9 Chinese Egg Recipes

9 Chinese Egg Recipes

Posted on: April 12th 2022

Chinese food culture has an ever-growing presence, making its way to nearly every corner of the world. There are hundreds of recipes for every diet preference, palate, and meal — it’s no wonder we can’t get enough!

While meat, vegetables, and rice are often thought of as the stars of fan-favorite Chinese dishes, eggs are another ingredient that is essential to making classic recipes shine. Though eggs can completely transform a dish with their flavor, they also provide essential nutrients. Depending on how they’re cooked, eggs can add texture and flavor and act as the main protein of a meal or a complimentary accompaniment.

If you’re craving tasty homemade Chinese food, put your cooking chops to the test with a few delicious and easy Chinese egg recipes!

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TIPS FOR PREPARING CHINESE EGG DISHES

Chinese food is inarguably popular and tasty. However, eating out whenever you’re in the mood isn’t necessarily good for your health and can be expensive. Learning how to make authentic Chinese dishes gives you a renewed appreciation for the culture while simultaneously allowing you to grow your culinary skillset.

If you’re used to having your food within an hour of ordering it, it’s easy to forget that the techniques chefs use are the result of years of practice. In fact, the methods used to prepare your favorite Chinese entrees have been used for thousands of years. These methods are what give Chinese food its distinctive style and profile.

These tips will help you create fresh, balanced, and flavorful Chinese dishes.

1. BEFORE YOU COOK

Use a variety of meat and vegetables so your dish is diverse in color, flavors, and textures. When cooking Chinese food, you should opt for fresh ingredients whenever you can. If you have an authentic Chinese supermarket near you, it’s usually worthwhile to buy certain ingredients from there.

Additionally, you should wash and cut your vegetables before you start cooking to ensure they’re clean and ready to go. It’s also important to keep your vegetables separate from each other, as not all vegetables cook the same way.

When preparing your meat, you should always marinate it for at least a few hours before cooking it. This time allows the seasoning to truly soak into the meat for mouthwatering flavor.

2. WHEN YOU COOK MEAT

Though you may have cooked different types of meat plenty of times, you may want to refresh your memory when it comes to a few kitchen fundamentals.

• Make the right cut: Always cut beef across the grain. This cutting method will make the meat more tender.
• Slice each piece similarly: When you’re cutting meat into smaller pieces, they should all be uniform so they cook evenly.
• Get the pan hot enough: When using a wok to fry beef, you should ensure it’s hot enough to sear the meat, which will caramelize it. A hot pan also prevents the meat from sticking.
• Cook the meat first: If you’re cooking a stir-fry with meat and vegetables, you should cook the meat first and then set it aside when frying the veggies. The last step should be adding the meat back into the pan accompanied by a sauce.

3. WHEN YOU COOK VEGETABLES

Because vegetables come in all shapes and sizes, it only makes sense to stagger their cooking times. One of the biggest blunders home cooks make is adding all of the vegetables to the pan at once, which doesn’t allow the thickest veggies to cook all the way through.

Many Chinese recipes use bok choy, broccoli and cabbage, which require longer cooking times than other common ingredients like snow peas or onions. If you find yourself second-guessing the order to use when cooking several different vegetables, you can always fry them separately. This way, you’re guaranteed to have an evenly cooked stir-fry.

CHINESE EGG RECIPES

While many people often associate Chinese food with dinner time, you can find recipes that are perfect for any meal. From savory soups to creamy custards, you’ll never be lost on what to make for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert!

1. CHOW MEIN

These noodles are a staple in Chinese food culture. In fact, the oldest recipe for this simple, yet delicious starch dates back centuries. Made with eggs and wheat or rice flour, egg noodles are easy to make from scratch — but here, you can use store-bought noodles if you’d prefer.

This recipe calls for an all-star lineup of savory ingredients, including chow mein egg noodles, oil, garlic, chicken, shrimp, cabbage, carrots, and scallions. For the sauce, you’ll need light and dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and water.

