Tim Chin is a professional cook and writer who has contributed to Serious Eats and America’s Test Kitchen. A graduate of The International Culinary Center, Tim has cooked at restaurants in New York and Boston, working at Rouge Tomate, Northern Spy, and BiSq.

Tim Chin

While char siu often gets all the attention at Chinatown siu mei shops, but Cantonese barbecue spareribs are also amazing. Think of all the fatty, lightly charred, slightly chewy bits of char siu, concentrated in rib form.This recipe is virtually identical to our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/classic-char-siu">char siu recipe</a>, with a few tweaks to optimize the cooking process for ribs. Just like with the char siu, we use a two-stage cooking process—low-and-slow to tenderize, hot-and-fast to char and crisp—but we separate the ribs, which increases the available surface area for marinade penetration and the charring and caramelization produced by the high-heat finish.

Chinese Barbecue Ribs