Saturday, September 21, 2013

Grilled Chicken Char Siew

Char Siu / Char Shao is a popular way to flavour and prepare BBQ pork in Cantonese cuisine.  It is classified as a type of siu mei, cantonese roasted meat.  Char Siu literally means "fork burn/roast" after the traditional cooking method for this dish.  Long strips of seasoned boneless pork are skewered with long forks and placed in a coverred oven or over a fire.  

In olden days, wild boar and other available meats were used to make char siu.  However, In modern times, the meat is typically a shoulder cut of domestic pork and now widely used chicken breast.  seasoned with a mixture of honey, five-spice powder,hóngfǔrǔ (red fermented bean curd), lao chou (dark soy sauce, 老抽), hoisin sauce (海鮮醬), red food colouring (not a traditional ingredient but very common in today's preparations and is optional) and sherry or rice wine (optional). These seasonings turn the exterior layer of the meat dark red, similar to the "smoke ring" of American barbecues. Today there are plenty of ready made char siu sauce available too.


Char siu is typically consumed with starch, whether inside a bun (cha siu baau, 叉燒包), with noodles (cha siu mein, 叉燒麵), or with rice (cha siu fan, 叉燒飯) in fast food establishments, or served alone as a centerpiece or main dish in traditional family dining establishments. If it is purchased outside of a restaurant, it is usually taken home and used as one ingredient in various complex entrees consumed at family meals.

Basic recipe for Chicken Char Siu
Ingredients:-
1/2 cup Hoisin Sauce
1/4 cup Honey
1/4 cup light Soya Sauce
2 tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil
2 tbsp Tabasco
2 tbsp Ginger Powder / Juice
2 tbsp Onion Powder
2 tbsp Red Food Coloring
1 tbsp Garlic Powder
1 tbsp Five Spice Powder

For Glaze - 1/4 cup Honey / Ready made Char Siu Sauce ( Lee Kam Kee Brand)

Method:-

Marinate meat overnight or 3 hours.
Pre-heat Oven 250c, grilled for 45mins or longer depending on the thickness of your meat.
After 15 mins coat the meat with glaze and grill for further until done.  If u wish to have more burn at the size of the meat, coat more thick glaze / honey on the meat.

Do not throw the left over glaze, chop some fine shallots & garlic, heat the sauce pan, in shallot & garlic and  bring the left over glaze to a boil and served on grilled char siu.

Ready to grill


My son can't wait to dig in 

 Char siu sauce, You may create another sauce with hoisan sauce & char siu sauce from LEE KUM KEE.  Mix both sauce together add sugar and soya to taste and its done or just simply add water and cornstarch to thicken. 

Served hot char siu with warm rice! YUMMY





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