Chinese Pork Meatballs (with BBQ sauce / 叉烧酱）

 

I enjoy Chinese pork meatballs, especially with my favorite Chinese barbecue sauce.

What do I like about it? It’s easy to make and packed with flavor, but it becomes even more addictive when served with Chinese BBQ sauce. Plus, I can prepare it in large batches and freeze the meatballs and the sauce, significantly reducing preparation time.

It’s so versatile that I can serve it with noodles or rice or cook it in a homemade chicken broth.

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1. Ingredients necessary to prepare the pork meatballs

• Meat. Although I use pork to make these easy pork meatballs, you can use ground chicken, beef, or ground turkey instead. The key to making juicy meatballs is to include some fat in the ground meat. Using one part of fat for three parts of lean meat will yield the best result. Adding finely chopped chicken skin can make ground chicken meatballs more tender. Additionally, ground chicken thighs will yield more tender meatballs than breast meat due to their higher fat content.
• Ginger, garlic. Ginger and garlic are the primary aromatic ingredients in most Chinese cooking. Chop or coarsely mince both ingredients to incorporate them into the meatballs.
• Water chestnuts. Adding some chopped water chestnuts as one of the meatball ingredients makes it less dense and more tender. If you don’t have chestnuts, substitute them with chopped onions or yam bean (jicama).
• Seasonings for the meatballs. I use sesame oil to enhance the flavor of the meatballs. Ground white pepper is used instead of black pepper as it is more common in Asian cuisine. Salt, sugar, and light soy sauce are the primary flavoring agents I have included. Cornstarch helps to bind all the ingredients together. Lastly, add some red pepper flakes if you prefer it to be spicy.
• The Chinese BBQ sauce. The sauce is an adaptation of traditional Chinese barbecue sauce. The sauce ingredients are maltose, brown sugar, red fermented beancurd, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, Hoisin sauce, and Chu Hou Sauce, available in most Asian grocery stores. If you find the recipe too complex, you can leave out the red fermented beancurd, which is mainly included for its reddish color. In addition, if you have trouble finding Chu Hou Sauce, you can substitute it with an equal amount of Hoisin sauce. Maltose is a common ingredient in Chinese cuisine but you can use honey as a substitute.

2. Steps to prepare Chinese pork meatballs

Below are the detailed steps for the Asian pork meatballs recipe.

a. Make the meatballs

1. Chop the garlic cloves. Finely mince fresh ginger or squeeze out the juice with your palm. Use the ginger juice only if you don’t like chewing on ginger pieces.
2. Ask your butcher to choose the cut of meat with some fat and grind it. Alternatively, you can use your food processor or a cleaver to mince it manually.
3. Add all the ingredients A in the recipe to the ground pork in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. 
4. Next, hold the patty and smash it into the mixing bowl 40 to 50 times. This action is called 哒 (pronounced as ‘daat’), a commonly used technique used by the Chinese to tenderize meat.
5. Finally, shape the ground pork mixture into the size of a meatball you prefer.

b. Pan-fry the meatballs

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat. Place the meatballs in the pan to pan-fry undisturbed for a minute. It’s best to use a non-stick pan to avoid the hassle of cleaning the frying pan afterward. 
2. Once they have firmed up, gently move them around and pan-fry them until they turn golden. 
3. Briefly cover them with a lid for about a minute over low heat to ensure the internal of the meatballs is cooked.  For pork, the internal temperature should be 160ºF/ 71ºC.

c. Make the sauce and serve

1. Prepare the Chinese barbecue pork sauce (Char Siu sauce) by mixing all the Ingredients B in the recipe in a small bowl. Transfer to a small pan and heat until it reduces to become a sticky sauce. Turn off the heat, and the sauce is ready.
2. Coat the meatballs thoroughly with the sauce in the pan.
3. Finally, garnish the meatballs by sprinkling some toasted sesame seeds and thinly sliced green onions on top before serving.