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    Home » Recipes » Pantry

    Salt and Pepper Ribs

    Last Modified: March 12, 2019 by Elaine| 25 Comments

    3.6K shares
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    Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

    How to make crispy Chinese salt and pepper ribs.

    I am a rib fan! The best part of pig in my opinion is pork butt (pork shoulder), pork belly and ribs. There are so many possibilities of ribs, either stewed (rib soup with lotus root) or pan-fried (pan-fried cumin ribs), deep-fried (fried garlic ribs) or roasted (Chinese BBQ Ribs).

    The ribs are coated with flour and egg, then fried until crispy and golden brown. The inner side of the ribs are soft and tender with a crispy shell. The fried ribs can be served directly with salt and pepper, or for a richer flavor, tossing with peppers, garlic, ginger and green onions. 

    salt-and-pepper-ribs |chinasichuanfood.com

    In Sichuan cuisine, salt and pepper (椒盐) is referring to a special flavor: Sichuan peppercorn and salt.  Sichuan peppercorn is fried with salt over slow fire in order to simulate the aroma. Then ground into powders. Sichuan style salt and pepper has a very unique flavor comparing with common black pepper and salt. I highly recommend you trying Sichuan salt and pepper if you get Sichuan peppercorn on hand. 

    How to make Sichuan style salt and pepper

    • Toss 3 tablespoons of Sichuan peppercorn and 1 tablespoon of salt over slow fire until aromatic and until the salt is slightly browned. 
    • Cool down completely and ground into powder. Shift to get refined powders. 
    • The salt and pepper powder can be kept in air-tight container for 1 month. 

    salt and pepper ribs|chinasichuanfood.com

    Cook’s Note

    1. After soaking the ribs with clean water, the ribs should be drained completely. Any water contained might influence the final flavor. 
    2. Marinate the ribs for a longer time. Overnight marinating is recommended if you are not in a hurry (at least 4 hours marinating is needed)
    3. I have gotten lots of feedbacks from Chinese steamed ribs with black bean sauce and know some of the ribs are quite hard to cook. So please choose ribs from younger pigs.
    4. After coating the ribs with flour, let them stay for 10 to 15 minutes so egg liquid and flour can be combined well. Otherwise, the coating flour falls a lot during deep-frying process.

    salt-and-pepper-ribs |chinasichuanfood.com

    Steps

    Soak the ribs with clean water for 30 minutes and change the water at least once. This is to remove any dirty parts and raw taste.

    Drain completely and then place all of the marinating ingredients except egg and coating flour at least for 4 hours or over night.

    Just before cooking, crack an egg and mix with the ribs.

    Coat the ribs with potato flour or starch around 10 to 15 minutes before frying.salt and pepper ribs |chinasichuanfood.com

    Heat oil until there are fine small bubbles surrounding when insert a chop sticker. Place ribs in and fry for 6-8 minutes over small fire. I recommend frying the ribs for two batches. Strain and remove extra oil.salt and pepper ribs|chinasichuanfood.com

    salt and pepper ribs|chinasichuanfood.com

    Prepare a pan, add ½ tablespoon of oil and fry garlic, ginger, fresh peppers until aromatic. Place ribs in and toss with salt and pepper. Serve with extra salt and pepper for option. salt and pepper ribs|chinasichuanfood.com

    salt and pepper ribs|chinasichuanfood.com

     
    salt and pepper ribs|chinasichuanfood.com

    Salt and Pepper Ribs

    Traditional Chinese salt and pepper ribs
    4.75 from 4 votes
    Print Recipe
    Cook Time 20 mins
    Marinating 4 hrs
    Total Time 20 mins
    Course Chinese
    Cuisine Sichuan cuisine
    Servings 4
    Calories 519 kcal

    Ingredients
      

    • 500 g ribs select ribs from younger pigs

    Marinating

    • 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
    • ½ tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
    • 1 tsp. salt
    • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
    • 2 tsp. starch corn starch or other type

    Coating

    • 1 egg
    • ½ cup potato flour or other flour for coating
    • Frying
    • 2 cups of oil

    Tossing

    • 2 garlic cloves chopped
    • ½ tbsp. vegetable cooking oil 
    • 1 tsp. minced ginger
    • 2 green onion white part only, finely chopped
    • 1 fresh green pepper chopped
    • 1 fresh red pepper chopped
    • Salt and pepper as needed

    Instructions
     

    • Soak the ribs with clean water for 30 minutes and change the water at least once. This is to remove any dirty parts and raw taste.
    • Drain completely and then place all of the marinating ingredients except egg and coating flour at least for 30 minutes or over night.
    • Just before cooking, crack an egg and mix with the ribs.
    • Coat the ribs with potato flour or starch around 10 to 15 minutes before frying.
    • Heat oil until there are fine small bubbles surrounding when insert a chop sticker. Place ribs in and fry for 6-8 minutes over small fire. I recommend frying the ribs for two batches. Strain and remove extra oil.
    • Prepare a pan, add ½ tablespoon of oil and fry garlic, ginger, green onion and fresh peppers until aromatic.
    • Place ribs in and toss with salt and pepper. Serve with extra salt and pepper for option. 

