Chinese Meat Jerky (Bak-Kwa)

It’s almost Chinese New Year soon and Chinese Meat Jerky (Bak-Kwa)‘s something found in almost all Chinese homes during this festive season. Bak-Kwa (in Hokkien dialect) or Long-Yuk (in Cantonese dialect)‘s yummily addictive.. My girlfriends living in Netherlands are making it. Looking at their photos made me yearn for it. Since we couldn’t get any good ones like we can in Malaysia, I decided to try making it, a cheat’s version as I used my oven to grill them.. 😛

Reciped adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover

Ingredients:

450-500g minced pork with at least with 10% fat (can use any kind of meat actually)
100g sugar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tbsp Chinese rice wine
½ tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark caramel sauce
1/8 tsp Chinese 5-spices powder
2 tbsp honey
a dash of pepper
½-¾ tsp salt, or to taste

timetable

recipe

Makes	9pcs using
	13”x13” tray
	(4mm height)
Prep time	Overnite
Cook time	±30 mins
Total time	overnite+1hr

overnite+1hr

total time

Preparation:

Put all ingredients in a big bowl and start mixing them with a pair of chopsticks or fork.
Blend and stir mixture in one direction till meat becomes gluey (very important to stir till gluey, otherwise meat will break up). Store in fridge for several hours or better, overnite.
Preheat oven at 160C.
Spread marinated mince thinly onto lined baking tray (using fingers or back of a spoon to spread).
Bake for 15 mins. Remove tray from oven. Increase oven temperature to 240C.
Wait for bak-kwa to slightly cool, then cut into desired size and shape using scissor, knife or pizza cutter. Return cut pcs to same baking tray. (If baking sheet’s too oily or wet, replace with another.)
Grill (top heat only) one side at 240C for 7 mins. Remove from oven, flip over, wait till oven temperature’s back to 240C and grill for another 5-7 mins or till golden brown and slightly burnt.
Once done, let bak-kwa cool and then, enjoy! 🙂

** store Bak-Kwa (after stage 5) in the freezer for later consumption. Defrost and grill (follow from stage 6). It’ll taste even better if charcoal-grilled. Adjust oven temperature accordingly, you know your oven better!!

Hahh.. the above heart-shaped bak-kwa were cut with a heart-form after stage 5 and grilled (with all leftover bits) at fan-oven 240C for 7 mins once. They got slightly burnt. Should have done at 5 mins. But then, the slightly burnt pcs taste really good and crispy.. So I dont know; mayb I’ll just let it be as they were..

It was good effort and not as difficult as I thought it would be to make..
A friend of mine said instead of chinese rice wine, use chinese rose wine for better flavour. Should try that another time then..

A collage made by one of my girlfriends. Her bak-kwa started the chain of bak-kwa baking.. 🙂