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, lean, and goes well with topping for ramen, fried rice, sandwiches, and Asian salad even if it is cold.
Tightly rolled with twine keeps the meat in the shape.
It looks requires the skill to roll and tie it properly, but, actually, it’s a piece of cake.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If a boneless pork butt is available, it’ll be perfect to make Chashu.
You can cook them soon, but, I marinate the meat with Shio-koji overnight. (Often, I store the marinated meat in a freezer.)
Chinese Chashu is basically the broiled marinated pork and Japanese Chashu known for the Ramen topping is the marinated pork after being broiled or boiled.
My “Sous Vide” Chashu Pork does not follow either way, cook the meat with the sauce and then continue marinating it.
So, some people may say “it’s not literally Chashu”, but, let’s set the meaning of Chashu in this blog as the ramen topping.
[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
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb boneless pork shoulder cut (*I combined two blocks on the image.) *See the post
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 jinger, 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
- Piece the meat with a fork on both sides.
- Tie the meat with butcher's twine. *See the post here about how to tie 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, and place the bag. 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 6 hours, then wait for the natural release to open the lid.
- Remove the bag out, and continue marinating the meat in a fridge overnight. *You can serve the Chashu pork soon, yet, it's better to wait to slice overnight.
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 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.
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.
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
