When you’ve seen other Chashu pork recipes, you often see the meat may be “pork belly”, which is fatty, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth, and so good.
Chashu made of pork shoulder wouldn’t be bad, tender, and lean, and goes well with topping for ramen, fried rice, sandwiches, and Asian salad even if it is cold.
This Chashu pork recipe works as well for pork shoulder as it does for pork belly so don’t hesitate to substitute pork belly for the shoulder.
Pork shoulder is widely available cut and it’s relatively reasonable compared with pork belly.
Yet, are you a pork belly lover? ↓↓↓
CHINESE CHAR SIU PORK AND JAPANESE (RAMEN) CHASHU PORK
Cha siu is often called Caountnese-style BBQ pork. In Chinese cooking, skewering marinated pork on a large skewer and grilling the meat over an open flame is called char shao.
During the roasting, the pork will be basted constantly and become savory glossy meat.
In Japan, char siu is called “Chashu” or “YAKIBUTA” and turn to the term refers to the pork made by simmering in the sauce after broiling.
Also, in Japanese cuisine, a simmered pork belly called “kakuni” is popular and is similar to Chashu, and often both dishes are mixed up.
It is because the Chashu sauce and Kakuni sauce are made with almost the same ingredients such as soy sauce, ginger, sake, and sugar.
Contrary, Cha siu sauce uses complex spices such as Red fermented bean curd, ginger, chojang, granulated sugar, salt, five-spice powder, and fried garlic.
Cha siu is commonly served as it is, as the ingredients of dim sum, with (on ) the rice.
Japanese Chashu is popular as ramen topping, besides, we enjoy it as nibbles or ingredients of fried rice.
Additionally, in Japanese home cooking, Kakuni is a more popular dish to cook at home, and Chashu is generally served in restaurants.
WHERE TO GET PORK SHOULDER
My meat is actually cut from “pork butt” when I have a hard time finding the perfect section of the pork shoulder.
Commonly, pork butt has bone-in, (or only I have seen is “bone-in”) so cut the meat as much as close to the bone.
You can use the rest of the meat with the bone for your roast pork.
Choose the shoulder that contains some fatty tissues for Chashu pork since too lean meat will be a little less not interesting and can be dry.
If a boneless pork butt is available, it’ll be perfect to make Chashu.
RECIPE IDEA
Make this pork roast in tomato sauce with another half of the pork shoulder.
Super easy to make, but, you’ll need 4 hours at least to provide super tender pork!
This pork shoulder roast in tomato sauce recipe is packed with rich flavor from fresh tomatoes, Italian canned tomato, juicy bone-in pork shoulder, onion, and garlic!!
For the recipe, click here!
STEPS TO MAKE RAMEN CHASHU PORK
TIE THE PORK SHOULDER
Tying the meat helps keep its shape and cook the meat evenly.
It looks requires the skill to roll and tie it properly, but, actually, it’s a piece of cake.
SALT AND SEAR
Searing the pork before cooking it sealed in the flavor.
Sear the pork on the skillet, and remove excess fat from the pork. If you want to remove even more fat, wipe it off with kitchen paper before putting a sealed bag.
Searing pork also helps keep the shape neat.
Rub the meat with a pinch of salt on each side before cooking. By sprinkling salt on the meat, the protein coagulates quickly and traps rich flavor inside.
COOK THE PORK IN SOUS VIDE
The key to making the meaty shoulder pork tender and moist is slowly cooking it at a low temperature.
So, I use my fav instant pot (sous vide).
You can use your sous vide cooker instead.
WHAT’S SOUS VIDE?
Sous vide is a French cooking technique that is cooking the ingredients slowly at a precise temperature in a water bath. Sous vide is a cooking technique that involves vacuum-sealing food in a bag and cooking it in a precisely regulated water bath. This low-temperature, slow-cooking method brings never dry and over-cooked food.
JAPANESE CHASHU SAUCE
- 1 cup Japanese sake or white wine
- ½ cup dark soy sauce
- ⅓ cup raw cane sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 0.3 oz fresh ginger, sliced
- leek, green parts
Contrary to Cha siu, Japanese Chashu sauce is very simple and made with Japanese typical condiments for any dish (almost always):
soy sauce, sake, sugar.
You can add mirin if you have already and use it up, but, my recipe doesn’t require mirin at all.
Ginger, garlic, and green parts of leeks provide rich flavor to the sauce and help to remove the unpleasant flavor of the meat.
The green parts of leeks are not essential for this sauce, yet, it brings a sweet flavor.
Alternative for green parts of leeks, you can use green onions.
Leeks are unavailable often in my area, so I store those in the freezer every time I get them.
They are very handy items adding soup, or sauce for a simmering dish as a provider of deep sweet flavor.
Additionally, they are essential items in my roast duck recipe to remove the gamey flavor.
This Chashu sauce is versatile, you can use it for stir-fry, marinating, and dipping sauce.
It can be stored in a fridge for about 5 days.
I am going to mention it later, but, I recommend keeping the sauce after making the Chashu pork which has more flavor from the meat.
[INSTANT POT/ SOUS VIDE RECIPE] Japanese-Style Chashu Pork (made of pork shoulder)
Equipment
- Instant pot / Sous vide cooker
- sous vide-safe freezer bag or use a vacuum seal bag
- butcher twine
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb boneless pork shoulder cut (*I combined two blocks on the image.) *See the post
- Kosher crystal salt
Marinade Sauce
- 1 cup Japanese sake or white wine
- ½ cup dark soy sauce
- ⅓ cup raw cane sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 0.3 oz fresh ginger, sliced
- leek, green parts
Instructions
Make "Chashu" Marinade Sauce
- In a small saucepan, bring all ingredients to a boil over medium heat. Simmer for 2 minutes to boil the alcohol down. Let the sauce cool down.
