Sticky Chinese Pulled Pork Bao Buns
Bao buns are cool. They’re light, fluffy and slightly sweet. When you pair that with slow cooked chinese-style BBQ pulled pork, you know you’re onto a winner.
The first thing we need to tell you, is that we didn’t make the bao buns. If you fancy making your own, there’s some really good recipes out there (such as this one by Jeremy Pang). Instead, we opted for picking ours up from the local Chinese supermarket. You’ll most likely find them in the frozen section, and then it’s just a case of a gentle steam or microwave to prepare them.
Now onto the pulled pork. This is a Chinese-style BBQ recipe, which uses Hoisin sauce as the base. The other ingredients add a balance of flavours to bring the best out of the pork shoulder. After a low and slow cook for 7+ hours, the pork will shred like a dream.
To make the pulled pork super sticky, you need to transfer the sauce from the slow cooker to a hot pan at the end. Add some cornflour (mixed with a little water first), then cook on a high heat, stirring continuously while it bubbles. Add this back to the pulled pork once you’ve reached your desired sticky consistency! This step is optional, but we recommend it.
Stuff the pulled pork into your bao buns and top with some crunchy julienne cut veg of your choice, such as carrots, red cabbage and spring onion.
Slow Cooker Sticky Chinese Pulled Pork Bao Buns
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg Pork Shoulder
- 3 tbsp Soy sauce
- 3 tbsp Honey
- 2 tbsp Dry sherry
- 0.5 tbsp Brown sugar
- 75 ml Hoisin sauce
- 3 cloves Garlic Minced
- 5 g Ginger Minced
- 1 tbsp Chinese 5 spice
- 1 tsbp Cornflour For thickening after cooking
- 8+ Bao buns Check your local Chinese supermarket
Instructions
- Remove the skin from the pork and discard. Cut the pork shoulder into into 6-10 large chunks, to allow for a more even cook and easier shred at the end.
- Mix everything (except the cornflour) in the slow cooker.
- Cook for 7-8 hours on low.
- Carefully remove the pork and shred.
- (Optional) Transfer the liquid from the slow cooker to a cooking pot, and heat over a medium heat. Add cornflour (mixed with a little water first) and stir continuously until the sauce bubbles, thickens and gets sticky.
- Add the thickened sauce to the shredded pork and stir well.
- Follow the cooking instructions on your bao buns, cut them open and stuff the pork inside with any added veg of your choice.
Notes
Nutrition
Like the idea of pulled pork, but want some different flavours? Check out our Dr Pepper BBQ pulled pork recipe.
