Pork Steak Char Siu

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I made bbq pork steaks on July 4th and they were so delicious. I couldn’t get it out of my head that these would make excellent Char Siu. Recipes were not hard to find so I settled on Serious Eats as a safe bet. There are a few things I would tweak but these were also delicious. They make a rub and then dunk in a wet marinade overnight or a few hours if you are pressed for time. As soon as I saw that I thought “the rub is just going fall off in the Marinade (it did) so either add those ingredients to the marinade or smoke it with dry rub and glaze at the end”. I followed the recipe but it does not make sense for me to make a dry rub then marinate it in liquid. 

Either way- it was delicious. Here is the recipe I followed. No matter if you cook it with dry rub or marinade, keep the temps down- there is a lot of sugar in both. 250 seemed to work well with a little char on the edges. 

I temped these at about 180 but was mostly probing for softness all over. Cook took about 5 hours 

https://www.seriouseats.com/smoked-char-siu-pork-shoulder-steaks

We served it with sautéed spinach and sushi rice drizzled with homemade chili oil

lkapigian

Looks Delicious 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

lkapigian said:

Looks Delicious 

It was! 

lousubcap

Always a home run.  Sweet!

Stormbringer

I was waiting for this to happen ... and it did. Thanks. I've got two pork shoulder steaks, one for this and one for the other one you posted.  

Did you cook direct and raised again, like the last one? In the large? 

JohnInCarolina

Ha!  I will be trying this tomorrow!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Stormbringer said:

I was waiting for this to happen ... and it did. Thanks. I've got two pork shoulder steaks, one for this and one for the other one you posted.  

Did you cook direct and raised again, like the last one? In the large? 

This one was indirect. Lot of sugar in the marinade (honey) and the “rub” (which all dissolved into the marinade) has a lot of sugar as well. Direct would scorch this one. Keep the temps at or below 250. 

Was just talking with JIC about this: I would probably skip the rub step altogether as it’s not really a rub once you dunk it in liquid marinade. You could see all the 5 spice floating in the marinade as soon as you put the steaks in and all the sugar and salt just immediately dissolve into the marinade. If I did it that way next time, I would just marinate (btw- the longer the better with thick steaks- overnight if possible) and then dust the steaks with the rub once sliced and plated. That would really bring out the flavors of the rub. I think that’s my next experiment. Or maybe add the rub right before you glaze. Let it setup, then glaze it. 

Or just add the rub ingredients directly to the marinade; that’s where it’s all going to end up anyway. 

Hard to believe that step made it through a Serious Eats recipe. This must be a “post Kenji” recipe as I don’t think this process would stand up to scrutiny. The flavors in the rub are great though so I’m going to find a way to incorporate them. I think the dust once sliced and plated is the way to go. Sweet, salty, umami of the 5 spice would be a cool flavor pop and would look cool on the right plate if you are into that kind of thing . If I did the finishing dust, I would use Malden salt instead of kosher. 

just note that a little 5 spice goes a long way. Start slow with the dust and add according to your liking. 

It’s a good one. Cant wait to see all the spin offs!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

JohnInCarolina said:

Ha!  I will be trying this tomorrow!

Get those steaks in the juice tonight!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Stormbringer said:

I was waiting for this to happen ... and it did. Thanks. I've got two pork shoulder steaks, one for this and one for the other one you posted.  

Did you cook direct and raised again, like the last one? In the large? 

And yes, it was in a large. That’s the only egg I have these days. It was the demo that Little Steven and @Caliking cooked Rogan Josh on at Salado eggfest like 10 years ago. I bought it on the spot and I’ll never sell it. Makes me happy every time I think about Steve (@Caliking is another story). Sold off all the other eggs several years back. I’m down to 1 large, Roccbox, the dishwasher, and open Post Oak fire pit (with the occasional split of mesquite or pecan). Egg still gets 95% of the work but the others all have their place in the rotation. 

lkapigian

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Ha!  I will be trying this tomorrow!

Get those steaks in the juice tonight!

A FAvorite MEME LoL 

Stormbringer

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Stormbringer said:

I was waiting for this to happen ... and it did. Thanks. I've got two pork shoulder steaks, one for this and one for the other one you posted.  

Did you cook direct and raised again, like the last one? In the large? 

This one was indirect. Lot of sugar in the marinade (honey) and the “rub” (which all dissolved into the marinade) has a lot of sugar as well. Direct would scorch this one. Keep the temps at or below 250. 

Was just talking with JIC about this: I would probably skip the rub step altogether as it’s not really a rub once you dunk it in liquid marinade. You could see all the 5 spice floating in the marinade as soon as you put the steaks in and all the sugar and salt just immediately dissolve into the marinade. If I did it that way next time, I would just marinate (btw- the longer the better with thick steaks- overnight if possible) and then dust the steaks with the rub once sliced and plated. That would really bring out the flavors of the rub. I think that’s my next experiment. Or maybe add the rub right before you glaze. Let it setup, then glaze it. 

Or just add the rub ingredients directly to the marinade; that’s where it’s all going to end up anyway. 

Hard to believe that step made it through a Serious Eats recipe. This must be a “post Kenji” recipe as I don’t think this process would stand up to scrutiny. The flavors in the rub are great though so I’m going to find a way to incorporate them. I think the dust once sliced and plated is the way to go. Sweet, salty, umami of the 5 spice would be a cool flavor pop and would look cool on the right plate if you are into that kind of thing . If I did the finishing dust, I would use Malden salt instead of kosher. 

just note that a little 5 spice goes a long way. Start slow with the dust and add according to your liking. 

It’s a good one. Cant wait to see all the spin offs!

Thanks for the info. The serious eats post looked like it was direct from the pictures, although they could have banked the coals to one side.

I've put rub ingredients into marinades in the past and the result has been a paste. I think i would either marinate and then apply the rub just before the glaze step. 

Canugghead

Another must try, thanks for sharing.
As for dry rub getting washed by the marinade right away, here's my take... since the dry rub is mostly salt and sugar, I would wait a couple of hours for it to act as dry brine, then add the marinade.

JohnInCarolina

Canugghead said:

Another must try, thanks for sharing.
As for dry rub getting washed by the marinade right away, here's my take... since the dry rub is mostly salt and sugar, I would wait a couple of hours for it to act as dry brine, then add the marinade.

This is exactly what I did last night.  Great minds, natch.

YukonRon

Enjoying your posts, this is no exception, I love that dish and have had it periodically for certain group dinners, here at home. 

caliking

Stellar! I haven't been here much recently, so late to the game.

What about injecting the protein with the marinade, then dunking it in for extra oomph? May cure the meat, and make it somewhat "hammy"?

JohnInCarolina

caliking said:

Stellar! I haven't been here much recently, so late to the game.

What about injecting the protein with the marinade, then dunking it in for extra oomph? May cure the meat, and make it somewhat "hammy"?

My approach of letting it sit with the rub on it for several hours in the fridge before dunking it in the marinade seemed to result in pork that was plenty tender and tasty.

I don’t have another variation to compare to yet, but I think this recipe is pretty bulletproof overall.