Easy Ideas for Cooking Chinese at Home

(Image Credit: Chili House SF)

For people who love Chinese food but don’t want to spend a lot of money going to restaurants, learning to create their favorite dishes at home is the next best thing. Many use only a few ingredients that take just minutes to make while others require lots of simmering time. Additionally, people who want to make Chinese dishes at home can pick up most ingredients at a typical grocery store. A trip to an Asian supermarket might be necessary for the less common meals.

Dan Dan Noodle Sauce

Noodles are a mainstay of any Chinese dish, but it’s the sauce that makes the noodles. Dan Dan sauce is a favorite among Chinese natives and Westerners alike that requires just 15 minutes of preparation time and 10 minutes of cooking time. This Dan Dan Noodle Sauce recipe is enough to serve four people. Adding a half an ounce of salt to every 20 ounces of boiling water helps to prevent the noodles from sticking together too much. If the noodles still seem too sticky after cooking, spraying them with rice wine helps to separate them for easier chewing.

Fried Rice is a Staple of Most Chinese Meals

Many cooks serve Chinese dishes mixed with fried rice or present it as a side item. This makes a good choice for those new to cooking Chinese food. To prepare fried rice, the cook should gather eggs, green onions, pepper, salt, and soy sauce or oyster sauce. The cook can also add other vegetables or meat at his or her discretion. Just click this link to see the full recipe for fried rice.

Stir-Fried Chile Beef and Broccoli

Flank steak and broccoli are the two main ingredients in this healthy and flavorful Chinese dish. It also contains light sauce that clings to both the meat and vegetables. However, it’s not plentiful enough to spoon over them. Although the beef should be marinated, it’s not necessary to do so overnight as is common with many Western meals. Stir-frying can begin once the cook combines the meat and its seasonings. Look for the full stir-fried chili beef and broccoli recipe here.

Kung Pao Chicken

People who love Kung Pao chicken appreciate its spicy kick and tasty flavor. The good news is that this dish is simple to make at home. It’s also stir-fried instead of deep-fried, making it a healthier choice for the heart. It takes approximately 25 minutes to prepare the ingredients and another 20 minutes to cook them. The main ingredient is, of course, the chicken. The cook will need two boneless, skinless chicken breasts weighing around eight ounces each. For the remainder of the Kung Pao recipe, click here.

Enjoy the Experimentation

These are just four of the numerous Chinese meals that people can prepare at home. If they don’t turn out just right the first time, keep trying until they do or look for something new. Of course, the occasional meal at a Chinese restaurant can help to quell a craving as well.

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Kelly Tate

Kelly is a full-time supermum, caring for two kids and a hardworking husband. A cook, a cleaner, a carer and all round hard worker, striving for the perfect family life (with a few bumps along the way!) Eternally honest and sometimes brutally forward, no topics are off limits with Kelly.