I’ll start out by saying that this recipe is going to be complicated, but it’s entirely worth it. My kids even liked it, which was nothing short of amazing. And I already have an idea of what to do with the leftovers, which you’ll probably see next week if it actually works.
Char siu is one of my favorite Chinese food staples. If you ever get the spareribs appetizer at a Chinese food restaurant, you’ve had it. It’s bright red, sticky sweet, and really tasty, especially alongside a good fried rice. I have a pretty good cauliflower fried rice recipe, and I’ll try to make it over the weekend with the leftovers so you guys can have it too.
This is a weekend recipe, because it’ll take most of the day to cook. The good news is that the vast majority of that will be spent in the sous vide, so you don’t have to be slaving in front of the stove for hours. There are a few steps to making the marinade, because one of the ingredients it calls for is hoisin sauce, and you’ll need a keto version of that. But if my next recipe for the leftovers works, it’ll also be used in that, so you won’t be wasting you time, I promise.
Start out with 4 pounds of pork belly, with the skin removed but the fat cap still on. Depending on the size of your sous vide vessel, you may want to cut the pork belly in two chunks. This also makes it easier to save half for finishing later, and I’ll give you instructions on doing that. But if you’re feeding a crowd, feel free to cook both at the same time.
The char siu marinade is actually the hardest part of this recipe. Like I mentioned earlier, it calls for hoisin sauce, which, if you get the real thing, is loaded with carbs. Thankfully, you can make a keto version that, while not a perfect match, is a reasonable enough facsimile, especially when it’s just one ingredient in a larger marinade. So for the hoisin, you’ll need a blender–the Sukrin Gold Fiber Syrup or a similar honey substitute, 2 teaspoons each of sesame oil and rice wine vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of Chinese five-spice powder, 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder, and a few grinds of black pepper. Whiz that in the blender until sauce is smooth and you can’t see lumps of peanut butter. You’ll need two tablespoons of it for the char siu marinade, and you can save the rest for another use. It’s great in pho!
Once you’ve made the hoisin, you can make the rest of the marinade. In a medium bowl, combine 1/4 cup granular Swerve, 1/4 cup sugar-free ketchup, 2 tablespoons of the hoisin sauce you made earlier, 1 tablespoon of mirin, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce/tamari/coconut aminos, 2 teaspoons of salt, a teaspoon of white pepper, a teaspoon of sriracha, and 3/4 teaspoon of Chinese five-spice powder. If you want to get that bright red restaurant color, add several drops of red food coloring. I only had pink, so I did not. Don’t freak out about the carbs in the mirin, because this makes 20 servings so it turns out to be negligible. Whisk it all together until the Swerve dissolves, then pour half of it into a ramekin and save it in the fridge for the last step. Brush the pork belly with the half of the marinade that you left out, then put it into a bag(s). Seal the bags, making sure to use the gentle option, then put them in the sous vide for 6-8 hours. The longer you leave it in, the softer the finished product will be. The one pictured was in for 7 hours.
Before you remove the pork, prepare your charcoal or gas grill to cook over indirect heat. You’ll want to put a drip tray under the meat to avoid flare-ups. I use these disposable aluminum trays. When you remove the pork, be careful if you used the red food coloring in the marinade, as the inside of the bag will be very liquidy. Open it over the sink and drain it, then use paper towels to pat them dry. Coat them with the remaining marinade and grill them. For indirect heat, either light some of your gas burners and then put the meat over the ones that aren’t lit, or pile your charcoal to one side of the grill and put the meat on the other side. Start with the fatty side up. Cook them for about 5 minutes, checking on them occasionally to make sure that they’re not causing the grill to flare up, then flip them to crisp up the fatty side for another 5 minutes or so. When they’re finished, they’ll have some black char marks on them.
To serve it, slice it thinly, like a piece of bacon. I served mine over basic cauliflower rice with a side of steamed green beans. The pork is really rich on its own, so going simple with the sides is a good thing. This would make a really elegant meal if you’re trying to impress a large crowd of people, because a little goes a long way.
If you want to save half for later, open the vacuum sealer bag and drain and pat dry the pork as I described earlier. Brush it with half of the remaining marinade, then put it back into the vacuum sealer bag and reseal it. Make an ice water bath in a large bowl and put the bag in it for ten minutes, then dry the bag off and put it in the freezer. To reheat it, put the bag of frozen pork directly into the sous vide at 176 for an hour, then remove it and grill it.
Sous Vide Char Siu Pork Belly
Equipment
- Sous vide apparatus
- Vacuum sealer
- Gas or charcoal grill
Ingredients
For the Keto Hoisin Sauce
- 4 tbsp soy sauce, tamari, or coconut aminos
- 2 tbsp natural peanut butter no sugar added
- 1 tbsp Sukrin Gold fiber syrup or similar honey substitute
- 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- black pepper to taste
For the Pork Belly and Marinade
- 4 pounds pork belly skin off
- 1/4 cup granular Swerve sweetener
- 1/4 cup sugar-free ketchup
- 2 tbsp Keto Hoisin Sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp soy sauce, tamari, or coconut aminos
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp sriracha
- 3/4 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
- red food coloring optional
Instructions
For the Hoisin Sauce
- Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Save two tablespoons for the pork marinade and refrigerate the rest for future use.
For the Pork Belly
- Put water in the sous vide vessel and heat it to 176 degrees Fahrenheit (80 celsius). If your pork belly is too large to fit in your sous vide vessel, cut it in half.
- Put the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth. Put half of the marinade into a ramekin and refrigerate it. Brush the other half onto both sides of the pork belly.
- Put the pork belly into vacuum sealer bag(s) and seal it using the moist food/gentle settings. Place the bags into the water bath for 6-8 hours.
- When you're almost ready to remove the pork, set up a gas or charcoal grill for indirect cooking. For the gas grill, turn on some of the burners to medium-high, but leave one set of burners off. For a charcoal grill, put the charcoal on one side of the grill only. If you can, place an aluminum drip pan underneath the unlit side of your grill to reduce the likelihood of a flare-up.
- Carefully remove the bags from the water bath. Cut them open to drain the fluid from the bags, being especially careful if you used the red food coloring in the marinade. Pat the pork dry and coat it with the remaining marinade. Place it fatty side up on the unheated side of your grill and cook for about ten minutes, turning once, until it begins to get char spots. To serve, slice it thinly.
- See the notes above for instructions on how to freeze half of it for cooking later if you won't need all the servings at once.
- Macros per serving (a little over 3 ounces): 479 calories, 1 gram net carbs, 9 grams protein, 50 grams fat. The actual totals on this are likely a little lower, as some of the marinade is lost from the liquid drained from the sous vide bags, but it's impossible to calculate that, so I just included all of it.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Any embedded link to a product earns me a portion of the purchase price if you click and buy it.
Recent Comments