Chinese Recipes

Buffalo Butter Hot Pot Base

Difficulty：★★★★★ 585 kcal

This Chongqing Hot Pot base uses a large amount of beef tallow as its foundation, blending fried chili paste and various spices. The resulting base is numbingly spicy, mellow, and aromatic-near., which is the soul of boiling and dipping ingredients like tripe and duck intestines. Beef tallow and lard provide rich energy, while chili and peppercorn warm the body and drive appetite. However, the fat content is high, so consumption should be moderate. The cooking process requires precise control of oil temperature and stirring heat; it poses a certain challenge for beginners. It takes about 1 hour from preparation to completion.

French Fries (Air Fryer)

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 1132 kcal

Quantities: - As a main dish, 400 g per person per meal (pre-cooked weight) - As a snack, 1/4 of the main-dish amount ± 50 g per person per meal

Ready-Made Pasta

Difficulty：★☆☆☆☆ 578 kcal

This is a quick Western-style meal made from store-bought ready-made pasta; the noodles are springy and chewy, and the ready-made sauce gives rich flavor. It is mainly carbohydrates, providing quick energy, and also contains protein. It is extremely easy, beginners cannot go wrong, and it takes only about 2 minutes from heat to plate.

Lazy Person's Egg Tart

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 137 kcal

This dessert utilizes ready-made egg tart shells and liquid. With a crispy, fragrant crust and a smooth filling topped with caramelized spots, it is the easiest version of a classic Cantonese pastry. The main ingredients, eggs and milk, provide quality protein and calcium, making it suitable as a small home snack. The entire process only requires assembly and baking, which is very friendly to absolute beginners. From preheating the oven to taking it out, it takes about 40 minutes.

Guizhou-Style Sausage Baby Bok Choy

Difficulty：★☆☆☆☆ 1030 kcal

This dish is savory and delicious, combining the rich aroma of Guizhou-style sausage with the sweetness of baby bok choy. It is a rare non-spicy variety in the southwestern cuisine, suitable for people in both northern and southern China. Baby bok choy is rich in vitamins and dietary fiber, complemented by the protein and fat from the sausage, creating a nutritious balance. The preparation process is extremely simple, requiring no control over heat levels or extra seasoning. From prep work to serving, it takes only 15 minutes, making it perfect for beginners and busy daily routines.

Liangpi (Cold Skin Noodles)

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 761 kcal

Liangpi is a home-style snack from Shaanxi: chewy and smooth, tangy and spicy, with a rich sesame paste aroma. Sesame paste and gluten provide plenty of plant protein and calcium, and crisp cucumber and bean sprouts add vitamins and fiber. The overall difficulty is moderate: just blanch, julienne and mix the sauce, which most beginners can manage calmly. From prep to table it takes about 40 minutes, perfect for summer.

Black Pepper Beef Strips

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 216 kcal

Black Pepper Beef Strips is a popular home-style stir-fry. With its rich black pepper flavor, tender beef strips paired with sweet and crunchy onions and colorful peppers, it offers a perfect balance between meat and vegetables, and is palatable for everyone. The beef is rich in high-quality protein and iron, while the peppers and onions supplement various vitamins. This dish is very beginner-friendly, and from prep to serving, it can usually be completed within an hour.

Yellow Braised Chicken (Huangmenji)

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 766 kcal

Yellow Braised Chicken is a home-style dish made primarily with chicken legs, mushrooms, and bell peppers. It features rich sauce, tender chicken, and a salty-sweet savory flavor that goes perfectly with rice. It is rich in high-quality protein and mushroom polysaccharides. Caramelizing the sugar has a slight learning curve, but it can be replaced with dark soy sauce; overall, the difficulty is not high, and beginners can master it easily. From preparation to serving, it takes about 40 minutes.

Spicy Wok / Malatang Hot Pot

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 1050 kcal

A home-style Sichuan dish with a rich, spicy flavor, combining vegetables, meat, and soy products. The dish is satisfyingly spicy and texturally rich. The combination of meat and vegetables provides high-quality protein and a variety of vitamins for a nutritionally balanced meal. The steps are clear and require mastering blanching and stir-frying heat control, posing a slight challenge for beginners. Total cooking time is approximately 30 minutes.

Butter Chicken

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 641 kcal

This is a classic Indian curry dish featuring drumsticks roasted before stewing, paired with a sauce made of tomato, butter, and cream. The texture is rich and silky, with a sweet, sour, and slightly spicy flavor, accompanied by a unique blend of aromatic spices. Chicken, yogurt, and cashews provide rich protein and healthy fats, while tomatoes and spices also contribute vitamins and antioxidants. This dish requires a certain level of technique; mastering heat and spice balance is key, and requires about 1 hour and 45 minutes total (including marinating time).

Stir-Fried Pork with Cucumber

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 550 kcal

This is a refreshing, crisp and tender home-style quick dish, savory with garlic aroma and a mild heat. Rich in protein and various vitamins, it helps cool you down and hydrate. It's beginner-friendly as long as you watch the heat; it takes about 25 minutes.

