15 Most Popular Chinese Meat Dishes
China is considered to one of the world’s pork eater and Chinese does not only love pork but are good in cooking pork and other meat dishes too. Chinese cuisine includes cooking methods such as frying, steaming, boiling, braising and so much more. The taste of Chinese dishes varies as some are salty, sweet and even spicy. In this post, we have gathered some of the most popular Chinese meat dishes that you can find.
Popular Chinese Meat Dishes
Kung Pao Chicken
Kung Pao Chicken or also called Gong Bao or Kung Po is a staple dish in China. It is one of the favorite dishes among tourists.
Kung Pao Chicken is a spicy stir fry Chinese dish that is made with cubes or chicken dice, peanuts, vegetables and chili peppers such as Sichuan Peppercorns. The use of peanuts gives this dish its nutty flavor.
This dish originated from Sichuan Province (located in South western china), that is why Sichuan Peppers are used.
The Kung Pao sauce used is made from two flavors. First is from the spices used and the next flavor comes from mixing soy sauce, sugar and vinegar.
Main ingredients for Kung Pao Chicken recipe includes: Chicken stock, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, bell pepper, onions, scallions and Sesame oil.
Peking Duck
Peking Duck is traditional dish originating from Beijing China. The dish typically consists of a duck meat that is roasted and the skin of the duck is topped with sauce and scallions.
The duck is usually cooked until it turns crispy and golden brown in color, the meat becomes tender, moist and has a sweet taste.
Mapo Doufu
Mapo Doufu is a popular dish in China that originates from Sichuan Province. It is typically made of Tofu cubes set in a spicy sauce that consists of minced meat, either beef or pork and douchi (fermented black beans).
This dish is spicy and hot that comes from using Sichuan Peppercorns, doubangjiang (bean paste) and chili oil.
Honey Beef with Sesame Seeds
Honey beef with sesame seeds is another meat dish in China. It is made by combing honey and soy sauce to make a savory and a hint of sweetness marinade that will make the flank steak tender.
While the oyster sauce used will definitely add to a more complex flavor to this dish. Drizzle with sesame seeds for that nutty flavor and also to make the dish more appealing.
Orange Chicken
Orange Chicken is an American-Chinese dish that originally originated from Hunan region in China. A dish that is made from fried battered chicken combined in a sweet and sour orange and chili sauce.
The orange chicken sauce recipe is made from sugar, orange juice, soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic water, red chili flakes and orange zest.
The dish has a sweet and crispy taste and it usually enhanced because of the mixture that comes from orange juice.
General Tso’s Chicken
General Tso’s Chicken is another popular meat dish in China. It is actually a Chinese-American dish that is made from deep frying dices of chicken. It is then stir-fried with garlic, ginger, hot chili peppers and scallions. Mixed with a delicious sauce that is made from soy sauce, rice vinegar, rice wine and sugar.
Although you can always adjust how sweet and how spicy you want your dish to be according to one’s preferences.
General Tso’s Chicken is best paired with fried rice or steamed rice.
Twice Cooked Pork
Twice Cooked pork or also known as Double-cooked pork is a dish specialty in the Sichuan Province in China.
The cooking process involves two processes:
- Pork is simmered in a pot then allowed to cool down by placing in the refrigerator.
- Pork meat is then sliced and stir fried with fresh vegetables such as leeks, bell peppers, mushrooms and cabbage until it is brown and crispy.
There are different recipe variations with this dish. You can simply add a delicious sauce that is made from chili beans, rice wine and fermented black beans.
Chinese BBQ pork (Char Siu)
Char Siu is a roasted Chinese BBQ pork dish. The term Char Siu basically means fork-roasted, which refers to the method of preparing the dish such as putting the pork in an elongated fork and then roasted in an open fire.
Before roasting the pork in the oven, it is first marinated using a sauce mixture of soy sauce, rice wine, hoisin sauce and star anise.
Char Siu is best paired with rice. And it is often used as an ingredient to stir fries and noodle dishes recipe. It is sometimes used as a filling for Chasiu Baau (Barbecue-filled bun)
It is usually served as an appetizer or as a main dish in a meal served as a shredded or chopped meat.
