What's for dinner? YouTuber shares dad's Chinese BBQ pork recipe

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The variety of flavors, ingredients and techniques present in Asian cuisine can be appreciated any day of the year, but as Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month comes to a close this recipe shines a savory spotlight on a Cantonese favorite -- char siu.

Randy Lau, YouTuber and creator of the popular food blog Made with Lau -- which he calls "a living repository of recipes, stories, life-lessons, and the Chinese culture that shapes us" -- shared a family favorite recipe his dad has been cooking for 50 years and that honors his Cantonese heritage.

This recipe for Chinese barbecue pork, is a sweet, juicy and savory pork dish that can be perfect on its own or with a side of rice, noodles or vegetables.

Daddy Lau's char siu

Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients
2 pounds pork shoulder (or a fatty cut, more on this later)
1 tablespoon garlic salt
4 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 tablespoon red wine
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
1 cube red fermented bean curd
1 teaspoon five spice powder
2 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoon water
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring (optional, see our comparison)

Directions

Prepare and poke meat. We'll cut our pork shoulder (2 pounds) into long slices, roughly 1-inch thick. We'll aim to cut each slice with uniform thickness so they cook at the same rate. Afterwards, we'll repeatedly poke each side of each slice with a fork to help the pork absorb our marinade more effectively.

Prepare marinade. To a bowl, we'll add garlic salt, brown sugar, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, hoisin sauce, red wine, Shaoxing wine, red fermented bean curd and five spice powder. This amount can be adjusted based on the amount of pork you'll be making. Mix the marinade until it's evenly distributed and smooth. If you'd like a more rich, red color, you can add a few drops of red food coloring (0.25 tsp).

Marinate pork. Place the meat into a Ziploc bag, pour the sauce in, and massage the pork for about 2 minutes so that the sauce is able to finesse its way into the meat. Afterwards, we’ll push all the air out of the bag and seal it. Place the bag in the refrigerator, and let the pork marinate overnight (or around 6 to 8 hours.)

Note: My dad says to not let it marinate for over 24 hours, or else it will affect the tenderness of the meat.

Prepare char siu for oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Set up the baking pan by lining the bottom with aluminum foil (so it's easier to clean!), and place the baking rack on top of the foil. Using tongs, start laying out the pork on the baking rack + pan. Add 1-2 tbsp of water to the bottom of the pan to help generate some steam as the char siu cooks, and to help prevent the drippings from burning and smoking. Carefully place it in the oven.

Repeat several cycles of cooking and basting char siu. Now, we’ll be placing the pork into the oven and taking it out periodically to lather it again with either our leftover pork marinade, or honey (2 tbsp) diluted with water (2 tsp).

Here’s how my dad split up the cooking time:
Cook for 15 minutes and lather both sides with the pork marinade
Cook for another 15 minutes and lather both sides with pork marinade again
Cook for 10 minutes and lather both sides with the diluted honey
And finally, we’ll turn the heat up to 450 degrees, cook for another 5 minutes, lather both sides with honey, and let it cool for a few minutes before cutting into it.
In total, this was about 50 minutes in the oven.

Final touches, let cool, cut and enjoy!