Make a smoky, sweet pork tenderloin with inspiration from Southern China.
Anyone familiar with Cantonese cuisine knows and loves the honey-lacquered roasted pork that is char siu. For those of us who don’t have vertical ovens to roast our own char siu, ChefSteps has the answer via sous-vide. They paired up with chef Gregory Gourdet to recreate the Chinatown favorite at home by cooking pork tenderloin sous vide with a marinade then finishing it on the grill to get a nice, smoky char. Check out the full recipe below.
Char Siu-Style Pork Tenderloin
Ingredients
- 1 pork tenderloin, whole
- 118 grams honey
- 5 grams five-spice powder
- 5 grams smoked paprika
- 4.5 grams white pepper
- 40 grams Shaoxing rice wine
- 5.5 grams sesame oil
- 150 grams hoisin
- 33 grams molasses
- 50 grams garlic, minced
Equipment
Directions
- Preheat Joule/sous vide to 136°F/58°C.
- Make your marinade. Combine all the marinade ingredients (that’s everything other than the tenderloin) in a bowl and stir thoroughly. This mix will serve as your marinade and your finishing sauce.
- Divide pork into two, evenly-sized portions and place in the bag. Add a light coating of marinade, reserving about a quarter of it for serving. Lower your bagged pork into the water with Joule, and go make some side dishes or something!
- When the pork has finished cooking, remove it from the bag. Either allow it to dry for a few minutes or pat dry with a paper towel. Drizzle the pork with oil and transfer to a very hot grill. Glaze with the marinade left in the bag. When the surface of the meat looks nice and charred, flip and repeat, then remove from grill. Remember, your pork is already perfectly cooked, so keep your sear as quick as you can!
Chef’s Tip: Gourdet likes to add the reserved marinade to a pan and heat it on the grill as the pork sears. Cooking the sauce in this way will mellow things out by removing some of the sharp, raw-garlic flavor. - Pour the remaining sauce over your grilled pork, slice, and serve.
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