Char Siu Bao Recipe (BBQ Pork Buns)

Char siu (Chinese bbq pork) is a delicious Chinese deli meat featuring five spice marinated pork with a sweet hoisin glaze. And they are the base for the filling of my char siu bao recipe or bbq pork buns recipe. If you are interested in just making the Chinese bbq pork, please see my char siu recipe.

Types of Char Siu Bao Recipes

There are two main types of char siu bao recipes: steamed vs. baked. The steamed kind (pictured below) uses a different dough than the baked kind.

And baked char siu bao has 2 types: the glazed variety and the “pineapple” topping variety. Pineapple topping is essentially a Cantonese cookie-like dough that is baked as a topping of breads for extra sweetness and crunch.

My recipe for char siu bao is the glazed variety (pictured below). See the gooey sticky honey glaze dripping down? Wow, it’s so hard not to drool when thinking about char siu bao.

Making Milk Bread for Char Siu Bao

The dough for this bbq pork buns recipe is a simple milk bread recipe that was adapted from a YouTube channel called How Tasty. I liked it because it didn’t require any specialty flours-just the humble all purpose flour that most people have on hand. I modified it slightly by adding more sugar and yeast based on the specific flavor profile I was trying to create in the bread.

Some people use a special method of making milk bread involving cooking water and flour together until it becomes sticky and thick. This is called the tangzhong method. After that they mix in the other ingredients. I opted to keep it simple and skipped this. I just mixed ingredients, kneaded the dough, and let it prove. Simple is best at times.

This was my first time baking bread in over 12 years, so I had to keep it simple! I had to do a test-run of the bread by itself first.

How to Make Milk Bread

1. Bloom yeast in lukewarm milk and water
2. Mix dry ingredients
3. Beat 1/2 of an egg and melted butter into yeast mixture
4. Mix dry ingredients with yeast mixture.
5. Knead immediately for 10 minutes.
6. Allow dough to rest for its first prove (1.5 hrs-2 hrs)
7. Divide dough into 12 equal parts.
8. Roll each piece of dough into a disc, and then stuff with char siu filling like it’s a large soup dumpling.
9. Allow to prove a second time until the buns look a little bigger (~1 – 1.5 hr depending on the temperature and humidity).
10. Instead of using the myth of letting the buns double in size, do the poke test.
11. When you poke your bread and it comes back half-way, your buns are ready to bake. If the indentation stays as is, your bread is over-proved. Do the poke test after an hour of proving, and then every 10 minutes just to make sure your bread is not over-proved.
12. Brush some beaten egg on top of your buns and bake them at 350 F for 12-15 minutes

I didn’t show how to stuff the char siu bao because I was still trying to handle the camera by myself and it takes 2 hands to form them.

This is a work in progress, everyone! I’m trying to be brave and put some content out there. It’s not perfect and I know that my videos are in their elementary stages. I’m willing to just do it and hope to slowly improve over time. Hope you still find this video helpful!

Reasons to Test Bread Recipe Before Making Char Siu Bao Recipe

• Everyone’s yeast is different. Depending on how active your yeast is, you may have to put more or less.
• Humidity and temperature change proving times. Depending on how warm or humid your kitchen/living situation is, you will have to prove your bread for longer or shorter time spans.
• You need to perfect the proving process for your bread, which allows it to rise properly. Both overproving and underproving can create deflated breads that lack fluffiness. Run a test to figure out what is the perfect proving time for your bread recipe. I learned that you can salvage overproved dough by flattening and reshaping it. Then allow a second prove to give it a second chance at life.
• You don’t want to waste a perfectly good batch of char siu by stuffing it inside of bad bread.

How to Make Char Siu Filling

I have an entire post dedicated to making the perfect char siu recipe. You need really delicious and flavorful char siu if you are going to make a char siu bao recipe, right? It’s a labor of love, folks. But so worth it!

Char Siu Bao Recipe (BBQ Pork Buns)

A classic baked char siu bao with honey glaze.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Proving Time 3 hours hrs

Total Time 5 hours hrs

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Ingredients

  

Milk Bread

• 1/3 cup milk lukewarm
• 2 tbsp water lukewarm
• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter melted
• 1/2 Egg beaten
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 Egg beaten

Char Siu Filling

• 1/2 char siu recipe see char siu recipe post
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/3 white onion diced
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp char siu pan juices
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp five spice powder

Glaze for Buns

• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp honey

Instructions

 

Char Siu Filling

• Cut char siu into bite sized pieces.
• Add in pan juices from char siu and char siu marinade. Allow to heat. Strain out coagulated blood, leaving only the sauce.
• Then add in hoisin sauce, honey, five spice powder, water, and salt. Heat on medium high until thickened and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Set aside.
• In a separate pan, heat oil on medium high heat. Add in diced onion to saute for 3 minutes.
• Add in sauteed onion and chopped char siu pieces to the char siu sauce. Mix thoroughly then set aside to cool.

Milk Bread & Making Baos

• Heat water and milk and allow to become lukewarm. Add in dry yeast and mix until yeast dissolves.
• In a large mixing bowl mix dry ingredients: flour, salt and sugar.
• Melt butter and allow to cool to room temperature. Then add melted butter and 1/2 beaten egg into the yeast mixture.
• Using a spatula, add the yeast mixture into the flour mix. Mix until just combined.
• Place dough onto a clean floured surface and knead with hands for 10 minutes. The dough will become round, smooth, and elastic.
• Put the dough in a greased big size bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in at room temperature (about 1 1/2 – 2 hours).
• If you are making this during cold weather, you can heat your oven at the lowest temperature for about 3-5 minutes, then turn off your oven. Leave the door open and allow and place the dough into the oven to prove.
• Divide the dough into 12 pieces and flatten the dough into thin discs. Stuff char siu mixture into each disc, folding and pinching it like a large xiaolong bao/soup dumpling. Make sure your buns are completely sealed. Place buns fold-side down onto a lined baking sheet.
• Cover buns with plastic wrap and allow the buns to rest and rise again for 1 hr-1.5 hrs. Do the fingerpoke test to make sure that your dough is coming back halfway. At that point, your buns are ready to bake.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Brush the tops of your buns with a beaten egg. Bake for 13-18 minutes or until golden brown.
• While baos are baking, make glaze for the buns by mixing in sugar, water, and honey and boiling on high until thickened to coat the back of a spoon.
• Take buns out of the oven and allow to cool until lukewarm. Then brush on the glaze onto the buns. Serve warm.

Keyword barbecue pork bun recipe, bbq pork bun recipe, char siu bao recipe

Other Asian Recipes

Seared Tuna Poke Bowl
Chinese Sticky Rice with Preserved Meats

Tag me on Instagram @Jennskitchendiary if you’ve made this recipe!