1. Soak the noodles in cold water for five minutes. Rinse them until the water turns clear.
2. Mix all of the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl.
3. Heat up a large pan with oil.
4. Add the minced garlic, cooking for a minute or two until aromatic.
5. Add the chicken and shrimp, cooking halfway.
6. Add the cabbage and carrots.
7. Add the noodles and sauce mixture, stirring until combined.
8. Continue cooking until the meat is completely cooked.
9. Serve with chopped scallions.

This recipe is a great go-to for a quick homemade and affordable meal. And it can be easily altered to fit your tastes! If you love vegetables, try adding spinach, mushrooms, and peppers for additional flavor. Feel free to add scrambled eggs or replace the chicken with beef. With plenty of protein and your choice of vegetables, chow mein requires no sides or appetizers.

2. CHINESE EGG FRIED RICE

No meal satisfies quite like homemade fried rice. It’s a comfort food that fills you up while still providing essential vitamins and nutrients. In particular, egg fried rice is guaranteed to take your fried rice game to the next level. The secret to making truly amazing fried rice is using day-old rice. Preparing the rice the day before ensures the grains dry out and firm up, which will make your rice less mushy in the frying pan.

This dish is a good option for picky eaters, as it’s so easy to substitute the ingredients for whatever vegetables or meat you like. This recipe calls for oil, garlic cloves, an onion, vegetables, rice, eggs, and green onion. There’s also a sauce, made with rice wine, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper.

1. Heat up a large pan with oil.
2. Add the minced garlic and onion to the pan.
3. Add the diced vegetables to the pan. If frozen, cook them for about two minutes.
4. Add the rice and all of the ingredients for the sauce.
5. Push the ingredients in the pan toward the back to make room for the rice.
6. Add a 1/2 tablespoon of oil to the pan.
7. Crack the eggs into the pan, scrambling them.
8. Add the chopped green onion, mix the entire pan together, and serve.

Another little-known secret to making perfect fried rice is to make the skillet sizzling hot and coat it with enough oil to keep the ingredients from sticking. The increased heat will help your rice achieve that smoky flavor you get at a restaurant. The best part about fried rice is that you can adapt it to work in whatever food you have in your fridge.

3. CHINESE TEA EGGS

Traditional tea eggs are a popular snack across China, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Although they take a bit of time to prepare, they can last up to three or four days. This take on the classic recipe will result in beautifully soft tea eggs every time.

Unlike regular hard-boiled eggs, tea eggs require a few more ingredients to unlock unparalleled flavor — Sichuan peppercorns, ginger, bay leaves, light and dark soy sauce, star anise, black tea leaves, sugar, salt, and a cinnamon stick.

1. Boil the ingredients for the marinade in a pot for 10 minutes. Remove the tea leaves and reserve the marinade for later.
2. Boil the eggs in a pot of water for seven minutes.
3. Immediately place the eggs in an ice-water bath so they stop cooking.
4. Slightly crack the eggs to open up the shells.
5. Marinate the eggs in the sauce for 24 hours — or longer if you want a more intense flavor.
6. Enjoy!

There’s no wrong way to eat a tea egg, you can enjoy them warm or cold. If you’re feeling particularly hungry, you can eat them as a side with rice or vegetables.

4. CHINESE EGG DROP SOUP

There’s nothing like cozying up to a steaming bowl of egg drop soup on a cold winter day. While it may seem obvious, the name for egg drop soup comes from how it’s made — you simply drop raw eggs into hot broth to create the signature silken strands of cooked egg.

This recipe takes 20 minutes to make and requires just a few ingredients. Aside from chicken stock and beaten eggs, you’ll need sugar, salt, sesame oil, turmeric, white pepper, scallions, and cornstarch.

1. Bring the chicken stock to a simmer, adding the oil, salt, sugar, turmeric, and pepper.
2. Mix the cornstarch with water. Pour the mixture into the pot, stirring continuously as you do so.
3. Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl.
4. Use a ladle to pour the beaten eggs into the pot, slowly drizzling them in a circular motion.
5. Pour the soup into bowls, topping with scallions before serving.

