This is my sister-in-law's recipe for Char Siu Bao, or Chinese steamed buns with BBQ pork. It takes some effort but is extremely worth it. You can make your own Chinese BBQ pork or you can buy it in some Chinese shops.
This was a good recipe, but I think some of the directions were a little bit off: 1) 1/2 lb. of pork was much too little for 24 buns. I bought 1 lb just to be safe and still didn't have enough filling to go around. 2) The directions read 2 tablespoons of filling were to be put in each bun, but there were probably only 8 tablespoons of filling total; I think it should have read 1-2 teaspoons - or 1 tablespoon at the maximum, if you made extra filling. 3) Coating the bowl with 2 tablespoons of oil seemed excessive to me; I just used 1 and it worked fine. After I made these changes, things went smoothly and the char siu bao turned out great; a lot like the ones from back home! I made my own char siu with a packaged marinade mix instead of trying to find it at a store. If you want tasty dim sum, try this one out; if I can do it anyone can Thank you so much for the great recipe! - 10 Apr 2005 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)
This is a fantastic dim sum recipe! To cut down on time I just used my bread machine to knead the dough. I was unable to purchase the asian barbequed pork, but I just marinaded the pork in hoisin sauce and broiled it. It turned out great! - 29 Apr 2004 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)
YUUUUM!!! Wow...I can't believe these turned out sOo good! They took quite a while and a lot of effort (I don't have a bread machine so I had to knead myself). But, it was well worth it!! I could not find any bbq pork either so I just took a pork loin and cooked it all day in the crock pot with lots of chinese bbq sauce & garlic. Very good on it's own by the way! Then, followed the directions exactly. best Pork Buns I have ever had!! My picky boyfriend thought they were excellent as well! ThanXx sOo much for the recipe!! - 29 May 2007 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)