Instant Pot Char Siu or Chinese BBQ Pork

This Instant Pot Char Siu recipe makes it possible to make Chinese BBQ Pork in a fraction of the time the classic recipe takes. The meat is perfect for eating on its own with rice or steamed buns, or in Char Siu Bao, Pork Fried Rice, or Singapore Noodles.

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What is char siu?

Char siu is Cantonese barbecue pork, marinated in a sweet and salty mix of hoisin, honey, soy sauce, and five-spice, then roasted until the edges blacken and the outside turns sticky. It is a perfect balance of succulent, tender, sweet, and savory.

Char siu (also called Cha Siu or Char Siew) is a staple of Cantonese cuisine and you’ll see it—bright red and glistening with fatty goodness—hanging in the windows of Chinese barbecue shops all over Chinatown.

Why should you make char siu in an instant pot?

This Instant Pot Char Siu recipe uses a combination of the pressure cooker and oven to make the pork tender and give it that trademark burnt edges and sticky-sweet glaze. An electric pressure cooker can produce perfect char siu in much less time than the traditional cooking method of roasting it in the oven.

What makes Chinese BBQ pork red?

The bright red color comes from red fermented bean curd or, more commonly these days, red food coloring. You can also use beet juice, or even cherry juice for coloring. You likely wouldn’t be able to taste the difference between any of these options, so for simplicity, I usually just go with a few drops of food coloring, which is easier to keep in the pantry.

Ingredient Notes

Shiaoxing wine is worth a trip to a Chinese grocery, but sake, dry sherry, or a dry white wine will all stand in without much loss.

Soy sauce can be regular or dark. Dark gives you deeper color and a slightly sweeter, less salty result, which is closer to what you’d get from a Chinatown barbecue shop.

Red fermented tofu comes in jars and sits near the other preserved bean curd at a Chinese market, or you can order it online. Red food coloring is the shortcut, and you won’t taste the difference. A few drops is all it takes.

Pork butt and boneless pork shoulder are two names for the same cut, and it’s the one you want here. More on why below.

How to make Instant pot char siu pork

The work here is mostly waiting. You mix the marinade, or use bottled char siu sauce if that’s what you have, and let the pork sit in it overnight. The active time for this step is maybe ten minutes.

The pressure cooker does what a long, slow roast would otherwise do, using the reserved marinade as the cooking liquid. This is the step that gets you tender meat without a hot oven running for hours. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, that’s not a dealbreaker — you can braise the pork on the stovetop or in the oven instead, though you’re back to a longer cook.

What the pressure cooker can’t do is the outside. Char siu needs blackened, sticky edges, and that only comes from direct high heat, so the pork gets brushed with a soy-and-honey glaze and finished in a hot oven or on the grill. Skipping this step gets you tender pork in a sweet sauce, which is a fine dinner but isn’t char siu.

What is char siu sauce?

Char siu sauce is a sweet, savory sauce. It’s basically a Cantonese barbecue sauce made of hoisin sauce, honey, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine (or another cooking wine), five-spice powder, and often molasses, maltose, or brown sugar. Marinate the pork in this mixture to infuse it with flavor. You can make your own char siu sauce from scratch, or you can buy char siu sauce in jars in an Asian market or online.

What cut of pork is best for making char siu?

The best cut of pork for making Char Siu is boneless pork shoulder or pork butt or (these are actually just two different names for the same cut of meat). This cut has the perfect ratio of fat to lean for a succulent char siu.

You can use fatty cuts like pork belly, too, but I think the proportion of fat to lean meat is too high. The result is that you lose a lot of volume in cooking as the fat renders. The end product may also be too fatty.

You can also use pork tenderloin, which is considerably leaner than pork butt. Personally, I find this cut a bit too lean. It is easy to overcook it, which dries it out. Because it has so much less fat, you don’t get the delectable crispy edges that you get with a fattier cut of meat.