This soup is a great starter for lunch and dinner but also works as a warming and welcoming way to start your day on chilly mornings. If you want to punch up the flavor, try adding some hot sauce to your soup. When topped with crispy noodles or served as a side, egg drop soup becomes a tasty and filling meal.

5. CHINESE EGG FOO YUNG

This is a colorful medley of vegetables, eggs, and meat. As a savory omelet-like dish, you can add whatever combination of ingredients you like. The most common additions are bean sprouts, water chestnuts, cabbage, onions, and bamboo shoots. If you want more protein, you can’t go wrong with pork, chicken, shrimp, or beef.

For this entree, you’ll need eggs, black pepper, salt, rice wine, oil, bean sprouts, onion, mushrooms, Chinese sausages, and cabbage. To cook the sauce, you’ll use chicken broth, sesame oil, rice wine, cornstarch, soy sauce, and water.

1. Boil the chicken broth in a medium-sized pot.
2. Add in the rest of the sauce ingredients, whisking quickly to create a thicker texture. Set aside.
3. Beat the eggs, rice wine, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Set aside.
4. Heat a large pan with 1 tablespoon of oil.
5. Add the chopped onion and sliced sausage to the pan, cooking for two minutes. Set aside.
6. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the pan.
7. Cook the mushrooms until brown.
8. Add the mushrooms, onion, sausage, bean sprouts, and cabbage to the egg mixture, combining.
9. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the pan.
10. Pour the egg mixture evenly into the pan, flipping it over once the underside is cooked.
11. Serve the egg foo yung with the sauce and rice.

There are many iterations of egg foo yung worldwide. It’s common in British and American Chinese cuisine, as well as variations featured in Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. The secret to making a perfect puffed-up egg foo yung is to use plenty of oil in the pan, so the eggs inflate similarly to a souffle. The outside will become crisp while staying soft and creamy inside.

6. CHINESE STEAMED EGGS

For a delicious meal, look no further than Chinese steamed eggs. This is a savory take on a classic egg custard, making it a great, healthy breakfast or snack.

It’s incredibly easy to make, as all you need are three ingredients for the eggs — eggs, water, and salt. To make the topping, you need chives, sesame oil, soy sauce, and hot chili oil.

1. Whisk the eggs together in a bowl.
2. Measure the eggs to determine their volume in cups or milliliters.
3. Pour out two times the amount of water as the eggs.
4. Mix the eggs and water together. Add the salt.
5. Strain the eggs evenly into two separate bowls, covering them with aluminum foil.
6. Steam over low heat for about 12 minutes until the eggs are set.
7. Mix the topping ingredients together to make a sauce.
8. Pour the sauce over the eggs and serve.

Feel free to serve this dish with any side you like or enjoy it by itself for a simple meal or snack.

7. CANTONESE SCRAMBLED EGGS

Though eggs are a breakfast staple, you can make scrambled eggs any time of day. In this particular case, what sets Chinese scrambled eggs apart comes down to the use of Chinese white wine, or Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, and miso paste. If you want a delicious garlic flavor, you may want to add Chinese garlic chives, or “jiu cai,” to the dish. While regular chives are round, hollow, and have a similar taste to onions, garlic chives are flat and taste of garlic.

This recipe calls for eggs, salt, sugar, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, white pepper, miso paste, cornstarch, butter, and water.

1. Mix the cornstarch and water to create a slurry.
2. Separate the eggs yolks from the whites.
3. Mix the slurry and the seasonings into the bowl the egg yolks.
4. Whisk the whites until large bubbles appear.
5. Mix the yolks and the whites together.
6. Heat a pan with butter until melted.
7. If adding the chives, add them to the pan and cook until tender.
8. Add the egg mixture to the pan, carefully flipping it until it’s no longer runny.
9. Serve.

While scrambled eggs are often eaten alone, you can serve this recipe with a side of rice or meat.

