41 Chinese recipes
Create your own banquet at home with some of our favourite Chinese-inspired recipes, from crispy aromatic duck with pancakes to a quick chicken chow mein and five-spice tofu
Looking for Chinese recipes? Want the perfect chicken chow mein? Try our ideas and twists here, or check out our Sichuan ideas, our Chinese New Year guide and our guide to Tibetan food.
Create your own Chinese banquet with dim sum, Chinese-style ribs and crispy duck with pancakes. Or recreate your favourite takeaway with our Shanghai beef noodles or chicken chow mein and more.
Not spotted your favourite Chinese dish? Do you know an awesome Chinese chef or food writer that you’d like to see featured here? Email us or contact us on social media at @olivemagazine to let us know!
Listen to the olive podcast where Cherry Tang share 10 things you need to know about Cantonese food and cooking.
Best Chinese recipes
Soy sauce chow mein
This speedy chow mein dish from Hetty McKinnon’s book, To Asia, With Love, requires only a handful of ingredients but makes for a satisfying midweek dinner.
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Chinese congee
In China, congee is generally regarded as the ultimate comfort food. It’s easy to digest and kind on the stomach if you’re feeling under the weather, and for an extra-special touch, you can jazz it up with plenty of garnishes.
Singapore noodles
These speedy Singapore noodles make a great accompaniment to a Chinese-style feast, flavoured with ginger, garlic, chilli and soy.
Hot and sour soup
Originating from Henan cuisine in China, there are many variations of this dish across the world, so don’t feel restricted to add or replace some of the vegetables in the ingredients list.
Chinese braised winter squash
Recreate Hannah Che’s vegan braised winter squash as part of a Chinese-inspired feast – the squash is cooked until it’s buttery and tender, and on the verge of falling apart.
Chinese dry-pot cauliflower
Stir-fry caulilini – a sweet stemmed, sprouting cauliflower – with ginger, chilli, spring onions, bean paste and black beans to recreate this colourful vegan dish by chef Hannah Che.
Chinese fish-fragrant aubergines
If you aren’t a fan of aubergine, it’s because you haven’t had this dish yet. Sichuan cooks fry aubergine until its golden and buttery, then braise it briefly in a sweet and sour sauce. The results are buttery, tender aubergine morsels which melt in the mouth.
Chinese lettuce with ginger soy sauce
Hannah Che’s cooked lettuce dish makes a delicious vegan addition to any Chinese-inspired feast. A quick blanch intensifies Romaine lettuce’s sweetness and flavour, and the delicate soy sauce dressing bathes the crisp, juicy stems and dimpled leaves with sesame oil and ginger.
Vegetable dumplings
Fill these vibrant vegan jiaozi (the Chinese word for ‘dumpling’) with mooli, celery, sweetcorn and water chestnuts as part of a Chinese-style feast.
Chinese steamed fish
This steamed soy dover sole, served with a pickled red chilli chutney for a kick of heat, is a must-make dish during Chinese New Year feasting.
Chinese pork belly
This recipe for twice-cooked pork belly involves poaching the meat, then slicing and frying for a crispy skin and tender centre.
Drunken chicken
Follow chef Jeremy Pang’s recipe for drunken chicken, where steamed chicken thighs are marinated with a bittersweet mix of shaoxing rice wine and light soy sauce.
Pork biang biang noodles
Our version of bang bang-style noodles sees fresh pasta noodles coated in a sauce that’s as sweet as it is spicy, thanks to the addition of chiu chow chilli oil.
Char siu pork
This Chinese-inspired recipe comes from Zijun Meng and Ana Gonçalves of London's TĀ TĀ Eatery. There, they cook the pork for eight hours at a very low temperature, but this recipe has been adapted for home ovens.
Hoisin duck
Rustle up a speedy Chinese-style dinner with this sticky hoisin duck served with vegetable fried rice. Use leftover cooked, fridge-cold rice for a crispy, fluffy texture – this ensures the fried rice can be made without the worry of it breaking down and becoming mushy.
BaoziInn chicken dumplings
Francis Law’s vibrant Chinese chicken dumplings from the BaoziInn menu look seriously impressive, yet only call for simple ingredients.
BaoziInn Chinese pak choi
Follow Francis Law’s recipe and discover a brilliant way to serve baby pak choi - lightly boiled and drizzled with soy sauce and homemade garlic oil.
