Traditional Chinese meat pie(Xianbing) with beef and scallion!
Traditional Chinese meat pie provides a crispy wrapper and savory filling. There are in fact many types of meat pie popular across the country. The fillings differ from one house to another. You can use pork, lamb, beef etc. The recipe Elaine shared today is beef and scallion meat pie.
Mix around 2 cups of all-purpose flour with pinch of salt in a large bowl. Swirl the hot water in firstly and then the cold water. Mix with chop stickers during the process until you get floccule texture. Wait for cool.
Grasp all the floccules with hands and then roll into a smoothie dough. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes.
In order to make juicy filling, we need to mix water with the beef filling by batches. Add the water to minced beef three times and then stir the beef in one direction until the water is completely absorbed by the meat.
For the assembling methods, there are many methods you can use for holding this pie. Just seal them completely. You can fold it as a bun firstly by following the guide here and the guide of folding a chive pancake.
Saute until both sides become golden-brown. Cut into wedges or sever directly.
- 220 g minced beef
- 1 leek scallion , finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp. Chinese five spice powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. grated ginger
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- Pinch of fresh ground pepper
- 2 tsp. sesame oil
- 3 tbsp. water , one tablespoon each time
- 2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup hot water over 90℃
- 80 ml room temperature water , plus 10ml more for adjusting
- Vegetable oil for brushing
- Pinch of salt
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Mix around 2 cups of all-purpose flour with pinch of salt in a large bowl. Swirl the hot water in firstly and then the cold water. Mix with chop stickers during the process until you get floccule texture. Wait for cool.
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Grasp all the floccules with hands and then roll into a smoothie dough. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes.
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In a large bowl with minced beef, add water by three batches. After adding the water each time, stir the beef quickly in one direction until all the water is absorbed by the meat. Then mix with salt, soy sauce, sesame oil and herbs firstly and then followed by scallion and grated ginger. Set aside.
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Divide the dough into 8 small ones.Brush some oil on surface and roll each one into a round wrapper; place around 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of the wrapper. Press the filling a little bit and seal the wrapper completely.
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Press the sealed bun prepared in previous step; turn over. Brush some oil on both sides and saute with slow fire until golden-brown.
The Nutrition Facts is based on each single pie.
loving the sound of a chinese meat pie.. definitely need to try out the recipe!
Thalia, the making process is quite fun and I do love the come out very much too.
Are these served with a sauce? Looks great!
Hi Burns,
You can serve it with a chili sauce-like sweet chili sauce. But it is ok to serve them directly.
These look delicious. A question: can these be made ahead – kept in the fridge or freezer?
Yes, cover with plastic wrapper and overnight in fridge.Longer time is not recommended!
What would you add to this for presentation? bed of lettuce.
Hi there,
It is mint leaf.
So I saw this dish in one of Anthony Bourdains many shows, found this recipe and decided to make it right away. So I’ve just mixed the flour, salt and water and the dough is very wet almost batter like. My question is do I add more flour or should I wait until it cools down to room temperature.
Edit: So I made the dough, after adding extra 250g of flour. Made the filling, tried it raw. It tasted kind of strange(but this was my first real Chinese dish I ever tried or cooked). Cooked the first pie and it was very nice.
Hi Lojze,
Thanks for the feedback. Apologizes, I made a mistake about the water. It should be 1/4 cup hot and 1/4 cup room temperature water. Do you mean the filling tastes strange to you?
It was the first real Chinese food I ever tried. I’m used to the taste of soy sauce and sesame oil. But the taste of five spice surprised me. Also the dough would be more crispy if you rolled it thinly spray it with some oil and maybe sprinkle it with some salt. Fold the dough and roll it again. So you get thin layers of dough.
I love five spice powder very much. And hope you will get used to it soon. Thanks for your suggestion about the thin layers and wish you happy cooking ahead.
I just saw your recipe for Chinese Meat Pie. It sounds good. I’m wondering what does floccule texture look like and what part of beef or pork do you use ie……tenderloin, roast, steak?
Hi Rahnee,
I use tenderloin for this recipe. But steak should work fine too.
That’s one thing I don’t need to know how to make… There was a little place down the street from Shaanxi Normal University, and it was so hard to resist then. If I can make them at home? That’s too tempting.
Hi Kaedi,
Ops, I am sorry Kaedi that I cannot catch enough information about the ideal food. Can you describe it more in details, how it look like and ingredients you remember. I think it might be something like this one: https://chinasichuanfood.com/chinese-hamburger-pork-belly-buns/.
These are great, I was in China two years ago for 2 months, I love the meat pies, Now the peppers ouch LOL
Glad to have found out how to make them my self,
I do miss a lot of the real Chinese foods I had there, And my friends too,
Hi Terry,
I believe there must a big list you are missing. There are lots of yummy food here in China.
Happy cooking and I hope you enjoy your own homemade version.
Hi, I just made these because it looked quite simple which it turned out to be just so. However, the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of meat instead of 1/2 pound and the amount of water to be added should be a touch more. The recipe also has too much soy and a bit too much five spice. The five spice became bitter to taste, and I only used 1/2 of what was asked for. As for the dough, I had to add a couple more tablespoons full of water. It made the sough softer.
Hi, I would love to see a rou jia mo recipe if there isn’t already one!
Hi Yang, here you go https://chinasichuanfood.com/chinese-hamburger-pork-belly-buns/
Hi,
I have a question about adding the water to the beef. It says add in three batches – does this mean I add 3 tablespoons of water total – or 1 tablespoon of water, adding 1/3 of a tablespoon at a time?
Thanks!
Hi Nathan,
We need 3 tablespoon of water in total.
I LOVE reading your posts!
Can you tell us how to make braised eggplant please?!
Thank you, Meghan
Check this eggplant with garlic sauce and Chinese eggplant with minced pork.
Floccule texture makes no sense. Can you please retranslate or demonstrate. I assume chop stickers are chopsticks?
Paul,
Elaine uses the term “floccule texture” to mean that the flour and water mixture will form small clumps. These will smooth out with kneading. I personally find the term amusing and not inaccurate.
Denny
Did you put lettuce in the meat mix for more water taste?
I did not use lettuce in this recipe.