Recipe: Pork Buns

Cha Siu Bao

Salapao

Baozi

No matter what they're listed as on the menu - I'm a sucker for a BBQ Pork Bun. And unfortunately when a craving hits sometimes you don't want to have to go all the way to a downtown restaurant or risk the bakery around the corner is out. So why not make your own?

That's exactly what I did. And while I've had better I'm at least on the right path to Pork Bun Bliss. 

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The great thing about experimenting, in my opinion, is trying something new each time until you get it right. This time around I bought a pork roast and put it in the slow cooker with a variety of ingredients (ketchup, soy sauce, hoysen sauce, sweet chili sauce and a few shakes of things here and there) until I had a pretty yummy Asian-style BBQ sauce. 

As for the exterior bun - sure I could have gone to allrecipes.com and found (too) many recipes I could have followed. But on a Friday night, after a long and exhausting week of work, the last thing I wanted to do was anything from scratch. So I used Pillsbury's Hot Roll Mix. 

And voilà! We're eating homemade pork buns for dinner. 

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Rolling & Punching out the dough (good after a rough day at work)

After following the directions on the box, cut into 1-2in pieces

Roll out each piece and fill with 1 tablespoon worth of BBQ pork

Fold up purse style

Bake on a greased pan 15-20 minutes at 375*

They'll come out crisp and hard on the outside

But warm, soft and gooey on the inside

Good luck with yours and let me know how it turns out!