Homemade Char Siu

This is my second attempt to making my own Char siu (叉烧). Char siu (叉烧) is a Cantonese dish – referring to a specific way of roasting meat.

My first attempt, the surface of the Char Siu was beyond recognition, Kpo Kia papa nearly thought I had served him a plate of charcoal. So this round, I tried to monitor it closer, cutting it (yes, you read correctly, lazy me actually used scissors to cut it to the size I wanted) and flipping the meat to the other side every 5-8 minutes.

If you are interested to what output to this, you can read on to get my recipe (original recipes from Lee Kum Kee website):

Char siu (叉烧)

INGREDIENTS

• 250g pork loin
• 3 Tbsp Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Marinate the pork loin in Oyster Sauce and 2 Tbsp of Char Siu Sauce overnight (or at least 30 minutes)
2. Preheat the air fryer to 190 ℃ and roast the marinated meat
3. After around 8 minutes, brush on the remaining Char Siu sauce, flip the meat to the other side, and brush the other side with Char Siu sauce.
4. Repeat step 3 till done (depending on the size of the meat and your oven/air fryer heat/any other distraction, I took around an hour to get it fully cooked, while most recipes only need around 40 minutes).
5. Turn off the heat and leave the char siu in the oven to rest for a couple of minutes before slicing.
6. Brush on the remaining 1 Tbsp of Char Siu sauce, turn off the heat, and leave the char siu in the air fryer to rest for a couple of minutes before slicing.

Usually, pork belly is used as they are the epitome of Cantonese Char Siu, but since age is catching up, I turned to pork loin for a ‘slightly healthier’ choice. Lean meat is not preferred as it will make the Char Siu dry and tough to chew on, missing the juicy, tender texture which only the fatty meats can provide.