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Chinese Five Spice Powder—Basic Homemade Version

September 17, 2014 26 Comments

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Homemade Chinese five spice powder with star anise, cloves, Sichuan peppercorn, fennel seeds and cinnamon.

Five Spice Powder—Basic Homemade Version

Recently, I get readers ask about how to choose five spice powder. She is complaining about the too strong cinnamon taste in store bought version. Honestly I did not know which brand to recommend because in most case, I use my homemade version.

Seeing the name, the first impression is that this mixture contains five types of spicy materials. Basically five spice powder is mainly used in braised dishes or roasted meat especially pork, beef or fish.

Five Spice Powder—Basic Homemade Version

The five basic ingredients for Chinese five spice powder are star aniseed (大料), fennel seeds(小茴香), cloves(丁香), Sichuan peppercorn(花椒) and cinnamon(肉桂). Based on the five basic ingredients, other spices might also be added due to different recipes. In fact, there are more than 13 common Chinese spices used in Chinese dishes. You can adjust the amount according to the basic ratio or change certain some ingredients accordingly. For example, if you certainly reduce the amount of cinnamon if you do not strong cinnamon taste since it might cause some bitterness. That’s why I am always trying to make homemade version sauces, spices and seasonings. We will have control of almost everything.

Five Spice Powder—Basic Homemade Version

homemade-Chinese-Five-spice-powder-other-Chinese-spices

Health tip: Five-spice powder combines the advantages of various spice and an appreciate amount can help to improve body immunity. However pregnant woman should not eat too much and avoid it in early pregnancy.

Five Spice Powder—Basic Homemade Version

Then, let’s find how to use five spice powder.

1. Use it in fillings of dumplings

Steamed Shummai Recipe

2. Use it on roasted recipes:

Crispy pork belly

Chinese Five Spicy Pork Roll

3. Use in pancakes

Chinese Scallion Pancakes

Zucchini Pancakes Chinese Style

4. Use it in stir fry recipes

Mapo tofu

5 from 4 votes
Print
Five Spice Powder
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
10 mins
Total Time
15 mins
 
Chinese Five Spice Powder
Course: Sauce and paste
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Five Spice
Author: Elaine
Ingredients
  • 20 g Sichuan Peppercorn
  • 20 g star anise
  • 10 g fennel seeds
  • 10 g cinnamon or cinnamon powder
  • 8 g cloves
Instructions
  1. Break cinnamon and star anise. And then put the two ingredients in your grinder to ground them to powder.
  2. Mix with other ingredients and continue grind until all the ingredients are well grounded.
  3. Filter large particles out; and keep the filtered ground powder mixture in airtighter container until use.
Recipe Notes

Since the five spice powder has a strong taste, spare it and do not use too much each time.
Do not throw away the large particles, you can use them in stewing recipes.

Five Spice Powder—Basic Homemade Version

Filed Under: Featured, Pantry, Recipes

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  1. Catherine says

    September 16, 2018 at 6:38 am

    5 stars
    Wow! I have been looking for an authentic chinese cuisine easy to ready to enjoy the cooking cook page for quite some time. This is classic straight forward and full of passages to basics, sauces, and traditional cooking. Thanks to you I have re- engaged with the art of cooking.

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      September 20, 2018 at 11:30 am

      Catherine,
      Thank you Catherine for such a lovely comment.

      Reply
  2. David says

    August 8, 2020 at 1:54 am

    5 stars
    Thank you so much for using metric! made it so much easier to measure. This is my first batch and it came out well – I dry rubbed it onto a whole chicken and roasted.

    I’ll be back to your website!

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      August 11, 2020 at 8:00 am

      Five spice chicken is so good, David! Happy cooking!

      Reply
  3. Goody says

    November 16, 2020 at 9:03 am

    5 stars
    I haven’t used this yet was I did taste it and it’s fantastic. And it’s so aromatic. It made way more than I need so next time I would halve the recipe. Can’t wait to try it in a dish.

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      November 18, 2020 at 9:01 am

      It presents aromatic and lovely flavor in dough especially. Happy cooking!

      Reply
  4. Ashely Adams says

    December 19, 2020 at 2:11 pm

    Would roasting the spices before grinding improve the flavors?

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      December 19, 2020 at 7:12 pm

      Absolutely yes!

      Reply
« Older Comments

Trackbacks

  1. Keto Sweet and Sour Meatballs - Mama Bear's Cookbook says:
    June 15, 2019 at 10:53 am

    […] Chinese 5 spice powder is essential in this recipe and is made by a variety of spice brands like clubhouse, McCormick or my favourite Asian Family. Of course you can always make your own like this recipe from China Sichuan Food. […]

    Reply
  2. ARCHAEOLOGY OF HERBS & SPICES - Chinese 5 Spice - Chef's Mandala says:
    May 11, 2020 at 3:17 am

    […] This quick and delicious Asian spice blend doesn’t always use the same 5 spices.  Traditionally the concept is that each of the five flavors are represented salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami.  The classic recipe consists of cloves, star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorn, and fennel seeds.  However ginger, nutmeg, tumeric or cardamom are also common substitutes.  Popular as a spice rub in protein dishes (meats and seafood), the flavors mix remarkably well with most sweet or neutral marinades while still standing out in savory recipes.  Check out 1 recipe here! […]

    Reply

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Please not be limited by site name, as Elaine shares Chinese recipes beyond Sichuan dishes. Know me more from About Page

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