23 Flavorful Chinese Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What makes Chinese food so flavorful? ›

A blend of cinnamon, cloves, Sichuan peppercorns, fennel and star anise, these five spices give the sour, bitter, pungent, sweet and salty flavors found in Chinese cooking. This spice works extremely well with meats and in marinades.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer that has been widely used for roughly 100 years ( 1 ). In addition to being naturally present in certain foods, it's a common food additive in Chinese recipes, canned vegetables and soups, and other processed goods.

Suodiu, which literally translates to “suck and dispose”, requires people trying out the dish to suck off the flavours, and then spit out the rocks. Originating from the eastern Chinese province of Hubei, the small rocks are covered with a rich and spicy flavour.

General Tso's Chicken

This dish, made with crispy fried chicken pieces coated in a sweet and spicy sauce, is a favorite at Chinese-American restaurants across the country. Its popularity even inspired a documentary film.

Peking Duck (The National Dish of China) 北京烤鸭

Many Chinese restaurants, like other types of restaurants, use sugar in their cooking. Sugar can be added to dishes to balance out salty or spicy flavors and to enhance the sweetness of the dish. However, the amount of sugar used in Chinese cooking can vary depending on the recipe and the individual cook.

The Chinese categorise the taste of food into five flavours: sweet, bitter, sour, spicy and salty. Chinese medicine regards that eating certain flavours can help the function of the five organs to balance your health, as well as treat disease and recover from illness.

Chinese cooks normally use soybean oil, vegetable oil, or peanut oil, all of which have a high smoke point. Peanut oil usually has a pleasant nutty flavor and is suitable not only for stir-frying but also for deep-frying. Canola oil, which has a high smoke point but a neutral flavor, is also a good choice.

Different brands have their own formulas, but spices usually include Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorn, star anise, cloves, dried tangerine peel, bay leaves, white pepper, dried licorice slices, and fennel.

Temperature plays an important role in the taste of a dish. “There is a way to prepare Chinese food at home. Get all the ingredients ready, let the pan get super hot and then add one ingredient after the other quickly in the pan. The food prepare this way, I guarantee, will have a restaurant-like taste,” said the chef.

What is America's favorite Chinese dish? ›

General Tso's Chicken

This dish, made with crispy fried chicken pieces coated in a sweet and spicy sauce, is a favorite at Chinese-American restaurants across the country. Its popularity even inspired a documentary film.

The sauce: Chow mein is more of a dry noodle dish with an extremely light and delicate sauce — if any sauce at all. Lo mein is a saucy noodle dish that depends on a rich sauce for much of its flavor. The texture: Chow mein noodles tend to be crunchier than lo mein noodles due to the way they are cooked.

Pork dominates the meat menu in China. The 57 million tons of pork consumed in China in 2021 accounted for 60 percent of total meat consumption.

A typical Chinese's meal usually consists of rice, soup and three to four side dishes. Dishes are made of seasonal vegetables, fresh seafood or bite-size portion of meat or poultry.