Top Ten Chinese Dishes

Chinese food is a great way to expand your personal cookbook, especially if you love to use simple, fresh ingredients with quick cooking time. These top ten dishes are popular all over the world, and are must-haves in your collection of Chinese cooking recipes.

Fried Rice - A staple in Chinese restaurants, fried rice is the ultimate Chinese food, and can be one of the most flexible in your cookbook because you can use leftover rice and ingredients to make it. Of course, you can use fresh ingredients but it’s best to use rice that has been kept in the fridge overnight for best results. Ingredients usually involved in making fried rice are eggs, scallions, diced meat of either pork, beef or chicken, ham, prawns and vegetables such as bean sprouts, peas, celery, corn and carrots. There are many types of fried rice but the more well-known ones are the Yong Chow and Fujian fried rice.

Kung Pao Chicken - Kung Pao chicken or Kung Po chicken is a Chinese dish from Sichuan cooking and is considered to be a delicacy. The recipe for this yummy dish commonly calls for diced chicken that is pre-seasoned and quickly stir-fried with unsalted roasted peanuts, red swee peppers, sherry or rice wine, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, and chili peppers. Alternatively, you can use scallops, prawn, pork or beef in place of the chicken.

Moo Shu Pork - This is a dish of northern Chinese origin and a favorite of many. Ingredients in a Mushu pork recipe usually involve green cabbage, wood ear mushrooms, scrambled eggs, carrots, bean sprouts, day lily buds and scallions. Celery, onions, bell peppers, snow pea pods, bok choy and Shiitake mushrooms are occasionally used. The vegetables are cut into long and thin strips before cooking, with the exception for day lily buds and bean sprouts. Fried Mushu pork is then wrapped in moo shu pancakes that is brushed with hoisin sauce and eaten by hand. Moo shu pancakes are thin wrappers made of flour that is easily available in supermarkets and steamed right before eating.

General Tso’s Chicken - General Tso's chicken is a Hunan cuisine that tastes spicy and sweet and highly popular in Chinese restaurants in Canada and America where it’s often listed as a “chef’s specialty”. General Tso's Chicken recipe commonly calls for battered chicken deep-fried and marinated with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, scallions, hot chilli peppers and sugar.

Spring Rolls - Spring rolls make excellent appetizers and snacks. They are similar to egg rolls, but are slightly different to its cousin. Springs rolls are generally smaller, have thinner skin and less filling than egg rolls. To make a spring roll, chopped meat and thinly cut strips of vegetables are wrapped and sealed in a square or circular rice paper. It is then deep fried till crispy and golden brown. Serve this crowd pleaser piping hot.

Fortune Cookies - Chinese cooking would simply not be complete without the addition of a recipe for fortune cookies. The ingrediesnts you need to make these cookies are some sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla extract, making them a simple way to add some fun to your home cooked Chinese food.

Beef and Broccoli - The key to creating a fabulous Beef and Broccoli dish at home is to make an excellent sauce made up of cornstarch, oyster sauce, thick soy sauce and light soy sauce. Marinade the beef before stir frying with rice vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and cornstarch solution.

Sweet and Sour Pork - This savory-sweet highly popular Chinese dish is of Cantonese origin. It is a good dish to prepare when you are planning on having guests, who will be wildly impressed with your cooking skill. As with other Chinese food recipes, the key to making a great Sweet and Sour Pork dish is in the sauce made of soy sauce, white vinegar, ketchup and sugar. Its ingredients include pork, bell pepper, pineapple and onion cut into bite size pieces.

Mapo Dofu - Mapo doufu or Mapo tofu is a popular Chinese dish from the Sichuan province. Ingredients used for this recipe include tofu or beancurd, and minced pork or beef cooked in a bright red spicy sauce based on chili.

Egg Fu Yong - Egg foo young, also spelled egg fu yung, egg fooyung, egg furong, or egg foo yong is an hearty American Chinese dish. It’s basically an omelette prepared with eggs beaten with minced vegetables or meat. Roast pork, ham, Chinese sausage, shrimp, chicken, beef or lobster may be used as meat while bean sprouts, celery and water chestnuts for vegetables.