8. CHINESE EGG STIR-FRY WITH TOMATOES

If you’re looking to add more protein to your diet, eggs are a great addition to any meal — especially stir-fries! These ingredients add flavor and texture while also acting as a binder for other ingredients. Even though you won’t see this recipe advertised at your local restaurant, it’s a fan-favorite Chinese homestyle dish. With just a few basic ingredients, you get a tangy and complex meal that is perfect for lunch or dinner.

No matter how you cook them, tomatoes and eggs are match made in heaven. But this classic meal takes these simple ingredients and turns them into a high-end dish that is packed full of flavor. If the affordability of this recipe wasn’t enough to instantly make it one of your favorites, its cooking time will send it over the top. In just 20 minutes, you’ll have a full meal that’s ready to eat.

For this recipe, you will need eggs, salt, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, cornstarch, sugar, ketchup, diced tomatoes, vegetable oil, scallions, and ginger. If you want to serve the eggs with rice, you can steam white rice while you make them.

1. Mix the eggs in a bowl with the salt, sesame oil, and Shaoxing wine.
2. Combine the water and cornstarch. Add the sugar and ketchup to the same bowl.
3. Heat a large pan with oil.
4. Add most of the scallions, cooking for 20 seconds.
5. Add the eggs, cooking them until they’re slightly runny.
6. Pour the mixture into a bowl and set aside.
7. Reheat the pan with oil.
8. Add the ginger, tomatoes, and salt, cooking for about two to four minutes.
9. Reduce the heat, adding the cornstarch mixture to the pan.
10. Stir the eggs into the pan, completely cooking them.
11. Top with scallions.

What makes this scrambled egg stir-fry unlike any other is that you get an amazing sweet tomato and sesame oil-based sauce in the end. Serve it up with plenty of rice on the side and enjoy!

9. CHINESE EGG TARTS

Last — but not least — comes a recipe that combines the best of three noteworthy food cultures — Chinese, British, and Portuguese. Worldwide, you can find these tiny treats in Chinese bakeries and dim sum restaurants. But if you can’t find them locally, these fresh-from-the-oven homemade tarts will have you swooning.

For this recipe, you’ll need white flour, butter, eggs, salt, milk, water, caster sugar, and egg tart molds.

To make the dough:

1. Make the dough by combining flour, egg, and water in a food processor. Set aside.
2. Cut the butter into small pieces.
3. Put the butter and flour into the food processor, pulsing until it forms bridges. Set aside.
4. Place saran wrap on the countertop.
5. Set the first dough you made with the water onto the saran wrap, flattening it. Place another layer of saran wrap on top.
6. Roll the dough to create a large rectangle.
7. Remove the saran wrap, laying the second dough with the butter in the center of the water dough.
8. Fold the outer dough over the inner dough so it’s fully covered.
9. Chill the dough until it hardens.
10. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, rolling it out and folding the ends of the dough toward each other.
11. Repeat steps nine and 10 three more times.
12. Roll out the dough, set it into the molds, and trim the edges to create a crust in each one.

To make the filling:

1. Heat the sugar and water in a pot until combined.
2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.
3. Add the milk and syrup to the bowl.
4. Strain the mixture twice.
5. Fill the molds about 70% of the way.

To bake:

1. Bake the custards at 390 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.
2. Lower the temperature to 356 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Open the oven door, leaving it open for five minutes to cool before removing the molds.

It’s easy to get carried away with excitement when you’re baking a new dessert. But this recipe demands a little more patience than usual as your dough chills to the right temperature. In the end, you’ll have an irresistible tart of buttery crust filled with silky smooth custard.

EXPLORE NEW RECIPES WITH SAUDER’S EGGS

The quality of a dish is in the ingredients, and Sauder’s Eggs takes this value to heart. With long-standing family traditions of product excellence and integrity, we’ve become a leading marketer of fresh eggs across the country.

For the freshest and highest quality eggs in the industry, look no further than Sauder’s Eggs to enhance any dish. Whether you’re honing your culinary skills with new recipes or treating the family to beloved favorites, use our store locator to purchase our eggs today.