Moo Shu Pork(木须肉, original Chinese name 木樨肉)is a dish that contains tender pork, soft egg, smooth wood ear, and chewy daylily and cucumber.

moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com

What’s Moo Shu Pork

Moo Shu Pork is a dish that originated in Northern China and now is quite popular in the entire country. However, if you ever visit a restaurant in China, you will find there is no pancakes served. Instead, you will be served with a bowl of rice. But after I know that it matched with Chinese Mandarin pancake, I decide to try it at home: serving the savory moo shu pork with moo shu shells. And I can tell you, it is a perfect choice when serving with some light Chinese tofu soups.

Why it is named Moo Shu

“Moo Shu” [木须肉] in the name actually refers to the scrambled eggs used in this dish. This dish looks like the Osmanthus flower on the tree. So the name is after it’s appearance. The ingredients of Moo Shu Pork create not only a yummy dish but also eye-appealing colors: dark (wood ear mushrooms), red (red pepper or carrot), yellow(egg and dried lily), and white (scallion).

What’s moo shu pancake

All moo shu dishes including moo shu pork, moo shu chicken, or even beef or shrimp are perfect with a pancake named mandarin pancake. These pancakes are thin pancakes with one soft side and one chewier side. The pancakes used for serving moo shu pork can be store-bought or homemade. Homemade moo shu pancake is quite easier and can also be used to serve with Peking duck.

Special ingredients

Traditional Chinese moo shu pork contains several unique ingredients. Let’s break them down one by one.

Wood ear mushrooms

Wood Ear Mushroom—Wood Ear Mushroom also known as the black fungus is a type of edible fungus used frequently in Chinese Cuisine. Wood ear mushrooms commonly with a soft texture and delicious taste can behave excellently no matter in veggie or meat dishes. The most common Chinese way is to make a fresh and yummy black fungus salad.

Dried daylily flower

Dried Daylily(黄花菜), also known as golden flowers—There is fresh daylily excellent for noodle soups and dried daylily with a chewy taste.  It is our tradition to add dried daylily flowers in moo shu pork, you can skip it if it is hard to find. You will need to pre-soak those two ingredients.

If you find those two ingredients hard to find, you can skip dried lily flowers or replace it with some other mushrooms like shiitake mushrooms.

Vegetables- carrots and cucumber | Those two ingredients not only provide a lovely texture but also an eye-appealing color. Celery and shredded cabbage can be used to in moo shu dishes

moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com
moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com

Other common Ingredients

  • 100g pork tenderloin (around 1 cup sliced )
  • 2 middle-size eggs, whisked
  • 1 handful water soaked wood ear mushroom
  • 1 small bunch of soaked dried daylily
  • Half of a cucumber, sliced
  • 1 section of carrot, sliced
  • 4 tablespoons cooking oil (divided)
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • a small pinch of salt
  • a small pinch of salt
  • 2 tsp. light soy sauce
  • 2 tsp. cornstarch
  • 2 tbsp. water
  • 1 tsp. sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
  • ¼ tsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp. water or chicken stock
  • 1 tsp. cornstarch
  • pinch of ground pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. black vinegar

Steps

Combine pork with marinating sauce, do a little message to make sure the pork slices absorb the sauces well.  Set aside for 30 minutes. At the same time, prepare cucumber, carrot and whisk the eggs.

moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com
moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com

In a small bowl, mix the stir fry sauce.

Add a small pinch of salt in eggs and then whisk well. Heat around 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok over high fire. Make scrambled eggs firstly and then transfer out.

Heat your wok or pan firstly. Add cooking oil to form a 2-3 cm high layer (do not be scared by the oil amount, we do not eat them all). Spread the pork sliced in when the oil begins to warm but not hot. Let them stay for around 5-8 seconds and then quickly fry them until turns pale. Transfer out immediately.

moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com
moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com

Leave the oil in wok and then fry scallion until aroma, place prepared wood ear mushrooms, dried lily flower and sliced carrots. Continue frying for around 1 minute over medium heat. Return scrambled eggs, cucumber and pork slices.

moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com
moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com

Pour the stir fry sauce we prepared in previous steps. Mix well. At this step, you need to taste the dish and see whether an extra pinch of salt is needed.