Siu Yuk
Siu Yuk is a traditional Cantonese meat dish. In Chinese cuisine, it is also known for as Roasted meat dishes.
Siu Yuk is made by roasting an entire pig in charcoal under high heat temperature that results in a tender and juicy meat on the inside with crispy skin on the outside. The pig is usually seasoned with salt and vinegar.
The meat is best paired with hoisin sauce or soy sauce. Most of the time, Siu Yuk is embellished with cucumber slices and or pineapple slices.
Boiled Pork Slices (Shuǐ Zhǔ Ròu Piàn)
Boiled pork slices is considered to be one of the best pork dishes in Chinese cuisine. The slices of pork are marinated using egg liquid, salt, starch and cooking wine. Pepper and dry chili are then deep fried until golden brown.
In preparing this dish, heated oil are added with shallots, bean sauce, sliced ginger, soy sauce, pepper powder. Water is then added. Once mixture has boiled, pork slices are then added allowing to boil some more. It is then transferred in a bowl. Drizzled with ground fried peppers and dry chili.
Fish Flavored Shredded pork (Yi Xiang)
Yi Xiang is a Chinese meat sauce originated from Sichuan region. The word Yi Xiang meant fish flavored, which means that it does not contain seafood.
To prepare this, the shredded pork fillet is first marinated with starch, salt, egg and cooking wine for less than 30 minutes.
The fish flavored sauce is made from salt, white sugar, soy sauce, starch, cooking wine and water.
Beef Chop Suey
Chop suey is an American-Chinese dish that is popular in all restaurants but it can also be easily made at the comfort of home.
There are two variations: Beef Chop Suey and Pork Chop Suey. The meat added to the dish for that extra flavor. It is recommended to use the tenderloin rather than using pork chops cut. For beef, flank or skirt steak is recommended.
Mongolian Beef
Mongolian Beef is made by stir frying Sirloin steak with sauce that is made from dark soy sauce, chile paste, hoisin sauce, and rice vinegar.
The meat is first marinade then added to the vegetables. To make the meat tender, marinade for at least 30 minutes.
Sweet and Sour Pork (Bō Luó Gǔ Lǎo Ròu)
Sweet and sour pork is another delicious meat dish in China. It is made from chunks of pork that are batter-coated then deep fried. Tender and Juicy on the inside, and crispy on the outside.
In preparing this dish, the chunks of pork meat are then mixed with sour and sour sauce together with fresh vegetables such as green pepper, carrot and onions.
Sweet and sour pork dish is gaining in popularity and are now served in different countries around the world, although in the United States the dish tends to be much sweeter then the original Chinese version. It can also be seen that Sweet and sour pork is also served in different Chinese communities in America.
Beef Chow Fun (Gōn Cháau Ngàuh Hó or Gānchǎo Níuhé)
Beef Chow Fun is a stir fry beef Shahe noodles. Considered to be a staple dish in Chinese cuisine.
It is basically made from stir frying the beef, hor fun and bean sprouts. Although other recipes includes baby corn instead of using mung bean sprouts. When using bean sprouts, you can add it at the end part of the cooking process after using the oyster sauce. Allow to cook for a minute or so.
FAQs
The difference between a Peking Duck and a regular duck is that a Peking duck is usually served with the skin and the meat, while a roasted duck is usually served with meat and meat bones in every slice of the meat.
Chinese are meat lovers, in fact they basically eat all types of animal meat such as pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, and pigeons.
Chinese has 5 traditional dishes such as Biang Biang Noodles, Dim Sum, Xiaolongbao, Sichuan hot pot and Peking Duck.
Chinese people rarely eat raw meat. Most of the meat dishes in China are cooked in different ways such as stewed, roasted, poached, baked and or pickled.
Chinese food tastes so good because of the herbs and spices used in Chinese cooking. Aside from the that, delicious sauces that are added to the dish will make the dish irresistibly delicious.
Conclusion
Chinese people loves to eat and Chinese food are considered to be healthy foods because of its wide variety of fresh vegetables used in every dish. Since Chinese love all meat, pork is the most common meat consumed in Japan where it can be seen in almost every meal.
Listed in this post are the most popular meat dishes in China that you might want to try when visiting the country that you sure don’t want to miss.
