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Easy Homemade Bak Kwa Chinese Pork Jerky (In the Oven)

written by Marvellina Updated: January 6, 2025
24.1K
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Learn how to make tender and flavorful Chinese pork jerky bak kwa at home using an oven. All-natural ingredients with no preservatives. Perfect as a snack or for Chinese New Year gifting.
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (In the Oven) #bakkwa #bakkwasingapore #chineseporkjerky #chinesenewyearfood

CHINESE PORK JERKY (ROU GAN)

Rou gan or Chinese pork jerky (bak kwa in Hokkien) is big deal in Singapore especially during Chinese New Year (CNY) where the sellers can jack up the price 2-3 times during this festive season. I remember trying to bring this bak kwa from Singapore to Minneapolis when I first moved here and they got thrown away at the airport! OUCH! Okay, I got it..no meat product! At least I tried LOL! Chinese pork jerky is unlike the beef jerky or pork jerky I’ve eaten here in the U.S. The beef jerky here is really extremely lean. So lean to the point that I couldn’t even chew them most of the time! Though, I understand that the beef jerky here is marketed as a healthy snack. I’ve come across some of my favorite beef jerky that is more at the tender side. Bak kwa on the other hand, is tender and usually at the sweet side and it is an indulgent, not as healthy snack 🙂 Ground pork is marinated in seasonings and some cases, spices, for different choices of flavors and taste and then roll flat and grilled on charcoal for that smoky flavor
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (In the Oven) #bakkwa #bakkwasingapore #chineseporkjerky #chinesenewyearfood

EASY NO FUSS BAK KWA RECIPE

I used to think to make bak kwa must be extremely difficult because of how expensive it is during CNY. In reality, they are pretty simple to make and you can customize the flavor to your liking
Ingredients: Ground pork with some fat, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, five-spice powder, ground white pepper, honey
Traditionally, the bak kwa is grilled on charcoal. I find that baking the bak kwa in the oven also gives an amazing result. You don’t need any fancy equipment!

Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (In the Oven) #bakkwa #bakkwasingapore #chineseporkjerky #chinesenewyearfood

Only 4 ingredients to make bak kwa with original flavor

GROUND PORK OR SLICED PORK TO MAKE BAK KWA

A bak kwa enthusiast will say that sliced pork is a better one to use to make bak kwa because it still has that meat fiber and more flavor. I can tell you though, this ground pork version also produces a really good result and much more convenient because ground pork is widely available and easier to manage too. My husband told me the bak kwa tasted just like those you bought from the shop. The kids were all over them too.

TOP TIPS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO MAKE REALLY GOOD BAK KWA

1. DO NOT USE FROZEN MEAT
Once you thaw the frozen meat, it will have some moisture and this will affect the end result of the bak kwa
2. CHOOSE MEAT WITH SOME FAT
This is to ensure you get tender bak kwa
3. MEAT TO PAN RATIO
I use 500 gr of meat for 15 x 10-inch jelly roll pan. It’s enough to cover the entire surface of the pan nicely with 3 mm thickness. If you plan to make less, you will need to use half the size of the pan I use. You want the bak kwa to have a perfect thickness, not too thin and not too thick

Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (In the Oven) #bakkwa #bakkwasingapore #chineseporkjerky #chinesenewyearfood

HOMEMADE BAK KWA IN THE OVEN STEP-BY-STEP COOKING GUIDE

STEP ONE: MARINATE THE MEAT

1. Place ground pork (or meat of your choice), sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, five-spice powder and ground white pepper in mixing bowl. Stir with a chopstick in one direction until the meat is sticky and more paste-like
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (Using Oven)
2. Cover and marinate for at least 6-8 hours or overnight in the fridge (but I recommend no longer than that) for maximum flavor
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (Using Oven)

STEP TWO: SHAPING

Transfer the meat to jelly roll pan. Place a piece of parchment paper on top, slightly bigger than your pan. Roll the marinated meat out on the pan with small rolling pin to cover the entire surface of the pan and to about 2 mm thickness
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (Using Oven)

STEP THREE: COOKING

1. Bake in the preheated oven at 300 F (121 C) for 25-30 minutes and then gently flip to the other side and bake for another 15 minutes
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (Using Oven)
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (Using Oven)

Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (Using Oven)

Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (Using Oven)
2. Cut into the desired size with kitchen shears
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (Using Oven)
3. Increase oven temperature to 425 F (220 C). Brush the jerky with honey mixture and then bake until you are happy with the color and then flip to the other side and brush with honey mixture again. Please DO NOT walk away during this process or you will char the meat badly. You can also use a broiler. Set it to high and broil for few minutes until you are happy with the color and then flip over and brush with some honey mixture and broil again
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (In the Oven) #bakkwa #bakkwasingapore #chineseporkjerky #chinesenewyearfood

CUSTOMIZE YOUR BAK KWA

FLAVOR: You can add chili powder to make it spicy or whatever flavor you fancy, you can add it when you marinate the meat
MEAT CHOICES: I’ve seen people use ground chicken, ground turkey and ground beef to make bak kwa. I have only tried them with ground pork and ground turkey. Ground turkey tends to be a bit more “watery” and so initial baking time took a bit longer.
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (In the Oven) #bakkwa #bakkwasingapore #chineseporkjerky #chinesenewyearfood

BAK KWA SHELF LIFE

Freshly made bak kwa can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. They can be kept in the refrigerator for up to one month after that. I do not recommend freezing bak kwa. If you see some white spots appearing on your bak kwa, under normal circumstances, that’s not because of mold or fungi, it’s usually because the sugar hasn’t been caramelized enough during the cooking process.
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (In the Oven) #bakkwa #bakkwasingapore #chineseporkjerky #chinesenewyearfood

HOW TO REHEAT BAK KWA

You can wrap them with aluminum foil and reheat in the oven or toaster oven at 350 F for 5 minutes. You can use the microwave to reheat for about 30 seconds or so.
Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (In the Oven) #bakkwa #bakkwasingapore #chineseporkjerky #chinesenewyearfood

You may like this recipe using bak kwa

Easy Bak Kwa Fried Rice (Chinese Meat Jerky Fried Rice)

Easy Bak Kwa Fried Rice (Chinese Meat Jerky Fried Rice)

Soft Fluffy Bak Kwa Milk Buns (Meat Jerky Buns) - Tangzhong

Soft Fluffy Bak Kwa Milk Buns (Meat Jerky Buns) – Tangzhong

Easy Homemade Bak Kwa (Only 4 Ingredients)

Easy Homemade Bak Kwa Chinese Pork Jerky (In the Oven)

Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 50 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins
Servings 15 4 x 4 inch pieces
4.7 from 57 reviews
REVIEW & RATE PRINT

Ingredients

  • 500 gr ground pork at least 85% lean 15% fat, see notes
  • 80 gr sugar
  • 1 tsp fish sauce
  • 1 ½ Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
  • ¼ tsp ground white pepper

For brushing:

  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp water

Kitchen tools you need:

  • small rolling pin
  • parchment paper
  • 15 x 10 inch Jelly roll pan
  • kitchen brush

Instructions
 

Marinade the pork:

  • Make sure to choose ground pork with some fat marbling. This is to ensure you'll get tender pork jerky later
  • Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix with your clean hand for about 1 minute. The meat mixture will turn pasty, which is what we want
  • Cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate to let it marinade overnight in the fridge, at least 6-8 hours is my suggestion for a great flavor

Shaping:

  • Preheat oven to 300 F (160 C) for conventional oven. For a convection oven, lower the temperature by 15 C or 20 F. Transfer the marinated pork to a jelly roll pan, lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil (a few layers of parchment paper will do too). Place a cling plastic wrap or parchment paper on top and use your palm to roughly spread the meat and then use a rolling pin to roll the meat out evenly to cover the entire pan and to about 3 mm thickness. I feel like this is a great thickness, not too thin, not too thick. Perfect for the bak kwa to be tender

Cooking:

  • Place the jelly roll pan 3rd rack from the top and let it bake for 15-20 minutes. Pour off excess liquid if there's any accumulated during baking. If you use ground turkey or chicken, you may need to bake a little longer because more liquid is accumulated
  • Remove from the oven and very gently, use a spatula or turner to loosen the meat from the pan to flip it over to the other side. You'll be surprised how easily this can be done
  • Once the meat is turned, bake it again for another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. The bak kwa is still looking pale and not even close to the finished product you imagine, but fret not, we are not done yet
  • Cut the bak kwa with kitchen shears into the desired size. I cut into 4 x 4 inch pieces. You can cut into a large size like the one they sell, it's up to you. Change to a new aluminum foil or parchment paper and place on a baking sheet again.

