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Smoked Char Siu Ribs

Combination-cooked Char Siu style ribs, taking advantage of both smoking and sous vide.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 day 2 hours
Resting Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 day 3 hours
Servings: 8 people
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American, Chinese
Calories: 660
Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients
  

Sauce
  • 2/3 cup Hoisin Sauce (~158mL)
  • 1/2 cup Honey (~118mL)
  • 1/2 cup Soy Sauce or Tamari (~118mL)
  • 1/3 cup Dry Sherry (~79mL) or other cooking wine
  • 2 tsp Chinese Five-Spice (~10g)
  • 1/3 cup Dark Soy Sauce (~79mL) this isn't regular soy sauce, it's like the Balsamic reduction of soy sauces
  • 1/3 cup Chile Oil (~79mL)
  • Cornstarch Slurry as much as needed to thicken
Spice Rub
  • 2.5 Tbsp. Chinese Five-Spice (~37.5g)
  • 2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar (~27.5g)
  • 2 Tbsp. Kosher Salt (~27.5g)
Meat
  • 2 racks St. Louis-style Ribs about 8lbs.
Garnish
  • Toasted Sesame Seeds
  • Green Onions

Equipment

  • 1 Smoker
  • 1 Sous Vide Circulator
  • 1 Sous Vide Basin I built mine from a cooler with a hole-saw
  • 1 Vacuum Sealer
  • 1 Sauce Pan

Method
 

Setup & Initial Smoke
  1. Preheat smoker to 250°F (121°C).
  2. If it hasn’t been done already, remove membrane from ribs using a paring knife and a paper towel to grip and pull the membrane.
  3. Mix spice rub of Chinese Five-Spice, brown sugar, and salt, and apply generously to ribs.
  4. Optional, but a good idea: Once smoker reaches temp., smoke ribs for about 2 hours.
Mix Sauce & Sous Vide
  1. Preheat sous vide setup to 148°F (64.5°C).
  2. Mix cooking liquid of hoisin, honey, soy sauce or tamari, cooking wine, Chinese Five-Spice, dark soy sauce, and chile oil.
  3. Once the ribs have smoked for 2 hours, take them off the smoker and place them in vacuum seal bags.
  4. Add a little of the sauce to each bag, then place in sous vide bath.  Cook for 20 –22 hours.  Reserve unused sauce in fridge overnight.
Finish Smoking & Glazing
  1. The next day, preheat your smoker again to 250°F (121°C).
  2. Open the sous vide bags and pour as much of the cooking liquid as you can from each bag into a sauce pan.
  3. Add the reserved portion of the sauce from the fridge to this as well, and heat on medium to medium-high heat.  Add as much cornstarch slurry as it takes to thicken the sauce. Note: Watch out for boil-overs.
  4. Pat ribs dry, and return them to the smoker for1.5 – 2 hours.
  5. Brush a layer of thickened sauce on the ribs, roughly every 30 minutes.
  6. At the end of the cook-time, remove ribs from the smoker and allow to rest for about 30 minutes before cutting.
  7. Garnish with toasted sesame and green onion, and serve.
  8. Win the dang cook-off, if you feel so inclined.