Other easy pork stir fry dishes

moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com

Moo Shu Pork

Famous Chinese Woo Shu Pork
5 from 4 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 100 g pork tenderloin around 1 cup sliced
  • 2 middle size eggs whisked
  • 1 handful water soaked wood ear mushroom
  • 1 small bunch of soaked dried daylily
  • Half of a cucumber sliced
  • 1 section of carrot sliced
  • 4 tablespoons cooking oil divided
  • 1 garlic cloves minced
  • a small pinch of salt

Marinade sauce

  • a small pinch of salt
  • 2 tsp. light soy sauce
  • 2 tsp. cornstarch
  • 2 tbsp. water
  • 1 tsp. sesame oil

Stir Fry Sauce

  • 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
  • 1/4 tsp. sugar
  • 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp. water or chicken stock
  • 1 tsp. cornstarch
  • pinch of ground pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. black vinegar

Serving

Instructions

  • Combine pork with marinating sauce, do a little message to make sure the pork slices absorb the sauces well. Set aside for 30 minutes. At the same time, prepare cucumber, carrot, whisk the eggs and scallion.
  • In a small bowl, mix the stir fry sauce.
  • Add a small pinch of salt in eggs and then whisk well. Heat around 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok over high fire. Make scrambled eggs firstly and then transfer out.
  • Heat your wok or pan firstly. Add cooking oil to form a 2-3 cm high layer (do not be scared by the oil amount, we do not eat them all). Spread the pork sliced in when the oil begins to warm but not hot. Let them stay for around 5-8 seconds and then quickly fry them until turns pale. Transfer out immediately.
  • Leave around 1 tablespoon of oil in wok and then fry garlic until aroma, place prepared wood ear mushrooms, dried lily flower and carrot. Continue frying for around 1 minute over medium heat.
  • Return pork slices, cucumber and egg.
  • Pour the stir-fry sauce we prepared in previous step. Mix well. At this step, you need to taste the dish and see whether an extra pinch of salt is needed. Transfer out and serve with woo shu shells or steamed rice.
moo shu pork|chinasichuanfood.com

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12 Comments

    1. Hi Lin Wen,

      That’s a lovely idea to match with porridge! I have never think about that. I always match it with steamed rice.

  1. Hi Elaine,
    I am a huge fan of your website and your recipes.

    The way Moo Shu pork evolved into variations is so interesting. Being from America, I always associated it with Mandarin pancakes.

    For this one, would it be suitable to use 肉丝 (rousi) and cut the cucumber accordingly?

    1. Hi Clint,
      Yes. You can cut the pork and cucumber into shreds if you like. There is no particular reason to keep the ingredients as slices but just a custom.
      By the way, thanks so much for your lovely support.

  2. So excited to find this recipe! My family loved having this whenever we ordered takeout while we were living in China. Can’t wait to try this. Thank you!

  3. Thank you for all your work and dedication and for sharing your inspiration and passion for food! I love your recipes and your website!

  4. 5 stars
    Hi Elaine,

    thank you for this recipe, it’s absolutely delicious (I even got hold on some dried lilies. Jay!). Now I’m wondering, you mentioned that this goes well with some tofu soup. Now serving soup to a dinner is something which I’m not quite used to. For “fancy” dinners soup is often served before the main dish around here but never together with it. Could you maybe at some time dedicate a post on how a typical/fancy Chinese meal would look like? IE. How many and which dishes / side dishes would be served in what “order” or which would typically be served side by side?

    Excuse me for asking, but Chinese restaurants here have adopted our local style of serving dishes, presumably as not to alienate anyone. And if not, well then I believe they are more on the “fancy” side as opposed to something that one would do for home cooking.

    By the way the scallions seem to be missing from the list of ingredients.

    Cheers Andreas

    1. Hi Andreas,

      That’s really a great suggestion. I will post my daily meals more. We usually serve all the dishes all together, side dish, salad, soup, rice and meat dish (mainly meat). Eaters decide their personal orders. So it is very much free style. But I will post a daily meal introduction monthly. Thanks sincerely for the suggestion.

  5. 5 stars
    This is a great recipe that, as other commenters have mentioned, goes very well with rice for a simple and tasty dinner. Has a delicious home-cooked taste and is a significant improvement over the “moo shu pork” that you would get at the takeout.