Spicy chicken chow mein
This super-simple chow mein can be on the table in 40 minutes. You'll need soy sauce and shaoxing rice wine to help achieve the rich flavours that we all love this classic Chinese takeaway dish for.
Pork dumplings
These pillowy pork and chive dumplings are ready in just 45 minutes, and best dunked in plenty of soy, vinegar and chilli.
Crispy duck and peach pancakes
Tangy peach sauce makes a great, simple twist to classic crispy duck pancakes. It's so much more satisfying than calling a takeaway.
Shanghai noodle soup
This traditional pork noodle soup recipes comes from Kei Lum Chan and Diora Fong Chan's cookbook China: The Cookbook. It might take a little while to make but this Chinese pork noodle broth, but the layers of flavours are worth the wait. Freeze any leftover broth to use later.
Pan fried soup dumplings (sheng jian bao)
Try our soup dumplings recipe. A pork filling is encased in a thin, chewy dough – crisp on the bottom, beautifully pleated at the top – and the first bite unleashes a torrent of heady, fragrant stock. The dumplings are served with chilli oil and black vinegar.
Sichuan-style cabbage
This fancy cabbage side dish showcases the Sichuan love of dried chillies. It's great served alongside mapo tofu, cold sesame noodles, or dumplings in hot and sour broth.
Crispy five-spice and sriracha pork belly
Check out this punchy, easy, crispy pork belly with Chinese five-spice. This flavoursome pork recipe is great with rice, noodles or bao buns.
Kung pao caramel chicken
Using caramel in savoury cooking adds a smoky, sweet depth to marinades and braises, and brings an extra dimension to this Chinese classic.
Seared sesame tofu with noodle salad
A great vegetarian option. The sesame seeds and red chilli liven up this tofu dish.
Pork and prawn dumplings
Small, delicious parcels of succulent meat and fish with a kick of chilli and ginger, pork and prawn dumplings are a dim sum favourite. Learn how to make them with step-by-step help from our test kitchen.
Shanghai fried beef noodles
Ready in just 30 minutes, our Shanghai-style fried beef noodles make a great, straightforward meal, with plenty of punchy flavour.
Slow-roast duck with sweet tamarind
This tender Chinese-style duck serves four and would make for a great centrepiece for a casual dinner party. Get everyone involved and carve this one on the table before you serve it up with basmati rice and pak choi.
Smacked cucumbers
By ‘smacking’ the cucumbers in this Sichuan side dish you create more rough surfaces – all the better for soaking up the zingy pickle.
Healthier sweet and sour chicken
Jazz up chicken breasts in this healthy version of a Cantonese classic recipe, sweet and sour chicken.
Sticky Chinese-style ribs
These sticky Chinese-style pork ribs are really easy to make for a summer banquet. Serve with some rice and tuck in.
Kung pao prawns
The Sichuan peppercorns and chilli flakes add some spice to the prawns while the cashew nuts add a crunchy texture to this stir-fry.
Twice-cooked Chinese-style pork
This delicious twice-cooked Chinese-style pork belly is really tender and packed with great flavours. Serve with green vegetables and steamed rice.
Chinese-style purple sprouting broccoli with tofu
This Chinese-style purple sprouting broccoli with tofu recipe is easy, vegan and under 500 calories.
Chinese red-braised chicken
This Chinese-inspired chicken dish is quick, easy and perfect for a midweek meal. It's called red-braised because of the colour that is infused by the spices.
Crispy Chinese chicken
Check out this crispy Chinese-inspired chicken recipe with crunchy greens. This super easy meal for 3 is packed with punchy flavour and comes in at just over 400 calories.
Chinese chicken wings
Check out these delicious Chinese-style chicken wings with punchy sanbei sauce. This recipe is easy to make and comes from new Taiwanese restaurant XU in London's Chinatown.
Chinese dry-fried green beans and minced shiitake
Chef Jeremy Pang has put a vegan twist on this classic Sichuanese dish, swapping pork mince for shiitake mushrooms.
Chinese lobster noodles
Chef Jeremy Pang's lobster dish combines the meaty shellfish with stir-fried egg noodles and an umami oyster sauce.
Chinese pan-fried soup dumpling bao
Set aside a weekend to make chef Jeremy Pang's sheng jian bao complete with a fluffy dough and juicy pork filling.
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