Easy Chinese Recipes
Better-than-takeout Chinese classics you can pull off with grocery-store ingredients. Kung Pao, orange chicken, lo mein, and dumplings that beat delivery.
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PopularZhajiangmian - Chinese pork gravy noodles
This is my all-time favorite noodle dish but most people haven’t heard of it. It is incredibly easy to make and the hearty deliciousness just makes my heart sing. It’s best with hand-pulled noodles, but there are great frozen options that are more practical.
Butter and SaltIngredients
- 12 oz Minced pork shoulder
- 1 tsp Avocado oil
- 2 tsp Corn starch
- 1/4 tsp White Pepper
- 4 tbsp Ginger finely minced
- 8 cloves Garlic finely minced
- 4 oz Oyster mushrooms chopped
- 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
- 4 tbsp Sweet Bean Sauce
- 6 tbsp Ground Bean Sauce
- 2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
- 1 cup Water
- desired Cucumber (julienne)
- desired Carrot (julienne)
- desired Cilantro
- desired Scallion
- 1 lbs Shanghai Noodles
Instructions
- 1Mix the pork with the oil, corn starch, white pepper, and salt and let marinate for 15 minutes
- 2Heat a wok until it approaches the temperature of the sun. Add 2 tbsp avocado oil.
- 3Add pork to wok and brown. Then add ginger and garlic and toss for 2 minutes. Then add mushrooms and cook until mushroom have browned and water has evaporated. Then add gravy ingredients and decrease temperature to medium low. Let the gravy simmer and reduce.
- 4Boil the noodles for 6 minutes and then drain. Rinse with cool water to create a chewy texture. Toss in sesame oil to add flavor and prevent sticking.
- 5Add noodles to bowl, top with pork gravy, and add garnishes to taste.
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Open in Pepper →Better Than the Takeout Down the Street
The magic of homemade Chinese food is control — you get the same restaurant flavor with half the sodium, none of the mystery oils, and leftovers that actually taste good the next day.
Cooks on Pepper come back to this collection because every recipe uses ingredients you can find at any grocery store: soy sauce, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, and whatever protein is on sale that week.
From kung pao chicken to beef and broccoli to homemade dumplings, these are the takeout classics rebuilt for weeknight home cooks — 30 minutes or less, one wok or skillet, done.
Quick Tips
- 1
Marinate with cornstarch
Toss protein in cornstarch + soy sauce + oil for 15 minutes — that's the 'velveting' technique that keeps meat silky.
- 2
Screaming hot pan
Chinese stir-fry needs a very hot wok or skillet — smoking is fine; that's how you get 'wok hei' char.
- 3
Prep everything first
Stir-fries cook in 4 minutes — chop and measure all ingredients before turning on the burner.
- 4
Sesame oil at the end
Add toasted sesame oil off the heat as a finish; cooking it destroys the aroma.
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