Poor Excuse for Char Siu, but it sure is tasty!

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noboundaries

Epic Pitmaster
Original poster
OTBS Member
SMF Premier Member
Sep 7, 2013
10,247
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Roseville, CA, a suburb of Sacramento
My apologies to SF Prankster and his GREAT Char Siu.  I wanted something sweeter to balance the salt.  I concocted the recipe below from several online, then used indirect heat in my Kettle the whole time. The taste was fantastic, but it needed a reverse sear to char the meat.  The Kettle was running hot, at 425+, so I expected the honey and hoisin sauce to char a little.  It didn't. 

Anyway, this might give you some ideas.  I'm open to ones too. 

Char Siu

This is a concoction of several recipes, the ingredients changed to match our tastes.

Results? Marinated almost two days.  Full penetration of marinade and it was not salty because I omitted the soy sauce.  Kettle fired up on one full basket of KBB.  Chamber was running 425°- 430°F for the whole 65 minute smoke.  Took meat to 145°F IT.  Sweet, salty, and delicious!  Needed some char though.  Should probably have put it on direct heat for a few minutes once it hit 135°F instead of indirect cooking the whole time.

My wife LOVED this by lightly adding a little more honey to the cut up product over rice. 

Ingredients
4 lbs pork loin or sirloin

Marinade
1/2 cup Honey hoisin sauce
1/2 cup brandy
1/2 cup red beet juice
1/4 cup Teriyaki marinade
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs dark sesame oil
2 Tbs onion powder
1 Tbs garlic powder or minced garlic
1/2 Tbs powdered ginger
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
Honey for basting

Directions

1. Cut the meat into strips that are no larger than that are about 1 1/2" thick.  Can be long or cubes.

2. Combine the marinade ingredients and whisk together in a bowl. Pour the marinade over the pork chunks in a sealable bag. Let sit in the refrigerator overnight or longer.  Flip twice a day, massaging the contents.  

3. If smoking, smoke at 300°F until IT is 135°F.  Baste with hoisen sauce and honey about every 15-20 minutes until you reach that IT, then char on direct heat to get temp up to 145°F.

4. If grilling, grill over indirect heat.  Temp on one full basket of KBB in the Kettle was running 425°-430°F the entire smoke.  Took 4 pieces off at 60 minutes, the last two at 65 minutes.

5. Baste again with hoisin sauce and honey, then slice and serve.

One of two pork sirloins cut into thirds.  Could have easily cut into fourths, but this worked too. 


All six pieces double bagged in 1 gallon Ziplocks with marinade.  Flipped the bag and massaged the contents in the morning and at night. 


No pictures on the Kettle, but here's the final result.  Needed char and a reverse sear.


Juicy and delicious.  A little bit of a red ring without using red food coloring.  I did have some hickory chips in the bottle of the basket but the Kettle was basically smoke free right from the start.  It is really tasty!

 
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