Readers ask about chicken often enough that I developed a separate recipe for it. Pork butt and chicken thighs cook so differently that swapping them in this recipe won’t work, so use Char Siu Chicken instead.

What To Serve With Instant Pot Char Siu

Sliced thin over steamed white rice with a spoonful of the pan juices is the simplest way to eat this. Add a green vegetable and it’s dinner. Chinese Dry Fried Green Beans are the natural match, though Air Fryer Broccolini or steamed gai lan work just as well. For something sharp against the sweetness of the glaze, put out Pickled Daikon and Carrots or Spicy Cucumber Salad.

The other reason to cook a big piece of pork is what you can do with the leftovers. Chopped char siu is the filling for Char Siu Bao, and steamed Mantou split and stuffed with a few slices makes a good lunch. It’s also what gives Pork Fried Rice and Singapore Noodles their flavor.

If you’re cooking for a group, char siu holds up well as one dish among several. It’s rich and sweet, so it wants company that pulls in another direction. Kung Pao Chicken brings heat and numbing Sichuan pepper, Vegetarian Dan Dan Noodles add something starchy and savory, and Sesame Chicken rounds out the table.

More Meaty Mains

If you have a smoker going, this Smoked Meatloaf is worth the time it takes. For something leaner and more hands-off, try this Slow Cooker Pork Loin, or these slow cooker pork chops with cream of mushroom soup.

Closer to home, Air Fryer Pork Belly gets you crisp skin and rendered fat without committing to a long roast. Hoisin Spare Ribs use the same pressure-cook-then-glaze sequence as this char siu, so if you like the method here you already know how to make them. And Pork Belly Banh Mi is what I make when I want the pork sharing the plate with pickles and herbs rather than carrying it alone.

Char Siu or Chinese BBQ / Roast Pork

Robin Donovan

Serve this sweet, succulent pork thinly sliced over white rice or use it to fill steamed buns or make pork fried rice.

4.66 from 122 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Marinating time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 3 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Instant Pot Recipes

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 6 servings

Calories 572 kcal

Cook Mode(keep your screen awake)

Ingredients

  

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For the pork

• ▢ ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
• ▢ ¼ cup soy sauce
• ▢ ¼ cup Shiaoxing wine or use sake, dry sherry, or dry white wine
• ▢ ¼ cup hoisin sauce
• ▢ 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• ▢ 4 garlic cloves minced
• ▢ 3 cubes red fermented tofu mashed, plus 2 tablespoons of the liquid from the jar (optional, see note)
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
• ▢ 2 ½ pounds boneless pork butt

For the glaze

• ▢ ¼ cup soy sauce
• ▢ ¼ cup honey

Instructions

 

• In a large bowl, combine the honey, soy sauce, wine, hoisin sauce,
  sesame oil, garlic, fermented tofu, if using, and five-spice and stir to mix.
• Add the pork and turn a few times to coat all sides well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
• Pour the marinade into the Instant Pot and then put the trivet in. Place the pork on top of the trivet.
• Close the pot and turn the valve to the sealing position. Cook on high pressure for 35 minutes.
• Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes and then quick release the remaining pressure.
• Remove the pork from the pressure cooker.
• Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
• Cover a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a rack on top. Put the pork on top of the rack.
• To make the glaze, in a small bowl, stir together the soy
  sauce and honey. Brush the mixture on the pork.
• Cook the pork in the oven for 6 to 8 minutes. Turn the pork over, brush more of the glaze on it, and cook for another 4 minutes or so.
• Remove from the oven and let stand for a few minutes before slicing.
  
  

Notes

If you don’t want to use fermented tofu, you can color the marinade with a few drops of red gel food coloring. Or you can try using other more natural coloring methods like adding cherry or beet juice.

Nutrition

Calories: 572kcalCarbohydrates: 35gProtein: 56gFat: 22gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 8gMonounsaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 114mgSodium: 1398mgPotassium: 735mgFiber: 2gSugar: 27gVitamin A: 2IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 291mgIron: 6mg

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