Chinese Style Meat Buns
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If you’ve ever been to a Chinese bakery you have seen this type of meat buns among many other delicious goodies. These buns are also called pork buns, or Char Siu Bao which basically is a barbecued pork filled bun. They can be either steamed or baked as I chose to make mine. I have never tried the steamed ones, only baked, but I’m sure they are just as good. Char Siu refers to the pork filling and bao means bun. There’s my Chinese lesson of the day. 🙂
Since I always have to try and make at home what I see and like at bakeries or restaurants, my challenge this time was to make these pork filled buns. Not that it’s much of a challenge, they’re pretty easy to make. I loved them, they turned out amazing and they were gone in no time.
The dough is quite a simple dough with simple ingredients. In a small bowl, mix the warm water, sugar and yeast and let it sit until it starts foaming, for about 15 minutes. In a large bowl add the flour and to it add the egg, oil, salt and the yeast mixture.
Mix it all together using your hands, if you find the dough too sticky just add more flour. Knead the dough on a floured surface for a few more minutes, until it becomes elastic. Â Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let it rise until doubled in size, in a warm spot.
While the dough is resting we can make the filling. I used one pork loin that was about 1 1/2 lb in weight. To make the marinade, is simple as well. Cut up the pork loin in small pieces and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, add the garlic and ginger paste, vegetable oil, honey, Hoisin sauce, soy sauce, wine, pepper, salt, five spice powder, and sesame oil. Whisk everything all together and add the pork to it. Let the pork marinate for about 1 hour, or until the dough is almost ready.
Heat a skillet, over medium heat and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to it. When the oil is hot add the pork mixture including the marinade to it and cook until the pork is cooked thoroughly, for about 5 minutes. Before removing it from heat, add the green onions to it and mix well.
After all this is said and done the dough should have doubled in size nicely.
Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.
Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a disc, so that it’s about 4 or 5 inches in diameter. Place heaping tablespoon of the meat mixture in the middle of it.
Seal the bun by gathering up the edges of the disc.
Place the sealed side down bun, on an ungreased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining balls and meat mixture.
Brush the buns with egg wash and bake in a preheated oven at 350 F degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the buns are nice and golden brown.
They look so good and are so delicious, you will love them.
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Chinese Style Meat Buns
Ingredients
Dough
- 1/2 cup water (water)
- 2 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg (beaten)
- 3 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling
- 1 pork loin (1 1/2 lb)
- 2 teaspoon garlic and ginger paste
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce (low sodium)
- 1 tablespoon red wine
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper (freshly ground)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 sprigs green onion (finely chopped)
Egg wash
- 1 egg (beaten)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix the warm water, sugar and yeast and let it sit until it starts foaming, for about 15 minutes. In a large bowl add the flour and to it add the egg, oil, salt and the yeast mixture.
- Mix it all together using your hands, if you find the dough too sticky just add more flour. Knead the dough on a floured surface for a few more minutes, until it becomes elastic. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let it rise until doubled in size, in a warm spot.
- Cut up the pork loin in small pieces and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, add the garlic and ginger paste, vegetable oil, honey, Hoisin sauce, soy sauce, wine, pepper, salt, five spice powder, and sesame oil. Whisk everything all together and add the pork to it. Let the pork marinate for about 1 hour, or until the dough is almost ready.
- eat a skillet, over medium heat and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to it. When the oil is hot add the pork mixture including the marinade to it and cook until the pork is cooked thoroughly, for about 5 minutes. Before removing it from heat, add the green onions to it and mix well.
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a disc, so that it’s about 4 or 5 inches in diameter. Place heaping tablespoon of the meat mixture in the middle of it.
- Seal the bun by gathering up the edges of the disc.
- Place the sealed side down bun, on an ungreased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining balls and meat mixture.
- Brush the buns with egg wash and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the buns are nice and golden brown.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Made these recently and they were so tasty! The filling had amazing flavor! I did not have any red wine so I subbed a tsp each of red wine vinegar and Chinese cooking wine. I used a tiny bit of flour to thicken up the liquid from the pork after it cooked.I used tenderloin chopped up fine as it is what I had on hand. I also let the filled buns rest for about 15 minutes before baking. It worked out awesome. Cant wait to make and eat them again! Thanks for a great recipe!
Sounds like you nailed those meat buns with creative tweaks! Tenderloin and a little rest before baking – genius moves.
Hi so I was making your recipe and I was wondering how come the Buns don’t have one final rise after their shaped and filled with the meat filling I’m making them right now so I would love to know if I should leave them for about 15 minutes or so before baking them.
In traditional Chinese-style meat bun recipes, the final rise often isn’t required after shaping and filling because the dough has already gone through the initial rise. However, letting them rest for about 15 minutes before baking can give the dough a bit more time to puff up slightly, leading to a softer texture. Feel free to try it and see how it works for you.
This is a wonderful recipe and the filling can be changed to anything from chicken teriyaki to the delicious one given here. My first batch didn’t last half an hour and is now a proud staple of our bring it to a party dish rotation!
Nice n soft buns . Thank you.
Tried this recipe, proud of my self for doing it…loved it!
Can I make them the day before, put them to the fridge and bake them the next day?
Thank you!
Absolutely!
Beautiful dough! Delicious and so easy to woek with. I filled it with tuna, corned beef and hotdog. My family always eat them in one sitting. If I’m going to double the recipe should I use the same amount of yeast? Thanks for sharing your passion and talent with us Jo and warm regards from the Philippines!
I would increase the yeast slightly! Enjoy 🙂
Can you freeze these once they’ve been cooked?
I think they would be great as a simple breakfast to just pop in the microwave to heat up.
Yes absolutely!
I love your stuffed pork buns. A great recipe, easily done.
Glenn
Hello Jo. I posted a question last weekend about the raspberry buns. Well, the filling didnt turn out, so needless to say they were too soggy. So, today i thought i would try these buns. I didnt have pork, or onions. (and ran out off eggs) So i used chicken breasts, finely chopped. marinated them in a Chinese bbq sauce. WOW! this dough is unbelievable. It was such a soft, smooth, easy to work with dough. I will absolutely make these again! Cant wait to try more. (those chocolate doughnuts are next) I love this site.
Thanks Joanne. The dough is versatile which is great because you could fill it with anything. Glad you’re enjoying everything. 🙂
I’m a Filipino and we love to eat this, this is called siopao in my language and we usually eat them steamed but I’d like to try baking them this time. I’ll let you know the result. Thanks!
Looking forward to hearing your results. I would love to try them steamed, I’ll just have to make them again I guess. 🙂
Wow I just made them and they taste amazing just like the ones you can buy! My only problem was that the bottoms burned a lot for all of them so I had to scrape that off, but other than that they were just perfect. Any suggestions for how to prevent the bottoms from burning?
Hi Eva,
I’m glad you liked them. I think the bottom burning might be because of your oven, not really sure…maybe try putting them on a higher rack, that would help.
These look so good and remind me of dim sum 🙂
hi, how do you measure your flour, do you use deep and sweep or lightly spooned the flour to the cup? I’d like to know coz I wanted to try this recipe. thanks for sharing.
Hi Jenny,
I usually scoop the measuring cup into the flour then level it off with a knife.
Jo
Char siu bao are my favourite. I could eat them all day.