Chinese BBQ Spare Ribs
An easy, sweet Cantonese take on barbecue ribs!
Cooking Summary
Ingredients: (detailed list)
- Main Ingredient: pork rib
- Flavors: garlic salt, sugar, salt, white pepper, ketchup, Chinese cooking wine, five spice powder, red food coloring
- Glaze Ingredients: maltose/honey
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Top 3 Mistakes
- Covering the ribs with foil:
Line the baking tray for cleanup, but leave the ribs uncovered during cooking. Covering the meat traps moisture and works against the char the recipe is trying to develop.
- Marinating the ribs too long:
Follow the recipe's marinating window instead of leaving the ribs in the sauce indefinitely. The recipe warns that an overly long marinade can make the meat turn tough.
- Letting the sugar burn:
Watch the sugar closely during its heating step and follow the recipe’s cues. Letting it go too far changes the flavor, so prepare the next ingredients before you start cooking it.
Overview
What is siu paai gwat (燒排骨)?
The name of this dish is siu paai gwat. Siu means “roast”, and just like caa siu or siu juk (or Crispy Pork Belly), BBQ Spare Ribs belongs to the epic family of siu mei, which means Cantonese-style roasted meats. Traditionally, these meats were painstakingly roasted on spits and open fires, but nowadays, it’s impossible to walk through a Chinatown without running into a Chinese BBQ shop with dozens of delicious roasted meats hanging by the window.
Ingredients
Why this recipe
Most chinese bbq spare ribs recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 292.2K views, 5.4K likes on YouTube.
The magic of five spice powder
For those of you unfamiliar with five spice powder, or ng hoeng fan in Cantonese, it is an umbrella for the popular Chinese blends of spices that usually consist of cinnamon, fennel seeds, star anise, cloves, and peppers.
The number five doesn't necessarily literally mean that it has five ingredients as some blends use fewer spices and some blends use way more than five ingredients.
Five spice powder is actually a nod to the five traditional Chinese elements: earth, fire, water, wood, and metal. It's also a balancing act of the five traditional flavors of Chinese cuisine: salty, spicy, sour, sweet, and bitter.
How to select the perfect meat
You'll need to take a few things into consideration when buying meat for this recipe - the cut of meat and freshness.
There are cuts that have a lot of meat cut away. Some cuts have a lot of meat left on them. There are two types of spare ribs: some are narrower with thicker meat, some are wider with thinner meat. It's up to you what you like but for BBQ, Daddy Lau suggests that you get a wider cut.
When handling the meat, move it around a little. If it's not full of liquid, then it's fresh. If there's a lot of liquid, then it's been sitting out for a while.
Equipment you'll need
To make this, you’ll need a few things:
- a baking pan + baking rack - https://amzn.to/37OrAKs
- aluminum foil - https://amzn.to/2NwJxX3
- basting brush - https://amzn.to/3suYDew
This is optional, but you might also want to use a meat thermometer that allows you to monitor the internal temperature of the pork as it’s cooking.
My dad literally chuckled at me when I asked him about this and said, “we don’t cook this way,” but since I haven’t yet acquired my dad’s intuition in the kitchen, I like to use these to whenever I cook big pieces of meat.
How to make Chinese BBQ Spare Ribs
Create cuts between the bones and along the thick side of the ribs (3 lb) so that the meat takes on the flavors better and that it cooks faster.
Remove moisture from the ribs by dabbing both sides with a paper towel - this allows the ribs to take on the flavors better too.
Rub garlic salt (1 tbsp) onto the ribs. Make sure to cover all surfaces on both sides. Pay special attention to the slits that you made earlier.
In a medium bowl, mix sugar (1 tbsp), salt (2 tsp), white pepper (1 tsp), ketchup (2 tbsp), cooking wine (2 tbsp), five-spice powder (0.50 tsp), and red food coloring (0.25 tsp) (which is optional). Set aside for the next step.
Place ribs in a tray lined with a plastic sheet and spread the marinade thinly onto both sides of the ribs. Wrap ribs with the plastic sheet when finished.
Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours and a maximum of 8 hours. Daddy Lau recommends marinating in the morning and cooking it at night after you're finished with work.
Note that the meat will get tough if you let it marinate for too long.
For the glaze, you can use maltose or honey (2 tbsp). Brush it over the spare ribs and they'll glisten and taste great.
If you don't have either of those, you can combine 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp water in a small bowl. Microwave for one minute, stir the mixture, and microwave for another one minute. Make sure to mix the syrup in between otherwise the sugar may burn.
You'll know when it's done when the syrup sticks to the spoon. When it cools down, it'll thicken up more. BE CAREFUL AS THE SYRUP IS VERY HOT AT FIRST!
Remove ribs from the refrigerator and allow them to rest for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 400° F, which is 204° C.
Line the baking pan with foil, put a baking tray above the foil, and bake the ribs for 30-35 minutes.
Do not cover the meat as it will take longer to cook and you won't get any charring on the surface.
After 30-35 minutes of baking, remove the ribs and brush your glaze of choice onto them.
Put the ribs back into the oven for 10 more minutes.
Once the ribs have been baking for about 45 minutes in total, take it out and let it rest for 10 minutes.
If you cut into it while it's still hot, the juice will all come out.
Taste to adjust the flavors and plate once it's to your taste! This is usually served on a large serving plate and everyone can take the amount they want.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you make the sauce on Chinese BBQ Spare Ribs?
Our recipe calls for sugar, salt, white pepper, ketchup, cooking wine, five-spice powder, and optionally, red food coloring. Get the precise amounts in our recipe above.
Remember to use our tool to scale the amounts up or down according to how much you're making.
How do you choose good quality spare ribs?
Choose spare ribs that feel firm and that don't have a lot of liquid sloshing around in the package. It releases liquid as it sits out, so you know that the ones with more liquid have been out for longer. The firm ones with less liquid are more fresh.
How do you get a good char on homemade Chinese BBQ?
You can get those nice, slightly-burnt edges at home in your own oven!
When you roast the meat in the oven, put it on a baking rack so that the heated air can get under and all around the meat.
Do use foil to line the baking tray, but don't use foil to cover the meat as it's cooking. Doing so would trap moisture and prevent charring.
The sugar glaze will also help develop some char and texture in the crust.
How do you keep the meat juicy and tender?
Make sure the oven is at 400° F, which is 204° C, before you put the spare ribs in.
The high heat is essential to quickly cooking the surface of the meat and reducing the amount of time the moisture has to escape. Lower heat and longer cooking time will result in dry meat.
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Made with love ❤️
We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.