the broiler can quickly overcook them.
• Use a culinary torch to char the pork strips instead of broiling them. This will prevent any chance of overcooking the meat.

🥡 Storage & Leftovers

Storing unbroiled: If you haven’t broiled the cooked char siu, you can store them directly in the sous vide bags (with the marinade) for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.

Storing broiled: Store broiled char siu for up to 3 days in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Reheating: To reheat, bake in the oven at 350°F for 5-7 minutes until warmed through. Or if you have an air fryer, fry them at 350°F for 2-3 minutes.

📖 Recipe FAQs

🍽 More sous vide recipes

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