    Nutrition

    Calories: 519kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 24gFat: 38gSaturated Fat: 17gCholesterol: 134mgSodium: 807mgPotassium: 381mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 250IUVitamin C: 19.1mgCalcium: 26mgIron: 3.2mg
    Tried this recipe?Mention @ChinaSichuanFood

     

    salt-and-pepper-ribs |chinasichuanfood.com

    salt-and-pepper-ribs |chinasichuanfood.comsalt-and-pepper-ribs |chinasichuanfood.com

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Neha Sharma

      March 20, 2019 at 2:06 am

      Those pictures looks so nice. I will try this in weekend. It really looks yummy! Thanks for the recipe.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        March 20, 2019 at 8:02 am

        Happy cooking!

        Reply
      • Lee De-steunder

        August 16, 2021 at 12:49 am

        hi Elaine, i love this recipe, i was wandering if you had the recipe for fried duck breast with prawn meat stuffing?cannot find it anywhere
        thanks Lee

        Reply
        • Elaine

          August 17, 2021 at 8:39 am

          No Lee. I have never tried that delicious duck breast dish. Sorry.

          Reply
    2. Patricia

      March 25, 2019 at 3:45 am

      This recipe looks fantastic, thank you for posting it! I'm going to try it this week. I'll let you know how it goes.

      Reply
    3. jonathan miller

      September 07, 2019 at 10:19 pm

      5 stars
      Best ribs I've ever had really tender &crispy the whole family wanted more & more, doing them again tomorrow ??????????

      Reply
      • Elaine

        September 08, 2019 at 8:17 pm

        Thanks Jonathan. This is one of my favorite way of making ribs too.

        Reply
    4. Ces

      September 27, 2019 at 2:48 pm

      Hi. Is it just me or I didn't see the roasted salt and pepper in the list of ingredients. When do I use it? For marination or just as sprinkle on the cooked ribs? Please help, I'm planning to cook this soon

      Reply
      • Elaine

        September 28, 2019 at 8:26 am

        Ces,
        I have introduced how to make Szechuan style salt and pepper in the previous section of the post. You can toss the ribs with a small amount of salt and peppers and serve as a table seasoning.

        Reply
    5. Mary

      February 09, 2020 at 12:12 am

      5 stars
      I love ribs done like this! I changed it up a bit & used chicken wings.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        February 09, 2020 at 9:23 pm

        Salt and pepper chicken wings should be super delicious too. Thanks for the feedback. Happy cooking!

        Reply
    6. DJ

      February 28, 2020 at 12:27 am

      For Szechuan style ribs, how many of the salt and Szechuan pepper mix do I need to put in the marinade to replace the regular salt and pepper? or do i add it while tossing the ribs?

      Reply
      • Elaine

        February 28, 2020 at 9:12 am

        I recommend using a ratio of 2:1 (2 Sichuan peppercorn powder VS 1 portion salt). Yes, add this while tossing the ribs.

        Reply
    7. Liz

      March 29, 2020 at 12:47 pm

      So I saved this recipe to try it and my husband bought beef short ribs (scream!) Do I still try this method?

      Reply
      • Elaine

        March 29, 2020 at 7:41 pm

        Yes, Liz should works fine too.

        Reply
    8. DC

      April 24, 2020 at 4:53 pm

      should it be cold water the ribs are soaked in?

      Reply
      • Elaine

        April 24, 2020 at 8:50 pm

        Yes, soak the ribs in cold water.

        Reply
    9. Helen

      May 11, 2020 at 1:31 am

      Hi,

      I tried the recipe using a meaty and supposedly tender ribs. But as my experience with deepfrying the ribs directly turns out bad (still hard), i boil them first like ur cumin spare ribs recipe.
      Is it ok or it will change the taste?

      Thankyou

      Reply
      • Elaine

        May 13, 2020 at 9:17 am

        Helen,
        The ribs are undercooked or overcooked base on your experience. Yes, boil them firstly and then sauté can work too.

        Reply
    10. Aisling Murphy

      May 24, 2020 at 12:44 am

      5 stars
      These Sichuan salt and pepper ribs are excellent. I used rice flour which worked really well. I also added a half teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice to the marinade which gave them a lovely flavor. The first batch I made were with small ribs and worked great. The second batch my ribs were large so I slowly simmered them first so they were nice and tender. Then I dried them off well before placing in the marinade. They were superb.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        June 05, 2020 at 8:41 am

        Thanks Aisling for the sharing. Boiling at first seems to be a lovely idea.

        Reply
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