I enjoy Chinese pork meatballs, especially with my favorite Chinese barbecue sauce.

What do I like about it? It’s easy to make and packed with flavor, but it becomes even more addictive when served with Chinese BBQ sauce. Plus, I can prepare it in large batches and freeze the meatballs and the sauce, significantly reducing preparation time.

It’s so versatile that I can serve it with noodles or rice or cook it in a homemade chicken broth.

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1. Ingredients necessary to prepare the pork meatballs

• Meat. Although I use pork to make these easy pork meatballs, you can use ground chicken, beef, or ground turkey instead. The key to making juicy meatballs is to include some fat in the ground meat. Using one part of fat for three parts of lean meat will yield the best result. Adding finely chopped chicken skin can make ground chicken meatballs more tender. Additionally, ground chicken thighs will yield more tender meatballs than breast meat due to their higher fat content.
• Ginger, garlic. Ginger and garlic are the primary aromatic ingredients in most Chinese cooking. Chop or coarsely mince both ingredients to incorporate them into the meatballs.
• Water chestnuts. Adding some chopped water chestnuts as one of the meatball ingredients makes it less dense and more tender. If you don’t have chestnuts, substitute them with chopped onions or yam bean (jicama).
• Seasonings for the meatballs. I use sesame oil to enhance the flavor of the meatballs. Ground white pepper is used instead of black pepper as it is more common in Asian cuisine. Salt, sugar, and light soy sauce are the primary flavoring agents I have included. Cornstarch helps to bind all the ingredients together. Lastly, add some red pepper flakes if you prefer it to be spicy.
• The Chinese BBQ sauce. The sauce is an adaptation of traditional Chinese barbecue sauce. The sauce ingredients are maltose, brown sugar, red fermented beancurd, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, Hoisin sauce, and Chu Hou Sauce, available in most Asian grocery stores. If you find the recipe too complex, you can leave out the red fermented beancurd, which is mainly included for its reddish color. In addition, if you have trouble finding Chu Hou Sauce, you can substitute it with an equal amount of Hoisin sauce. Maltose is a common ingredient in Chinese cuisine but you can use honey as a substitute.

2. Steps to prepare Chinese pork meatballs

Below are the detailed steps for the Asian pork meatballs recipe.

a. Make the meatballs

1. Chop the garlic cloves. Finely mince fresh ginger or squeeze out the juice with your palm. Use the ginger juice only if you don’t like chewing on ginger pieces.
2. Ask your butcher to choose the cut of meat with some fat and grind it. Alternatively, you can use your food processor or a cleaver to mince it manually.
3. Add all the ingredients A in the recipe to the ground pork in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. 
4. Next, hold the patty and smash it into the mixing bowl 40 to 50 times. This action is called 哒 (pronounced as ‘daat’), a commonly used technique used by the Chinese to tenderize meat.
5. Finally, shape the ground pork mixture into the size of a meatball you prefer.

b. Pan-fry the meatballs

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat. Place the meatballs in the pan to pan-fry undisturbed for a minute. It’s best to use a non-stick pan to avoid the hassle of cleaning the frying pan afterward. 
2. Once they have firmed up, gently move them around and pan-fry them until they turn golden. 
3. Briefly cover them with a lid for about a minute over low heat to ensure the internal of the meatballs is cooked.  For pork, the internal temperature should be 160ºF/ 71ºC.

c. Make the sauce and serve

1. Prepare the Chinese barbecue pork sauce (Char Siu sauce) by mixing all the Ingredients B in the recipe in a small bowl. Transfer to a small pan and heat until it reduces to become a sticky sauce. Turn off the heat, and the sauce is ready.
2. Coat the meatballs thoroughly with the sauce in the pan.
3. Finally, garnish the meatballs by sprinkling some toasted sesame seeds and thinly sliced green onions on top before serving.

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Asian pork meatballs- easy recipe with Chinese BBQ sauce

Yield: 30 balls

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Easy Asian pork meatballs with Chinese BBQ sauce. Pan-fry and coat with sauce. Make a large batch to freeze for up to a month.

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Ingredients

Ingredients A

• 900g ground pork
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp chopped ginger
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 4 water chestnuts, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp cornstarch

Ingredeints B

• 3 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 cube red fermented beancurd
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 2 tsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tsp chu hou sauce (optional)
• 2 tbsp of water

Instructions

Make the meatballs

1. Place the store-bought ground meat on a chopping board and use a cleaver to mince it briefly.
2. Next, mix all the remaining ingredients A to the ground pork. 
3. Next, hold the patty and smash it into the mixing bowl repeatedly for about a minute to make the meatball more juicy。
4. Finally, shape the ground pork mixture into the size of a meatball you prefer.

Cook the meatballs

1. Heat some oil in a pan over medium heat. Once the oil is heated, place the meatballs in the pan to pan-fry undisturbed for a minute. 
2. Once they have firmed up, gently move them around and pan-fry them until they turn golden. 
3. Once the meatballs are fully cooked, remove them from the pan and set them aside.

Prepare the sauce for the meatballs

1. Mix all ingredients B in a small bowl to make the sauce. Transfer to a small pan and heat until the sauce boils. Turn off the heat, and the sauce is ready.

To serve

1. Coat the meatballs thoroughly with the sauce and return them to the pan.
2. Finally, garnish the meatballs by sprinkling some toasted sesame seeds and thinly sliced green onions on top before serving.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 30 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 114Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 28mgSodium: 220mgCarbohydrates: 6gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 8g

This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix on 9/22/2023

3. Tips to make the best Chinese pork meatballs 

1. It’s time-consuming to mince meat. Therefore, ask the butcher to do it for you, or use store-bought ground meat as a more convenient option.
2. The Chinese pork meatballs can be frozen for up to a month. To prevent them from sticking together, place the meatballs in a single layer in a sheet pan lined with parchment paper to ensure they don’t touch each other. Freeze the meatballs until they are hardened. Once they are, you can transfer them to an airtight container or freezer bags without worrying about them sticking together. When the time comes to cook them, you can either boil or pan-fry them. To boil them, take them straight from the freezer and place them in boiling water. On the other hand, if you prefer to pan-fry them, thaw them at room temperature before cooking.
3. Use rice vinegar as one of the ingredients for the meatballs to get a tangy flavor. However, remember to balance it out with a little more sugar. 
4. Please note that whether you ground the pork with a food processor or store-bought ground pork, the texture will differ from manually mincing the pork. Therefore, after briefly mincing the ground pork, I repeatedly smashed the meat mixture into the bowl. This process is called “dat” 挞 in Cantonese. It will further break down the meat’s connective tissue and make it more tender.

4. How to serve the Chinese meatballs?

I made these meatballs to serve with white rice. They are also suitable for serving as a main dish with rice noodles or spaghetti. It is especially perfect for busy weeknights as it is simple to prepare. The simplest method is to bring some chicken broth to a boil, then add the meatballs directly from the freezer until they are fully cooked.  

5. Other related recipes to the Chinese pork meatballs

If you like this Asian pork meatball recipe, you will be delighted with other recipes with Asian flavors on this blog.

• Chinese barbeque pork. This dish is a popular Cantonese cuisine in nearly all Cantonese restaurants worldwide. You can easily recreate it at home by following this recipe.
• Chinese cabbage stir-fry. This dish involves few ingredients and is best stir-fried on high heat.
• Steamed pork with salted eggs. This is a Cantonese home-cooked classic. This is the taste of a home-cooked meal for the average Cantonese family.