Chinese recipes
Easy Chinese Recipes: Stir-Fries, Dumplings and Noodles
Chinese home cooking runs on a few pantry staples and quick techniques: soy sauce, ginger, garlic and green onions, a hot wok, and everything chopped before the heat goes on. Regional styles vary widely, from the fiery, tingling sauces of Sichuan to the clear broths and gently steamed fish of Cantonese cooking. Food carries meaning at Lunar New Year too, when long noodles, a whole fish and dumplings are served as wishes for long life, plenty and wealth.
These recipes run from weeknight stir-fries to weekend projects. Vegetable chow mein takes 20 minutes, egg fried rice 22 and takeout-style chicken fried rice 25. Chinese-American beef and broccoli takes 27, and mapo tofu and Cantonese steamed fish 30 each. With more time, fold wontons for soup or pork and cabbage dumplings to pan-fry, and freeze the extras uncooked. A large skillet can stand in for a wok in the stir-fries, and dry sherry for Shaoxing wine.
10 recipes · Updated
Quick answer
Savour's Chinese recipes include vegetable chow mein (20 minutes), egg fried rice (22 minutes), chicken fried rice (25 minutes), Chinese-American beef and broccoli (27 minutes), and Sichuan mapo tofu, longevity noodles and Cantonese steamed fish (30 minutes each). Wonton soup takes 45 minutes and pork and cabbage dumplings 1 hour 25 minutes; both freeze uncooked. Black sesame tangyuan in ginger syrup take 1 1/2 hours.
- Recipes
- 10
- Average total time
- 40 mins
- Quickest
- Vegetable Chow Mein (20 mins)
- Rated Easy
- 7 of 10
- Average calories
- 422 per serving
- Newest
- Wonton Soup
All Chinese Recipes (10)
Frequently Asked Questions
What pantry staples do I need for Chinese cooking at home?
Soy sauce, oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry), cornstarch, sugar, fresh ginger, garlic and green onions turn up again and again in these recipes. Add Sichuan chili bean paste and Sichuan peppercorns for mapo tofu, Chinese black vinegar for dumpling dipping sauce and glutinous rice flour for tangyuan. A mushroom-based vegetarian oyster sauce keeps meat-free noodle dishes vegetarian, and wonton or dumpling wrappers keep well in the freezer.
Which Chinese recipe should I make first?
Start with vegetable chow mein (20 minutes), egg fried rice (22 minutes) or chicken fried rice (25 minutes). They use everyday ingredients and teach the basics of stir-frying: chop everything first, then cook fast in a very hot pan. Beef and broccoli (27 minutes) and mapo tofu (30 minutes) are good next steps. Save wontons and dumplings for when you have time to fold, and freeze any extras uncooked for up to 3 months.
What Chinese dishes are eaten at Lunar New Year?
Longevity noodles are served long and uncut as a wish for a long life. A whole steamed fish is popular because the Chinese word for fish, yu, sounds like the word for surplus. Pork and cabbage dumplings are often eaten too, especially in northern China, where families tend to fold them together, and black sesame tangyuan are eaten especially at the Lantern Festival that closes the celebrations. Dumplings and tangyuan can both be shaped ahead and frozen uncooked.
Are any of these Chinese recipes vegetarian or gluten-free?
Vegetable chow mein and longevity noodles are vegetarian, because both use mushroom-based vegetarian oyster sauce, and egg fried rice is vegetarian too, with no oyster sauce at all. Black sesame tangyuan are vegan and naturally gluten-free, and Cantonese steamed fish is gluten-free because it is made with tamari or gluten-free soy sauce. Mapo tofu can be made vegetarian by swapping the beef for finely chopped mushrooms and using vegetable stock or water. Egg fried rice becomes gluten-free with tamari, and chicken fried rice and beef and broccoli with tamari and a gluten-free oyster sauce.