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

Good char siu is basically meat candy. Lightly sweet, super savory, and tender, but with a little bite, it’s the benchmark for many Cantonese barbecue, or siu mei, shops. That’s why you’ll see lightly charred slabs of mahogany-red roast pork hanging front and center in Chinatown shop windows.Unlike our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/char-siu-tender-cantonese-style-barbecued-pork">Sous Vide Char Siu</a>, this recipe is our take on the way char siu is traditionally prepared: marinated slabs of pork slowly roasted over coals or in a specially designed rotisserie, while being glazed repeatedly with maltose syrup. To capture the characteristic red hue of the best char siu, we use red fermented bean curd and red yeast rice in the marinade, which impart a slightly sweet umami depth that red food dye (no hate!) can’t replicate.But you don’t need a dedicated rotisserie to make great char siu at home. A two-stage cooking process in the oven or on a charcoal grill will get you there just fine: a low-and-slow braise tenderizes the meat and a final high-heat blast produces a lightly charred lacquered glaze. And by using pork collar—the most prized cut for Cantonese roast pork—our char siu looks and tastes just as good as the stuff from the best siu mei shops.

Classic Char Siu