Chinese cuisine is best known for its rich and colorful with aromatic flavor and great tasting dishes. The ingredients used by Chinese Chefs are remarkable using different herbs and spices that makes each dish so delicious and mouthwatering. There are a variety of dishes in Chinese cuisine. In this guide, we have gathered a list of some of the best Chinese food dishes.
Best Chinese Food Dishes
Dumplings
Dumplings is a popular not only found in Chinese cuisines but can also be found in other cuisines such as East Asian Cuisine (Japanese and Korean) and Central Asian Cuisine (Afghanistan and Uzbekistan).
Dumplings are made of dough wrappers that is filled with ingredients such as spring onions, black pepper, and soft mutton stew.
Traditionally eaten on the eve of Chinese New Year believed to bring good luck and more financial blessings.
Chow Mein
Chow Mein is a Cantonese cuisine that means stir fried noodles. There are different varieties of Chow Mein but a traditional Chow Mein is made using fried noodles and sometimes it is made with chow Main, Yakisoba noodles or boiled Lo Mein.
Chow Mein dish consists of meat that can either be chicken beef, shrimp or pork, noodles, Onions ( red onions or spring onions) and celery. Other ingredients includes green peppers and carrots.
Hot Pot
Hot pot is a one of the best Chinese food dishes. It is also known as steamboat, soup food or Sichuan Hot pot. Chinese are very fond of hot pot. It consist of a simmering pot that contains vegetables, and meat broth.
You can easily tell if it is a good hot pot or not based on the broth used since it is where the ingredients gets its flavor from.
In a Chinese hot pot, different kinds of condiments and foods that you add one by one to the boiling hot pot.
Hot pot dish is a great way if you want to socialize and get together with family and friends. Individuals will gather around the hot pot dish conversing, drinking and just having fun while waiting for the ingredients on the hot pot to be cooked.
Kung Pao Chicken
Kung Pao Chicken is one of our list of the best Chinese dishes. Kung Pao Chicken is also known as Kung Po or Gong Bao.
Kung Pao Chicken is a popular Sichuan Style dish not only with Chinese people but with foreigner as well. Kung Pao Chicken is a stir fried Chinese dish made of diced chicken (covered with cornstarch), vegetables, chili peppers or dried chili, cucumber and peanuts (fried cashew nuts).
The sauce used in Kung Pao Chicken that holds together the ingredients together have two layers of flavor: first flavor comes from the mixture of scallions and dried red peppers while the second flavor from the vinegar, soy sauce and sugar.
Ma Po Tofu
Ma Po Tofu is another popular Chines dish originates from the Sichuan province. This dish is idea for individual on no meat diet or for vegans and vegetarians.
Ma Po Tofu is made by sautéing the Tofu on a hot and spicy chili sauce. Although the level of spiciness on the sauce depends on one’s preferences, you also have the option to adjust in case. However, it is known that the spicier the sauce for Ma Po Tofu is the delicious and tastier the dish will taste like.
Peking Duck
Peking Duck is a popular Beijing dish, in fact, it is considered to be one of the national dish in China.
A delicious food known as Peking Duck has a tender duck meat that is thin with crispy skin. Peking Duck is usually served with more of its crispy skin and little amount of meat that is usually sliced right in front of the diners. The Duck is roasted (using wood charcoal for best results) until the meat becomes reddish in color. You will have a tender meat on the inside while enjoying crispy skin on the outside.
Peking Duck is best served with sweet bean sauce, pancakes and often served with soy sauce with mixed with mashed garlic.
Wonton soup
Looking for the best soup on a rainy weather? Chinese Wonton soup got you covered. This Chinese food is made of seasoned chicken broth that contains wontons (Chinese dumplings), hence the name Wonton soup.
Wontons is a traditional dish in China made with dough wrappers filled with minced meat (chicken, beef or pork, shrip and cabbage). Wontons comes in different shapes and sizes that depends on how it was made. Regardless of the shape and size of a wonton, it still fits the standard Chinese Wonton noodles.
Scallion Pancakes
Scallion pancakes is a famous street food in China. It is also called as Cong You Bing or green onion pancake.
