BBQ Pork Steamed Buns
These BBQ pork steamed buns are so soft and generously filled with sweet, savory, and juicy BBQ pork! The doughs are easy to work with so you can even make them into cute piggies <3
Equipment
- Bowls
- Whisk
- Wire rack
- baster
- Frying pan
- steamer bamboo basket or stainless steel basket
Ingredients
For the BBQ pork
- 1 pound pork shoulder 455g
---Marinade
- ½ tablespoon sugar 6g
- 1½ tablespoons honey 32g
- 1½ tablespoons hoisin sauce 24g
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce 6g
- ½ teaspoon five-spice powder 7g
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil 5g
- 1½ tablespoons oil 14g
---Sauce
- 1 cup onions diced, 52g
- 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce 37.5g
- 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce 15ml
- 1½ teaspoons honey 10.5g
- 2 teaspoons garlic minced, 6g
- ¼ teaspoon salt 1.5g
For the buns
- 2 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons flour 350g
- ¾ teaspoon instant yeast 2.5g
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder 3g
- 3 tablespoons sugar 37.5g
- ⅔ cup water 178ml
- 1 tablespoon canola oil 15ml
- Pink gel food coloring
- ¼ teaspoon chacoal powder 0.5g
Instructions
For the filling
- For the BBQ pork, in a medium bowl, whisk marinade ingredients until well combined. Add the pork shoulder, and toss to make sure the pork is evenly coated.
- Cover, refrigerate and let marinate for at least 3 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper and place a wire rack on top.
- Remove pork from marinade; reserve the marinade for basting.
- Place pork on a wire rack, and pour water into the baking tray. Roast for 25 minutes, flip halfway through, and baste with the remaining marinade. The pork is done when the internal temperature is at least 145 degrees.
- Remove pork from the oven, and wrap it with aluminum foil. Let it rest for 10 minutes before dicing it into small pieces. Set aside.
- For the sauce, saute all the sauce ingredients in a frying pan. Once the onion is cooked, add the diced pork into the sauce and mix well. Take it off from the heat then cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
For the buns
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, yeast, baking powder, and sugar.
- Stir in water and oil until most of the dough comes together.
- Take ⅓ of the dough (about 200g) and set it aside. This is for the colored portion.
- Turn out the main white dough on a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Place the dough in an oiled bowl then cover. Let it proof for 1 hour or until double in size.
- For the rest of the dough, divide it into 2 portions – one quarter-size round dough (about 10-15 g) and the rest. Mix in pink gel food coloring to the larger portion of the dough until well blended. Then knead in ¼ teaspoon of charcoal powder to the quarter-size dough, until well combined. Next, place each dough in separate oiled bowls, cover, and let it proof for 1 hour or until double in size.
- After the first proofing, divide the plain white dough into 8 pieces (about 50 – 60 grams each).
- Then form into a ball, flatten the outer perimeter and add a spoonful of the BBQ pork sauce into the center. Pull the edges up over the meat and reform the dough into a tight ball. Repeat for all 8 pieces.
- Grab some pink dough for the ears and nose and black dough for the eyes. Stick them to the formed buns with a dab of water. Use a back of a toothpick to form nostrils.
- Place each bun onto a piece of parchment paper and let it proof for 15 minutes before steaming.
- While the buns proof for the final time, heat up some water in your steamer. *I don’t have a bamboo steamer so I used a stainless steel steamer. If you do as well, cover the glass lid with a clean tea towel to absorb any condensation and then place it on top of the stainless steel steamer.
- Make sure the water is boiling before adding the buns with parchment paper on the bottom. Steam for 12 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let the buns rest in the steamer for 2 minutes before serving. If you use a stainless steel steamer, repeat this step until all the buns are steamed.