Prepare The Meat
- Trim excess fat if needed. Leave some fat on for rich flavor.
- Tie the meat with butcher's twine. *See the post here about how to tie the meat.
- Rub the meat with pinches of salt on each side. *Brings out a rich flavor.
- In a skillet, preheat oil or use the excess fat from the meat. Sear the meat on each side (top, bottom, sides) for 1-2 minutes.*Seal rich flavor in the meat.
- Put the meat and the marinade sauce in the freezer bag. Seal tightly while removing air out.
Cook The Meat With Sous Vide
- Place a steam rack in the Instant pot or a small dish on the bottom, and place the meat. Pour enough water just to cover the bag. Place small plates if the bag floats.
- Place the lid on, and set the temperature to 145 °F with "Sous Vide" mode.
- Let the meat cook for 10 hours.
- Let the meat cool down so you can slice it easier. Or refrigerate the meat in the sauce in the fridge overnight. The Chashu pork will be more delicious.
Serve & Store
- Cut the twine with a pair of shears and remove the twine pieces.
- Slice the piece thoughtfully as you like. *If you combine two blocks of pork cut, the piece may separate.
- If you are concerned about the pink parts, broil or microwave or broil the piece.
- You can store the Chashu pork in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or 1 month in the freezer.*I usually keep the meat and the sauce separated.
- Keep the Chashu sauce for the next use. I keep the sauce in a clean jar and store it in the freezer.
Video
Notes
Save The Chashu Sauce To Use
It is almost a staple to make ramen eggs called “Nitamago” or “Ajitsuke Tamago” which those eggs with runny or hard-boiled yolk made with leftover Chashu sauce.
Make your favorite boiled eggs while following this cooking guide.
How To Boil Eggs Perfectly In Japanese Cooking
Cook cold eggs in boiling water for 7 minutes for picturesque runny yolks.
Make Ramen Eggs With Leftover Chashu Marinade Sauce
Instructions
- Make boiled eggs. For the cooking guide to making the perfect boiled eggs, read this post. Remove the shells thoughtfully.
- Warm up the Chashu marinade sauce if it's cold.
- Put it in a container or bag and marinate the egg in the char siu marinade sauce. Make sure the egg is covered to 3/4 of its height.*See the post
- Refrigerate the marinated eggs for anytime between 1 day to 3 days. Occasionally, flip the eggs for beautiful color.
Video
Notes
I also freeze the leftover Chashu sauce for the next time to make Chashu, ramen noodle soup, or cook pork neck bones.
Add extra soy sauce, sugar, sake/ white wine, and maybe water if needed.
As well you can make Ramen eggs with this marinade sauce, and make another Ramen topping for your homemade ramen.
Use canned bamboo shoots, and simmer them with the sauce.
How To Make Spicy “Menma”: How To Cook Canned Bamboo Shoots For Ramen Topping
Make Fluffy Fired Rice With Chashu Pork
One of the perfect ways to use up the broken or leftover bits, and hard edges of Chashu pork is by making fried rice.
This egg-fried rice recipe is introduced in this post with full of cooking tips to make crispy fuffy delicious Japanese-style fried rice, so I’m very happy if you’re gonna check it out later.
Chahsu port is already full of flavor so the simple seasonings are good to go.
Add Cashu pork, at last, to prevent it dry.
AJI-SHIO-KOSHO is an all-purpose seasoning and also can bring savory dishes without effort while simply shaking the bottle to ingredients.
You can use it not only for stir-fry dishes such as mixed vegetable stir-fry and fried rice but also for steak and fried chicken.
Switch salt and pepper to AJI-SHIO-KOSHO, thus, you can save a bit of time (cut the time to sprinkle salt and pepper), besides, avoid over-season since the ingredients of the seasoning mix are well-balanced and designed so the same amount comes out every time you shake the bottle.
AJI-SHIO-KOSHO can bring absolutely more savory flavor to this classic simple-fired rice!
Japanese Chahan Fried Rice With Homemade Chahu Pork
Equipment
- non-stick wok or frying pan
- spatula or ladle
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 4 large whole eggs
- 2 tbsp Mayo *optionally
- 1 cup leftover Chashu pork, finely chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
Instructions
- Gather Ingredients.Homemade Chashu Recipe (PORK SHOULDER)
- Make sure the rice is not hot but it's warm (like you can touch it easily.) *The best rice for crispy fried rice
- In a small mixing bowl, crack eggs and add Mayo optionally. Roughly mix together. You don't need to combine egg yolks and whites well.Adding mayo helps add rich flavor and easily coats the rice grain with oil.
- Preheat the pan and oil it.When using the non-stick pan, avoid preheating too much.When using a stainless or cast iron, make sure to preheat over medium-high heat until it gets really hot.
- Add the eggs and cook, stir immediately. Continue stirring until they’re half-cooked, about 30 seconds, over medium-high heat.
- Add the rice and stir. Constantly, break up the clumps without smashing the grains while aiming for each grain will be coated with egg and oil, over medium-high heat.
- Occasionally, press the rice to the wall or the bottom gently to cook quickly, crispy, and dry, over medium-high heat. Continue stirring the rice with the spatula or the ladle.*It's not necessary to toss around the rice constantly since the heat is not strong as in Chinese restaurants. Shake the pan to stir the ingredients necessary without holding up the bottom.
- Reduce the heat once the rice is heated and you can see a partially light-brown part, about for 3 minutes, add finely chopped Chshu pork and stir well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve and garnish with chopped scallions if desired.
- Top with my homemade spicy Layu chili oil if desired.My Homemade Layu chili oil Recipe