Scallion pancakes are unleavened flatbread made of dough that is usually folded with sesame oil mixed with minced scallions. After it is folded, it is then pan fried as a result of a pancake with crispy edges but the texture still remains chewy.
Char Siu
Char Siu is a barbecued pork dish. The word “Char” in Cantonese means “fork” while the word “Siu” means ” to roast. Therefore, Char Siu means “Fork Roasted” in Cantonese Cuisine.
Since Chinese people loves to eat pork, Char Siu dish is usually composed of either pork butt, pork belly or pork loin. Regardless of the type of pork used, Char Siu will still taste delicious.
The pork is marinated first using the marinade mixture of hoisin sauce, honey, red fermented bean curd, soy sauce and five spice powder (cinnamon, Fennel seed, star anise, cloves, Sichuan Pepper)
Char Siu is best served with either noodles or rice.
Fried Rice
Fried Rice or popularly known as Yangzhou fried rice in Chinese is a cooked rice that goes through stir fry cooking methods. A wok or a hollow or large frying pan is usually used to make Fried Rice since you will be adding ingredients to the cooked rice or boiled rice therefore you will be needing a large area on the pan for mixing the ingredients.
Preparing fried rice is very easy easy, you can even make it at the comfort of home using leftover rice.
There are different ingredients that you can add to your fried rice but the most common ingredients are: ginger, scallions, garlic, minced meat , and scrambled egg. The ingredients of fried rice are tossed in the wok and mix with the cooked rice or leftover rice. Soy sauce or oyster sauce is usually added to enhance the taste of the fried rice.
Good thing about fried rice is that you can always add any ingredients as you like such as tomatoes, sausages, or you can even add shrimp.
Spring Rolls
Spring rolls is another Chinese food. Considered to be one of the best Chinese food dishes. Spring rolls are usually served as appetizers. This type of Chinese food can be filled with different varieties of fillings.
The dough made of flour and water is filled with standard fillings of a spring roll includes cabbage, chicken (shredded), bean sprouts (common filling), mushrooms and even carrots.
Sweet and Sour Pork
Sweet and sour pork is another Chinese food that is popular. It is also known as Gu Lou Yook. Sweet and sour pork is made by deep frying the pork (hence its bright red in color texture) and stir fried in bell peppers and pineapple. It is then mixed with a sweet and sour sauce made from ginger, garlic, cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and ketchup.
If you do not like pork, you can use other meat options such as chicken, seafood or beef as an alternative. Though nothing can beat this Chinese dish when pork is used.
Zha Jiang Mian (Fried Sauce noodles)
Another flavorful dish in Chinese cuisine is ZhaJiangMian or Zha Jiang Mian. It is a fried sauce noodle dish served with fried bean sauce.
Zha Jiang Mian contains thick wheat noodles and Zhajang Sauce made from simmering diced meat (fried) or either ground beef or pork combined with fermented soy bean paste.
Sichuan Pork
Sichuan Pork is also known as Poached Pork slices. It is a popular Sichuan cuisine dish made by coating the pork with coatings that are made of starch and egg white. After coating the pork, it is then boiled in broth, a spicy taste and pepper flavor broth.
Xiaolongbao
Xiao long bao are small baskets of buns. It is known as the Chinese Steamed buns. The traditional way of cooking Xiaolongbao is placing the buns on a wooden basket and steamed.
With Xiaolongbao contains fillings. The most common filling for Xiaolongbao is pork though you also have the options to add other meat such as beef, shrimp, seafood, crab meat or you can add vegetable fillings instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Although there are a hundred or even thousands of Chinese dishes in China, Dumplings is ranked first on the list.
Chow Mein is considered to be the tastiest Chinese food. It consists of onions, celery, boiled noodles and meat that can either be chicken, pork, beef or shrimp.
Final Thoughts
Chinese foods comes in different varieties. From Wonton soup to Sweet and sour pork to Noodle dishes. Each of the delicious dish mentioned in here are just some of the most famous Chinese dishes.
We hope that this guide has helped you know more about the popular Chinese dishes usually served in Chinese restaurant.
Which of the Popular Chinese dishes mentioned have your tried and which one is your favorite. Let us know what you think.