Hey, friends! I’m continuing on my series of savory, comfort eats with these homemade steamed char siu bao. Char siu bao are Chinese BBQ pork buns that are a popular dim sum dish. They can be either steamed or baked (more on this debate later). My grandmother has always made steamed char siu bao from scratch, but I only recently attempted my own. Even if you’re not trying to make a whole dim sum feast, char siu bao make a great breakfast or snack and are very kid friendly! They taste sooooo good made fresh at home, so if you’re ready to give it a try, keep reading!
What is Char Siu Bao?
A bao is a Chinese bread bun stuffed with some sort of filling. You frequently see them filled with something savory, and the baos are often steamed, resulting in a soft, pillowy bread. However, bao can also be filled with something sweet, like a custard, and can be baked as well (see the notes below on baked vs. steamed). A char siu bao, as the name implies, is filled with char siu. Char siu is Chinese roast pork. Char siu bao can be eaten on its own as a meal, but it is most famously known as a popular dim sum dish.
Making the Char Siu Filling
This homemade char siu bao recipe actually uses my instant pot char siu recipe as a starting point. I just really don’t have time to be making char siu the authentic way, roasting for hours in the oven. If you also are short on time but don’t want to pressure cook your pork, you can always use char siu that you’ve bought from a Chinese market or restaurant.
Anyway, usually I make my instant pot char siu the day before and serve it with my char siu banh mi or just as a main dish. While I make the char siu, I reserve about 1/2 cup of the glaze and make the rest of the char siu according to the recipe. Right now my family is only made up of two adults and one toddler, so we inevitably have leftovers. I chop up about a cup of leftover char siu and set it aside. To make a thick sauce for the char siu filling, heat up the 1/2 cup glaze on the stovetop. Meanwhile, mix about 1 tsp cornstarch with 2 tsp water to form a slurry. When the char siu glaze starts to bubble, slowly pour in the cornstarch water while continuously stirring the glaze to avoid lumps. Within seconds, your glaze should thicken up! I go for somewhere in between a honey and a BBQ sauce consistency.
Toss the chopped char siu with your thickened sauce and store in the fridge until you’re ready to make your buns.
Making the steamed buns
The dough for my char siu bao is actually the exact same as my mantou recipe. It perfectly makes eight char siu bao. After the first rise of this dough, I portion it out into eight equal balls, stuff with char siu filling, and let it do its second rise in the bamboo steamer.
As you can see from the pictures above, I am TERRIBLE at folding my bao. If you’d like to learn how to pleat them nicely, my best advice is to watch a lot of Youtube videos and practice. I have nothing to teach you.
By the way, if you don’t have a bamboo steamer (*Disclaimer: affiliate link), I highly recommend them. The best part about them is that they can be stacked, so I can steam all eight bao at once instead of doing them in batches. I use two that I stole from my brother, who got his at World Market. BUT if you don’t have one, you can steam your bao in pretty much any steaming contraption. I’ve used a plate balanced on a pair of chopsticks in water in a frying pan. So do what works.
Steamed vs. Baked?
I can’t let this blog post go by without at least mentioning the steamed vs. baked char siu bao debate. The char siu bao made famous by Michelin-starred dim sum restaurant, Tim Ho Wan, is a baked bun covered in a sugary crust. You can typically find baked char siu bao at most dim sum restaurants as well. Baked buns are sweeter and use a richer dough, and honestly, they’re GOOD. But… the quality varies wildly by restaurant. Steamed buns taste more savory to me, and in my mind, are more representative of a typical dim sum experience. I almost always order the steamed char siu bao when I go out to dim sum, but that’s just my preference. If you’re interested in making the baked buns, Molly Yeh has a great recipe on Food Network. I actually made them using my own char siu filling, and they turned out GREAT.
I’ll repost all the recipes you need down below! If you give these a shot, send me a picture and let me know how it went.
Steamed Char Siu Bao
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped char siu storebought or homemade (see other recipe)
- 1/2 cup char siu glaze storebought or homemade (see other recipe)
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 2 tsp water
- 1 recipe Chinese steamed bread dough (see recipe above)
Instructions
- Mix cornstarch and water to form a slurry.
- Heat char siu glaze in a saucepan on the stove.
- When glaze comes to a bubble, slowly pour in the slurry while whisking continuously.
- Keep whisking until glaze has thickened to BBQ sauce or honey-like consistency.
- Toss chopped char siu with glaze and store in fridge until ready to make buns.
- Make Chinese mantou dough according to recipe (see elsewhere in this post) through the first rise.
- Divide risen dough into eight equal portions. Roll each portion out into a 3-4 inch circle.
- Place about 2 tbsp of char siu filling in the center of each circle. Bring up the edges of the circle and fold or pinch together. See other videos for fancy folding technique.
- Place each folded bao onto a 4 inch square of parchment paper. Then place all bao in your steamer, covered, to rise for another 20-30 minutes.
- In the last 5-10 minutes of the second rise, prepare your steamer.
- Place bao in whatever steaming contraption you use and cook for 15 minutes. Enjoy!
Instant Pot Char Siu Roast Pork
Ingredients
- 1 recipe char siu marinade
- 3 lbs boneless pork shoulder
- salt
- pepper
- Chinese 5 spice powder (optional)
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Pierce pork shoulder with fork several times. This will allow the marinade to soak deeper into the meat.
- Lightly season pork by sprinkling salt, pepper, and Chinese 5 spice powder, if using. Have a VERY light hand if using the Chinese 5 spice powder.
- Pour 1/2 the char siu marinade over the pork. You can either let the pork marinate for 30 minutes or just continue on to the next step for cooking.
- Put the pork with the marinade liquid into the instant pot. Add 1/2 cup water.
- Close the lid, seal, and pressure cook on high for 45 minutes. You can quick release or natural release the pressure, but the general rule of thumb I use is to pressure cook about 15 minutes per pound.
- Set your oven to broil (mine broils at 500 degrees F). Transfer the pork to a lined baking sheet or roasting pan.
- Brush some of the glaze onto the pork and broil for 1-3 minutes, until the glaze is bubbling and begins to caramelize. After the first glaze caramelizes under the broiler, take the pork out, brush more glaze on, and put it back to broil. Repeat 3-4 times or until all the glaze is used.
Chinese Steamed Bread (Mantou)
Equipment
- bamboo steamer
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup warm water
Instructions
- Dissolve yeast in water.
- Whisk flour, salt, and sugar, in a mixing bowl.
- Add yeast water to your dry ingredients and lightly mix by hand.
- Knead by hand or use a dough hook in a stand mixer (I use a dough hook because this dough is fairly wet) until dough can be stretched thin without breaking and its surface is shiny and slightly tacky (not goopy or sticky).
- Cover and let rise for 2 hours.
- When dough is done rising, divide into four portions. You can customize your buns with food coloring or fillings as needed depending on what type of bun you are making.
- Place each bun on a square of parchment paper and place in a bamboo steamer.
- Steam for 15 minutes.