Char Siu Pork Belly with Grilled Pak Choi
Cook Notes
BBQ Used: Kamado Joe Classic III
Cooking Method: Smoking / Direct
Fuel used: Kamado Joe Big Block Charcoal
Cooking Temperature: Medium - High
Key Accessories
Ingredients
1kg Pork Belly
2 Small / Medium Pak Choi
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1 Clove Garlic
For the Sauce
1/2 cup Kecap Manis
1/2 cup Hoisin Sauce
1/4 cup Shaoxing Cooking Wine
1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Honey
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1 tsp Chinese Five Spice
1/4 tsp White Pepper
1 tsp Sesame Oil
Char Siu Pork is one of those flavours that we all know and love and a really nice one to create at home. The sauce has a quite a few ingredients in it but it is worth the extra effort for the final results. If you really aren’t a fan of pork belly then you can replace this with something like pork shoulder or if you want a leaner version, a pork fillet or loin will work just as well.
Method
Preparations for this dish start the night before you want to eat. You will need to get the pork belly into the marinade to start soaking up all those flavours. Ideally, this will take place the night before the cook but if you aren’t prepared, try to get this into the marinade first thing in the morning if you pan to cook later that evening, giving it 6-8 hours.
Add all the sauce ingredients to a bowl and mix it thoroughly to dissolve the sugar. Place your pork belly into a zip-lock bag and pour in approximately 1/2 - 2/3 cup of the sauce, keeping the rest for the second part of the cook. Seal the bag and mix the pork belly around to ensure it is completely coated in the marinade then put it into the fridge. I flipped the bag over a couple of times during this process.
When you are ready to cook, fire up your BBQ and set it up for indirect cooking at a low roasting temperature of 140-150c. Remove your pork belly from the marinade, letting the majority drip of and place them on a plate. Lightly dab the meat with some paper towel to remove as much of the marinade as possible from the outside. Lightly season the pork belly with your favourite, Chinese inspired BBQ rub - I chose the Salt & Pepper Rub from The Smokey Carter. Get your pork belly onto the BBQ and smoke it for a couple of hours using your favourite smoking wood. For Pork, I prefer to stick with fruit or nut woods so I went with a couple of pear wood chunks.
After 2 hours, your pork belly should be approaching 80c and the fat will have rendered quite a bit. At this stage, take the pork belly off and let it rest on a rack while you change the setup of your BBQ and prepare your pak choi. I removed the sloRoller from the Kamado Joe and set it up for direct cooking with the grates on the highest level.
Give your Pak Choi a wash then cut them in half length ways. Create a baste for them by combining the soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic. Brush the cut side of the Pak Choi with the baste, keeping the rest to brush on during cooking. Add the remainder of your char siu sauce to a saucepan to heat on the BBQ, you will use this to glaze the pork belly.
Add the pork belly strips to the BBQ and brush them with the sauce, flipping them every few minutes to avoid charring them. The main aim is to get some colour on the outside without burning them. Your Pak Choi can be added to the grill too. They will also need flipped every couple of minutes and brushed with the baste until it is all used up. When all your pork belly is seared and the Pak Choi have wilted and taken on some colour - you can get everything off the grill and plate up. I served a couple of the pork belly strips with some rice, a half of Pack Choi and everything was topped off with some sesame seeds and pickled red onions.
