Char Siu Pork substitute

Best substitute

Siu Yuk (Chinese Roast Pork Belly)

Use the same amount by weight as the char siu pork you are replacing

Best for fried rice

Taste and texture differ

Diced Chinese roast pork belly, siu yuk, from the same barbecue counter is the easiest swap, or use any cooked pork such as leftover roast or pork chops tossed in a quick glaze of hoisin, soy sauce, honey and a pinch of five-spice. In fried rice or noodles, Chinese sausage or even good ham plus that glaze will do the job convincingly.

Other char siu pork substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Cooked Pork Tossed in a Quick Char Siu Glaze
Close match
Use the same amount by weight of cooked pork
Leftover roast pork, pork chops or pork shoulder cut into strips and coated in a fast homemade glaze.
What changes
Best for
fried rice, bao filling, noodles, rice bowls, salads
The most faithful result you can get without a barbecue shop, and worth the five minutes. Mix 2 tablespoons hoisin, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon rice wine and a pinch of five-spice, then toss the pork in it over medium heat until sticky. You will not get the roasted red edges, so it tastes right but looks less dramatic, which matters for bao and rice plates.
3Chashu (Japanese Braised Pork Belly)
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Rolled pork belly simmered in soy, sake, mirin and sugar until meltingly soft, the pork you find on ramen.
What changes
Best for
ramen, rice bowls, noodle soups
People confuse chashu with char siu constantly, since the name is borrowed from the same Chinese words, but they are different foods. Chashu is braised rather than roasted, so it is soft and silky with no sticky exterior, and its flavour is soy-and-sake savoury rather than five-spice sweet. In ramen it is arguably the correct choice; in fried rice it will fall apart and taste less bright.
4Chinese Sausage (Lap Cheong)
Different texture
¾ the weight of the char siu
Sweet, firm, air-dried pork sausage, sliced thin on the bias.
What changes
Best for
fried rice, clay pot rice, sticky rice, stuffing
Excellent when char siu's job in the dish is sweet-savoury pork flecks scattered through rice, which is exactly its role in fried rice. It carries the same sugar-and-rice-wine sweetness, so the flavour lands close. It is firmer and much fattier though, so use a little less, render it in the wok first, and cook the rice in the fat that comes out.
5Ham or Thick-Cut Bacon plus Hoisin and Honey
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, plus 1 tbsp hoisin and 1 tsp honey per 8 oz
Supermarket cured pork glazed to imitate char siu's sweet lacquer.
What changes
Best for
fried rice, noodles, quick weeknight cooking
This is a workaround and worth being straight about: the cure gives it a distinctly hammy, brined flavour that char siu does not have, and bacon adds smoke that is frankly out of place in Cantonese food. That said, in fried rice with egg and scallion, glazed diced ham is convincing enough that most people will not question it. Cut back on the soy sauce elsewhere in the dish because both are salty.
6Marinated Firm Tofu or Seitan with Char Siu Glaze
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume
Pressed tofu or seitan glazed and roasted with the same hoisin and five-spice mixture.
What changes
Best for
vegetarian bao, fried rice, noodle bowls, rice plates
The meat-free option, and it works better than you would expect because so much of char siu's identity lives in the glaze rather than the pork. Press the tofu hard, cut it thick, roast or pan-fry it until the edges firm up, then glaze. Expect no pork fat and therefore less richness in the mouth, so add a little sesame oil at the end to compensate.

What is Char Siu Pork?

Char Siu Pork is Char siu, also spelled cha siu and sold as Chinese BBQ pork, is Cantonese roast pork shoulder or belly marinated in a sweet-savoury mix of hoisin, soy, sugar, rice wine and five-spice, then roasted until the outside is sticky, lacquered and red at the edges.

Cooking tips

Almost everything char siu tastes like comes from its glaze, not from the pork itself. That means the fastest good substitute is not finding similar meat, it is putting the glaze on meat you already have: hoisin, soy sauce, honey or maltose, rice wine and five-spice, in roughly 2 to 1 to 1 to 1 proportions with a pinch of five-spice.
Glaze at the end and over lower heat than you think. The sugar in a char siu glaze burns fast and turns bitter, which is why homemade attempts often taste acrid. Brush it on during the last 10 minutes of roasting, or toss cooked pork in it off the direct heat.
Char siu is almost always used already cooked and diced, so a substitute needs to be cooked pork rather than raw. If all you have is raw pork, cook it fully first by any method, then glaze, and do not try to do both at once in a hot wok.
Char siu and Japanese chashu are two different things despite the shared name. If your recipe is Cantonese, fried rice, bao or a rice plate, you want the sweet roasted version. If it is a bowl of ramen, chashu is what the recipe means, and using sticky sweet char siu will make the broth taste candied.
The bright red edge on shop-bought char siu comes from food colouring, not from the marinade. If you make your own it will be brown, which is completely correct and tastes identical, so do not chase the colour.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between char siu and chashu?

Char siu is Cantonese: pork shoulder or belly marinated in hoisin, soy, sugar and five-spice, then roasted until sticky and slightly charred. Chashu is Japanese: pork belly rolled and gently braised in soy, sake and mirin until it is soft enough to fall apart. The Japanese word comes from the Chinese one, which is why they are so often mixed up, but they taste and behave differently.

Can I just leave the char siu out of fried rice?

Yes, and the dish still works, but you will notice the loss because char siu is providing both the sweetness and the savoury pork depth. Compensate with a teaspoon of sugar or honey and an extra splash of soy sauce, or add another savoury element such as Chinese sausage, shrimp or a well-browned egg. Plain fried rice without any of these tastes noticeably flat.

Can I use pork tenderloin to make char siu instead of shoulder?

You can, and many home recipes do because it slices neatly, but the result is drier and firmer since tenderloin has almost no fat. Shoulder or belly stays juicy through the high-heat roasting that makes the glaze set. If you use tenderloin, cook it to 145F and no further, and glaze it more heavily to make up for the leanness.

Is char siu the same as Chinese BBQ pork?

Yes, char siu is what English-language menus and packages usually mean by Chinese BBQ pork or Chinese barbecue pork. You may also see it written as cha siu or char sui. The one product it is not is siu yuk, which is the crisp-skinned roast pork belly sold beside it and is salty rather than sweet.

Where can I buy char siu, and how much do I need?

Cantonese barbecue shops and the hot food counters of larger Asian supermarkets sell it by weight, usually already sliced. Most recipes use it as a flavouring rather than a main protein, so half a pound goes a long way in fried rice or a batch of bao. Frozen packaged versions exist too, and they take a glaze well if they taste underseasoned.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Char Siu Pork substitute

Other char siu pork substitutes

2Cooked Pork Tossed in a Quick Char Siu Glaze

3Chashu (Japanese Braised Pork Belly)

4Chinese Sausage (Lap Cheong)

5Ham or Thick-Cut Bacon plus Hoisin and Honey

6Marinated Firm Tofu or Seitan with Char Siu Glaze