Our Favorite Chinese Food Recipes

By Food & Wine
Updated May 16, 2017
Whether it's delicious dumplings, comforting stir fry or even fortune cookies, these incredible recipes will help you recreate your favorite Chinese dishes at home.
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1 of 27

Lo Mein with Mushrooms and Snow Peas

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Shiitake mushrooms add heft to this lo mein, but feel free to add shredded chicken to make the dish even more substantial.

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2 of 27

Updated Chicken Chow Mein

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Marcia Kiesel's modern version of this Chinese-American dish includes stir-fried egg noodles with chicken sausage, chiles, basil and an unexpected ingredient—orange juice.

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Boiled Chinese Dumplings

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These dumplings from Andrew Zimmern are light and highly addictive, with a terrific all-purpose dipping sauce.

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General Tso's Chicken

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Zach Brooks adores this sweet-spicy Chinese-American restaurant staple. The version here is lighter than take-out because the chicken is only lightly coated in cornstarch and is pan-fried rather than deep-fried.

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Pork-and-Pineapple Fried Rice

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Most restaurants make pork fried rice with generic pieces of barbecued meat; Andrew Carmellini uses both seared ground pork and sweet, aromatic Chinese sausage in his playful version. As an alternative to Chinese sausage, substitute thick matchsticks of lean maple-cured bacon.

6 of 27

Chinese Poached Chicken Breasts with Star Anise

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Chicken breasts poached in a broth flavored with star anise, cinnamon, ginger, scallions, and soy sauce is a Chinese classic. Traditionally you would save, not serve, the broth—it improves each time you use it—but we can never resist serving it with the chicken as a light sauce. If you like, boil noodles separately and add them to the broth for a meal in a dish.

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7 of 27

Beef Stir-Fry with Fresh and Pickled Ginger

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8 of 27

Shiitake-and-Scallion Lo Mein

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Asian street-food carts sometimes serve food in banana leaves instead of using plates or bowls. Look for them at Asian markets. Here, Melissa Rubel Jacobson wraps the leaves around silky Chinese noodles.

9 of 27

Spicy Sichuan-Style Lamb with Cumin

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Cooking pieces of lamb shoulder in a superhot cast-iron skillet makes them wonderfully browned and tender.

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Pork-and-Crab Soup Dumplings

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The secret to getting the soup inside these Chinese soup dumplings, or xiao long bao, is to set the rich stock with gelatin before folding it into the dumpling skin along with the ground meat filling.

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Hmong Spicy Pork Sausage

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Hank Shaw first tried sausages made by the Hmong—an ethnic group from Southeast Asia and China—while living in Stockton, California, and St. Paul, two cities with large Hmong communities. This recipe is based on a version by Hmong cookbook author Sheng Yang.

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Salt-and-Pepper Squid with Chinese Five-Spice Powder

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Wendy Leon gives this classic Chinese squid dish a fun twist by flavoring it with five-spice powder (typically a ground mixture of cinnamon, star anise, black peppercorns, fennel and clove). "It's her version of a Super Bowl snack," says her son Humberto. "Most kids eat chips; we grew up eating squid."

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13 of 27

Dan Dan Noodles

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14 of 27

Hung's Clay Pot Rice

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Here, Top Chef winner Hung Huynh cooks with the Chinese trinity—GGS, or ginger, garlic and scallions. He uses all three here to flavor his earthy, mushroom-and-bacon-studded clay pot rice.

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Honey-Glazed Spareribs

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These crispy, sweet-and-spicy pork spareribs are a hundred times better than Chinese takeout char siu ribs, and they’re a particularly good example of what’s so great about using a pressure cooker. Pork spareribs typically require very slow cooking—usually braising—to tenderize them before grilling. A pressure cooker does that braising in a fraction of the time.

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Spinach-and-Pork Wontons

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In her pan-Asian cookbook, food writer Andrea Nguyen recommends homemade wonton wrappers but says store-bought are fine: "Just look for ones labeled 'thin' or 'Hong Kong-style.'"

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Clams with Pork and Golden Garlic

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Ground pork and clams are a common combination in Chinese recipes. Marcia Kiesel sautés the two quickly with slivers of garlic, then adds black-bean chile sauce (easy to find at supermarkets) to create a dish with deep, briny flavor and some heat.

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Chicken Stir-Fry with Asparagus and Cashews

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Cashews contain oleic acid, the same monounsaturated fat that makes olive oil so heart-healthy. This chicken-cashew stir-fry's Asian flavors come from a bright mix of fish sauce, oyster sauce and basil—and just a little oil.

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Chicken Hot Pot with Mushrooms and Tofu

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Cooks in Asia serve hot pots communally, setting a big pot of bubbling broth on the table alongside a platter of raw ingredients (like vegetables and thinly sliced chicken) for dipping. It's a fun way for guests to feel like they have a hand in making their own meal. In his version, Ethan Stowell gives each person at the table an individual bowl of sliced mushrooms, tofu and scallions, then adds piping hot chicken broth loaded with chunks of tender cooked chicken.

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Asian Steamed Buns with Bok Choy

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Here, a blend of mild bok choy with spicy mustard greens and oniony Chinese chives fills puffy, savory buns.

21 of 27

Pan-Seared Sichuan Shrimp with Mung Bean Noodles

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This spicy noodle dish uses citrusy Sichuan peppercorns to flavor the plump shrimp.

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22 of 27

Green-Tea Fortune Cookies

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Joanne Chang likes having fun with the fortunes she puts inside these large cookies, like "Give the chef a big kiss." Shaping the tuiles while they're hot can be tricky, so consider using cotton gloves.

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Crispy Fish with Sweet-and-Sour Sauce

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Most Chinese-takeout sweet-and-sour sauces are bright red, gluey and sugary. Grace Parisi’s version is light as well as a little spicy, which allows the fresh, briny flavor of the crispy fish to come through.

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Stir-Fried Noodles with Roast Pork

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These quick, easy Chinese noodles are deliciously savory and chewy, with a bit of heat. Fresh linguine is a great substitute for Chinese noodles.

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Gingered Stir-Fry with Shrimp and Snow Peas

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Large nonstick skillets that can create a sear are ideal for stir-fries. For this recipe, Grace Parisi creates layers of flavor with Chinese chile-garlic sauce and matchsticks of fresh ginger.

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Cold Peanut-Sesame Noodles

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The secret to Andrew Zimmern's cold noodle recipe, inspired by the ones he had in China's Sichuan province, is the oil that gets drizzled on top. Made with chiles, Sichuan peppercorns and lots of spices, it is called Ma La (“numbing and spicy”).

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Stir-Fried Chicken with Chinese Cabbage

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A simple sauce of garlic, hot pepper, sherry, wine vinegar, and tomato, adds intense flavor to this quick stir-fry and it practically makes itself while the chicken and cabbage cook. Steamed rice is an ideal accompaniment.

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