Increase oven temperature:

  • Arrange the bak kwa pieces back into the pan. Mix honey with water for brushing on the bak kwa. Brush on the bak kwa and sprinkle with some sesame seeds (optional) . Increase the oven temperature to 425 F (220 C) for a conventional oven. For a convection oven, lower the temperature by 15 C or 20 F. Bake them for another 5-8 minutes or until the jerky turn slightly reddish in color and darker, but not burnt. When you are happy with the color, turn to the other side and brush with some honey mixture and bake again for another 5-8 minutes. Because every oven is different, you may need to experiment with the timing, but start with 5 minutes and monitor
  • You can also use a broiler. Turn on the broiler on high and broil for 5-10 minutes. DO NOT walk away. Once you are happy with the color, flip over and broil again until the honey nicely caramelized

Serving and storage:

  • Let them cool down and then store in air-tight container. Bak kwa is best consumer after 24 hours as the flavors have really developed. They can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month
  • You may also be interested in this golden bak kwa coin recipe that I tweaked slightly from this recipe

RECOMMEDED TOOLS

Baking sheets
Aluminum foil
Solid Turner
Parchment Paper

Marv's Recipe Notes

You can also use other ground meat like beef, chicken, or turkey. My least favorite is turkey because they are too lean and the jerky tastes drier and not as tender.
Did you make this recipe?Let me know how you like this recipe and consider rating it! Tag me @whattocooktoday I'd love to see your photos/videos on Instagram
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43 comments

Eric December 5, 2024 - 6:38 pm

Sorry if this is a silly question, but how does this last 1 month in the fridge without going bad? It seems like it’s baked ground pork with no preservatives or curing… I wouldn’t think that can last more than 5 days in the fridge. What is “preserving” it that long?

Reply
Marvellina December 6, 2024 - 8:42 pm

Hi Eric, it’s not a silly question. It’s considered a pretty low-moisture food and won’t get spoiled as easily. It’s true that there’s no added preservative, but there are some sugar that helps to “preserve” some. I would say it has lasted for at least 2-3 weeks in the fridge for me.

Reply
BROMMEL July 29, 2024 - 5:35 am

Hi, tastes like the ones I have bought numerous times in Singapore 👌
As we like it a little bit smokey, but do not want to smoke out neighbors 😁, we add ~1/2 espresso spoon of liquid smoke to the marinade for 500g of meet. We use Mesquite as it fits better nicely with beef, pork and all the animals with four legs.
If we use chicken, duck etc. we prefer Hickory Liqguid Smoke.

I use our gas grill (indirect with closed lid) as we do not want to have the smell in the house. For the cooking we take a Jelly Roll Pan we use on the grill and do the finishing on a Plancha Fire Plate (direct with open lid).
Temperatures roughly the same. After 2-3 times you get the grill settings right 😅

Reply
Marvellina July 29, 2024 - 3:23 pm

Thank you so much for sharing so much detail here! I would like to try to add liquid smoke next time too because my kids like the “smokey” flavor too.

Reply
Lawrence February 20, 2024 - 6:46 pm

Just must made 4000 grams jerky. Simple and easy. Now I am buying a meat grinder. I really appreciate on the details. Used a rolling pin with 3mm silicon attachment.

Reply
Marvellina February 20, 2024 - 9:06 pm

Oh wow!! good for you!! I’m glad you find the details useful 🙂

Reply
Mark December 17, 2023 - 1:19 am

2nd increased temperature cooking step is either too hot or too long, as mine turned out fairly burnt.
Had the oven set to 200C, 1st 15min cook cycle was probably enough as it started to burn 5 mins into the next cycle.
I was watching it like a hawk but hard to tell between darkish red and burnt.
Will try again and revise the review if it turns out better with less cook time.

Reply
Marvellina December 18, 2023 - 8:30 pm

Every oven can be a bit different, I hope the second round works out better for the baking temperature!

Reply
Yatwei October 4, 2023 - 1:08 pm

Oh by the way, I’ve successfully smuggled it into the US twice. LOL! I was never actually sure it was prohibited. But thanks to you, I no longer have to do that!!!

Reply
Marvellina October 4, 2023 - 8:56 pm

ha..ha..me too! I did it once. My mom tried to bring them to me before once, and they were thrown away (*sad..sad day*)! But, yes we don’t have to do that anymore lol!

Reply
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4.69 from 57 votes (49 ratings without comment)

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