Char Siu Pork Fried Rice: Using Leftover Chinese BBQ Pork

What is char siu fried rice?

Char siu fried rice is the classic Cantonese use for leftover Chinese BBQ pork (叉燒, char siu). The combination is iconic: sweet-savory glazed pork, dispersed through golden-grained fried rice with a classic soy-and-oyster-sauce seasoning. It’s the dish every Cantonese household makes the day after a roast pork dinner, and the dish every Chinese restaurant offers as a special when they have char siu trim leftover from their hanging-pork operation.

If you’ve never tried it, the difference between char siu fried rice and standard pork fried rice is the quality of the pork. Char siu is marinated in hoisin, soy, honey, and Chinese five-spice, then roasted until the edges caramelize. Each bite has both sugar-glaze sweetness and savory depth. It’s a different ingredient than “chopped pork.”

Where to get char siu

Three options:

1. Buy it ready-made. Most American cities have a Chinese roast meat shop or BBQ counter where you can buy char siu by the pound, typically $10–15 per lb. It’s sold sliced or as whole strips; either works. Some Chinese supermarkets (99 Ranch, H Mart, Hmart) also stock char siu pre-packaged in their meat departments.

2. Make it from scratch. Marinate a pork shoulder or pork tenderloin in hoisin, oyster sauce, soy sauce, honey, Shaoxing wine, and Chinese five-spice for at least 4 hours (overnight is better), then roast at 425°F for 30–40 minutes, basting with the marinade and a honey glaze. The Wok by Kenji López-Alt has a definitive recipe; The Woks of Life has a great free version online too.

3. Use the char siu bao filling approach. Buy generic Chinese-restaurant roast pork (the red-tinted pork sliced into the wonton soup at takeout joints), dice it, and toss with hoisin, oyster sauce, and a touch of brown sugar. It’s not authentic, but it gets you 80% of the way with 10% of the effort.

This recipe assumes you’ve already got the char siu — it picks up from there.

What makes this fried rice different

Three small tweaks distinguish char siu fried rice from a generic Cantonese pork fried rice:

Oyster sauce in the seasoning blend. Most fried rice variants don’t use it. Char siu version does, because the sweet-savory profile of the pork itself harmonizes with oyster sauce’s complementary umami in a way that’s specifically Cantonese.

A higher rice-to-protein ratio than usual. Char siu is intensely flavored, so 8 oz of it can flavor 4 cups of rice — twice the rice-to-protein ratio of, say, shrimp fried rice. Don’t overcrowd with pork; let the rice be the star.

No carrots. A small thing, but classic Cantonese char siu fried rice uses only peas — no carrots. The orange dots that distinguish American Chinese fried rice are absent. You can add them if you want, but it’s slightly off-style.

Ingredients

For the rice and protein

• 4 cups day-old jasmine rice, broken up
• 8 oz char siu (Chinese BBQ pork), diced into 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons neutral high-heat oil, divided

For the aromatics and vegetables

• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 inch ginger, minced
• 4 scallions, whites and greens separated, both thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

For the sauce

• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (to finish)

Method

1. Mix the sauce. Whisk together light soy, dark soy, oyster sauce, sugar, white pepper, and Shaoxing wine in a small bowl. Reserve the sesame oil separately.
2. Cook the eggs. Heat the wok over high heat until smoking. Add 1 tablespoon oil and swirl. Pour in beaten eggs and stir-scramble for 30 seconds until just set. Transfer to a plate.
3. Warm the char siu. Add another tablespoon of oil. Add the diced char siu and stir-fry for 60 seconds — you’re just warming and lightly crisping the edges, not cooking it from raw. Transfer to the egg plate.
4. Bloom the aromatics. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add garlic, ginger, and scallion whites; stir-fry for 15 seconds until fragrant but not browned.
5. Stir-fry the rice. Add the rice. Press into the wok with the back of your spatula for 20 seconds, then toss. Repeat the press-and-toss for 90 seconds until every grain looks coated and slightly toasty.
6. Add the sauce. Pour the sauce mixture over the rice and toss for 30 seconds until evenly coated. Add the peas and toss for another 15 seconds.
7. Combine and finish. Return eggs and char siu to the wok. Add scallion greens. Fold gently for 15 seconds. Off the heat, add sesame oil and toss once more.
8. Serve. Plate immediately. Char siu fried rice gets even better with a drizzle of chili oil or a dollop of hot mustard on the side.

Pro tips

• Dice the char siu small. Quarter-inch to half-inch pieces. Bigger chunks mean some bites have no pork and others are overwhelmed by it. Distribute the flavor.
• Don’t overcook the char siu in the wok. It’s already cooked. You’re just warming and crisping the edges. Sixty seconds at high heat is plenty; longer dries it out and burns the marinade glaze.
• Use jasmine rice, not basmati. Cantonese cooking is built around medium-length jasmine, and the flavor doesn’t carry the same way on basmati. Other long-grain rice works in a pinch.
• Don’t skip the Shaoxing wine in the sauce. Even just 1 tablespoon adds a complexity you can’t get from soy alone. If you don’t have Shaoxing, dry sherry is the standard substitute.
• The egg goes in first, comes back last. This is the universal rule for fried rice with proteins — see our pillar guide for why.

Variations

Char siu and shrimp fried rice: add 4 oz of brined shrimp at the protein step, alongside the char siu. Reduce char siu to 6 oz to keep the protein balance reasonable. Classic dim sum brunch combination.

With pineapple: add 1/2 cup small pineapple chunks at the same step as the peas. Sweet-savory pairing that’s popular in Cantonese-Hawaiian fusion cooking.

With Chinese sausage (lap cheong): swap 2 oz of the char siu for 2 oz of sliced Chinese sausage. Gives a smokier, slightly stronger pork flavor.

Serving and storing

Like all fried rice, this is best served immediately — the texture starts degrading within minutes of plating. If you have leftovers, refrigerate in a shallow container (uncovered for the first 30 minutes so steam escapes, then covered), and reheat the next day by stir-frying briefly with a teaspoon of fresh oil. Microwave reheating works but turns the rice gummy.

For a complete dim sum meal, pair this with our char siu bao buns — if you’ve made bao earlier in the week, the leftover filling can substitute directly for the diced char siu here.

What’s next

Try the other variants in our fried rice hub:

• Restaurant-Style Shrimp Fried Rice — same technique with shrimp and a tighter seasoning blend
• Khao Pad (Thai Fried Rice) — fish sauce instead of soy, lime at the table
• Invincible Egg Fried Rice — the minimalist viral version
• The Ultimate Fried Rice Guide — technique fundamentals and troubleshooting

For the canonical reference on Cantonese cooking and char siu specifically, The Wok by Kenji López-Alt has both a char siu recipe and the fried rice variations that build on it.