Chinese BBQ is a weird and wonderful thing. Like with European community ovens, Its origins come from back in the day (and now) when Chinese villages could only support one central oven capable of making slow roasted meats. There would be one BBQ master, and in their window would hang whole pork carcasses, ducks, and always, sweet, smoky char siu.
Making char siu at home isn’t hard, and there are lots of recipes online, but most of these recipes are oven-based. In my opinion though, for char siu, an air fryer is a million times better. It heats up faster; the air circulation gets you a better char; and the inside is perfectly cooked in a tenth of the time.
This recipe builds on our standard char siu recipe, but replaces the oven with an air fryer, and honestly, I’ll probably never go back to a conventional oven again, unless I somehow have a need for a giant batch of char siu. Hey, it could happen.
I also replaced the standard pork shoulder with a 1.5″ thick cut, well-marbled pork chop. It was way easier to find at the store than a pork shoulder and it comes out juicy, sweet, and delicious, the way Chinese BBQ should be. Like Steph with her baking, sometimes small batch is the way to go, although for how delicious this is, you might want to save the marinade and do an easy second or third batch. It’ll go quick.
Ingredients
- 1 lb thick cut pork chop
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic smashed
- 1 inch ginger sliced
- 2 tsp shaoxing wine optional
- 1/2 tsp chinese five spice powder optional
- 1/4 tsp ground white pepper optional
Instructions
- Cut the pork chop into 1" pieces. Combine the remaining ingredients into a marinade, then marinate the pork in the fridge. Longer is better, ideally go at least 30 minutes, but overnight is best.
- Place the pork into the air fryer basket with at least 1/4" gap between pieces, in a single layer. Set the air fryer to 375ºF for 8 minutes (see note).
- Enjoy with white rice or on its own as a snack.
Notes
Some of our recipes that use char siu:
Dry Mein Recipe from Aloha Kitchen
Super Easy Chinese BBQ Pork Pull Apart Buns aka Cheater’s Cha Siu Bao
Better Than Take Out Yang Chow Fried Rice Recipe.