Chinese Barbecue Pork Butt Roast (Char Siu)

Char Siu Pork is traditionally marinated with sweet and salty liquids and Chinese five spice powder, a blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Szechuan pepper and fennel seeds, then barbequed. In this recipe the pork roast is slow roasted in the oven.



Recipe By     : Ellen M. Ennis Davis
Serving Size  : 8    
Preparation Time :8:00
Start to Finish Time: 13:30
Categories    : Pork
Cuisine: Chinese
Source: Pooka's What's for Dinner:Gluten Free with Attitude

  1   4 lbs  pork shoulder roast -- bone in Marinade
  4   tablespoons  soy sauce, low sodium
  1   tablespoon  fresh ginger -- grated
  4   tablespoons  honey -- warmed
  4   cloves  garlic -- crushed
  1/4 cup  Cranberry juice cocktail, frozen concentrate  
-- use in concentrated form
  1   tablespoon  five-spice powder
  2   teaspoons  paprika
  2   tablespoons  fish sauce -- or oyster sauce

Remove all skin from the roast and make a few slashes through the fat.

Place the roast into a large ziploc® freezer bag.

Add all marinade ingredients to a blender and liquify.

Pour the marinade into the bag with roast, remove as much air as possible from the bag and seal.

Massage the marinade and the roast.

Marinate 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Line a roasting pan with foil ( makes clean up easier).

Place the roast, fat side up on the roasting pan and pour the complete contents onto the roast.

Rub roast all over with brown sugar mixture,

Place the roasting pan on middle rack of oven

Bake for 4 hours or until internal temp is 160, every hour remove from the oven, add 1/2 cup water to the pan, stir it into the marinade and using a brush baste the roast lightly every hour.


Remove from oven and tent foil over roast and let rest for 20 min.


Serving Ideas : Chinese roast pork can be served by itself as an appetizer, simply served sliced and served with fresh vegetables and rice or as an ingredient in stir fries, steamed buns, dumplings, fried rice, sandwiches, and soups.

NOTES : Red food colouring is traditionally used to give the pork a reddish colour.I have left out the food colour and replaced the traditional rice wine with Cranberry juice cocktail, frozen concentrate and added paprika to give it a rosy colour. You are welcome to use rice wine or sherry in place of the cranberry concentrate and add a few drops of red colouring to the marinade if you want a more authentic product.

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Per Serving : 467 Calories; 31g Fat (60.9% calories from fat); 30g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 121mg Cholesterol; 412mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 4 Lean Meat;1/2 Vegetable; 4 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.