Roasted pork belly with honey also known as Chinese BBQ pork is a famous dish in the southern part of China especially in Guangdong province. It has a slightly savory yet sweet taste. Homemade roasted pork belly with honey needs only easy preparation but yield a well-balanced wonderful taste.
We love pork belly very much! You may find there are lots of yummy pork belly recipes here, including Cantonese roasted crispy pork belly, Hong Shao Rou and Shanxi style stewed pork belly used in Chinese Roujiamo, twice cooked pork belly, Szechuan style cold pork belly in hot garlic sauce. Pork butt and pork belly are the two most best ingredients for Chinese BBQ pork. However they provide slightly different tastes due to different fat amounts.
This is a simplified version with very basic home cooking sauces. For a well-flavored homemade roasted pork, enough marinating time is the key to success. Make the preparation in previous day and guarantee 24 hours to 48 hours marinating. This would be a great dish for a big family dinner party.
You will need
- 500g pork belly (around 1 pound )
- 2 garlic cloves
- 3-4 ginger slices
- 1 scallion
- Honey water for brushing (1 tablespoon honey + 1 tablespoon marinating sauce or water)
Marinating sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon cooking wine
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon five-spicy powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
Cut the pork belly into smaller strips and then mix with marinating sauce, ginger, garlic and scallion. Place in air-tight bag and do a small message. Then keep in fridge for 24 hours to 48 hours.
On the next day, prepare a small bowl to mix the 1 tablespoon honey with 1 tablespoon of marinating sauce. Brush the honey sauce on both sides of the pork belly. Roast for around 20 minutes. Take out and brush honey water once again. Continue roasting for 10 to 15 minutes. Cut into slices after cooling down.
The following step is optional: if you want to strengthen the taste, simmer the marinating sauce for 4-5 minutes and serve as a dip or drizzle on top. If serve directly, do not eat too much once. But you can use it as ingredient in noodle soups, as a filling for buns or stir fries including Singapore Mei Fun and classic Cantonese pork fried rice. And sometimes, I serve it with steamed fold over buns.
- 500 g pork belly , around 1 pound
- Honey water for brushing , 1 tablespoon honey + 1 tablespoon marinating sauce
- 2 garlic clove , sliced
- 1 spring onion
- 3-4 ginger slices
- 1 tbsp. honey
- 1 tbsp. cooking wine
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. hoisin sauce
- 1/4 tsp. five-spicy powder
- 1/4 tsp. ground white pepper
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Clean the pork belly and drain.
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In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients for sauce well.
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Marinate the pork belly with the sauce for 24 to 48 hours in fridge.
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Preheat oven to 200 degree C.
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Prepare a small bowl to mix the 1 tablespoon honey with 1 tablespoon of marinating sauce. Brush the honey sauce on both sides of the pork belly. Roast for around 20 minutes.
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Turn over and brush the honey water again. Roast for another 10 to 15 minutes.
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Cool down for several minutes and cut into slices before serving.
Recipe Video
Recipe firstly published in 2013 and updated in 2016.
Learn Chinese Via Chinese Food Menu
Chinese BBQ Pork 叉烧猪肉 chā-shāo（Char Sui）-zhū-ròu(pork)
Roasted Pork Belly with Honey 蜜糖烤五花肉 mì-táng(honey)-kǎo(roast)-wǔ-huā-ròu(pork belly )
I LOVE pork belly… the process is quite easy, and it’s a perfect weeknight meal with this pork belly family. 😀 I can’t love this dish enough. 😉
Yes Nami. It is so good for weekend meal and super easy to prepare. Happy cooking ahead!
I notice you cook with wine, what kind and brand of wine did you use if you dont mind me asking?
I did this recipe and use a dry wine and it didnt come out as good. Jw. Thanks
Hi Vinnie,
I am using Shaoxing rice cooking wine. It is usually used in stir fry recipes or marinade sauce.
Do you want to use the belly with all the fat on it too? And the bit that sometimes turns to crackling?
Thanks!
Hi Marianne,
I prefer the middle part of a pork belly strip(the fat end is removed). You can use pork belly with more lean meat if you do not like too much fat. The pork belly has two ends, one half with more fat and the other half with more lean meat.
This is extremely great with steamed buns.
always love reading your posts…..it’s dangerous too because i’m usually in bed when i read it 😉 Will definitely add this to a recipe to make now that it’s autumn and the [hopefully] the weather will cool down here in Los Angeles.
Thanks for this great recipe!
Pork and honey goes so well together, I love making it as find the honey gives it a nice sticky texture.
Thanks Martyn. Yes, they are great partners. This is quite easy and I love it very much too.
Is there a substitute you can use for pork belly? I can’t seem to find pork belly in any local supermarkets/asia mart etc.
Pork butt is a great substitute.
I just made this and it came out amazing!
I made two batches, one cooked a bit longer than the other. They were both great, but the one cooked less (I took it out as soon as temperature reached 145 degrees F) was even better.
Today I just ate it plain with a side of spinach, but tomorrow I’m making the bao with the leftovers!
Hay, thanks for trying my recipe and I am so glad that you like it. Low temperature can keep more juice inside. It is really a great tip. I will try your method next time. Happy cooking!
How would you recommend reheating this dish?
My favorite way is to pan-frying them or you can use it simply as bacon.
Hi Elaine,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe, can i substitute the hoisin sauce with other sauce or omitted it because I’m allergy to seafood so can’t take hoisin sauce?
You can skip hoisin sauce and increase the amounts of soy sauce and honey.
Does the pork belly have the skin on or off?
With skin.
This recipe looks good! and I’d like to try it. Does it matter whether it is skinless or not? I have a piece of skinless pork belly.
No. You can use skinless pork belly too.