Yu Xiang Eggplant (Fish Aroma Eggplant)

Difficulty：★★★☆☆

Yu Xiang Eggplant is a classic Sichuan dish with a sweet, sour, and mildly spicy flavor. The eggplant is soft and tender with a rich sauce; it is very appetizing. Eggplant is rich in dietary fiber and various vitamins, and the meat provides protein. The difficulty is medium; you need to master the technique of frying eggplant and flavoring. New cooks can succeed with a little practice. It takes about 30 minutes from preparation to finishing.

Mapo Tofu Stir-fry with Meat

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 421 kcal

Mapo Tofu Stir-fry with Meat is a classic Sichuan dish with a sweet, sour, and slightly spicy flavor. The meat should be tender, complemented by the rich textures of carrots, green peppers, and black fungus. It is rich in protein and various vitamins, offering a balance of meat and vegetables. It has a moderate difficulty level; beginners are advised to follow the steps strictly. Estimated cooking time is 40 minutes (excluding blanching time).

Mapo Tofu (Crispy Duck Egg Style)

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 476 kcal

This fragrant, tender tofu dish replaces traditional broad bean paste with salted duck egg, offering a savory flavor with a hint of numbness and spiciness that is especially appetizing and goes perfectly with rice. Rich in high-quality protein, calcium, iron, and various other trace elements. Moderate difficulty, friendly to beginners; the entire process takes about 40 minutes.

Spicy Chicken Feet Pot

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 986 kcal

Rich, spicy and bouncy, this is a common home-style dish that goes great with rice. Chicken feet are rich in collagen, said to nourish the skin and strengthen tendons and bones. You need to clip the nails first, and whole feet must also be deboned, which is a bit challenging for beginners, but you'll succeed if you follow the steps patiently. From blanching through slow simmering to the final stir-fry takes about 45 minutes.

Stir-Fried Pork with Smoked Tofu (Xianggan Rousi)

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 472 kcal

Stir-fried pork with smoked tofu is a savory home-style dish that goes perfectly with rice: tender pork strips, chewy smoked tofu and crisp green pepper. It provides both animal and plant protein, with green pepper adding vitamins. Moderate difficulty; beginners can master it with a little practice. Estimated cooking time is about 30 minutes.

Pan-Fried Pork Belly

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 2985 kcal

Pan-fried pork belly is a quick home-style meat dish: the slices are fried until fragrant and slightly crisp, rich but not greasy, and wrapped in crisp lettuce with savory doubanjiang they taste deeply savory and refreshing. Pork is rich in quality protein and fat for quick energy, while lettuce adds fiber and vitamins for better balance. It suits people with some cooking experience, but beginners can manage too if they watch the heat and guard against splattering oil. It is ready in about half an hour from prep to plate.

Woo-Suji: Shredded Chicken with Mushrooms

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 608 kcal

Shredded Chicken with Mushrooms is a home-style dish featuring chicken and shiitake mushrooms. The chicken becomes tender and smooth after searing and braising, pairing perfectly with the unique mushroom aroma for a rich, flavorful broth. It is a Cantonese-style dish suitable for all ages. Chicken is rich in high-quality protein and amino acids, while mushrooms contain polysaccharides and dietary fiber, which help boost immunity and promote digestion. Due to the knife work required and heat control, beginners may find it challenging, but the overall preparation takes about 1 hour.

Fried Meat with Tofu Puffs and Celery

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 741 kcal

Fried Meat with Tofu Puffs and Celery is a simple home-style stir-fry. The tofu puffs are chewy, the celery is crisp, and the pork is tender and smooth. It is savory with a slight spicy kick. Celery is rich in dietary fiber, while tofu puffs and pork provide high-quality plant and animal protein. The preparation is simple and beginner-friendly; it takes about 30 minutes from prep to serving.

Stir-fried Pork with Potatoes and Green Peppers

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 1288 kcal

Stir-fried Pork with Potatoes and Green Peppers is a simple home-style stir-fry with a mix of meat and vegetables. It features a fresh, savory, crispy, and tender texture with a rich sauce flavor, making it especially good with rice. The potatoes are rich in carbohydrates and Vitamin C, while the green peppers provide plenty of Vitamin C and dietary fiber. Paired with the high-quality protein from the pork, the nutrition is balanced. The cooking method is not complicated and is beginner-friendly, taking about 1 hour from preparation to serving.

Stuffed Green Peppers

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 1403 kcal

This classic Guangxi home-style dish wraps seasoned pork or shrimp paste in green peppers, fries them until blistered "tiger skin" forms, then braises them to soak up the sauce. The fresh pepper flavor blends with the savory filling; it's salty, fragrant and mildly spicy, perfect with rice. Pork and shrimp provide quality protein and the peppers are rich in vitamin C, for a balanced meal. Stuffing takes a little patience, but the process is clear; following the steps it usually takes about 30 minutes.

Fuzhou Drunken Pork Ribs

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 934 kcal

Drunken pork ribs are a famous traditional dish from Fuzhou: crispy outside and tender inside, sweet and sour and appetizing, with the distinctive savory aroma of fish sauce. Pork ribs are rich in protein and calcium, nourishing and satisfying. The dish requires mastering the batter coating and double-frying techniques, so it is better suited to cooks with some experience; it takes about 40 minutes in total.

Braised Soy Beef Shank (Jiang Niurou)

Difficulty：★★★★★ 2265 kcal

Braised soy beef is a northern-style home cold dish with a deep soy-sauce aroma; the meat is firm, holds together and has plenty of chew. Beef shank is rich in quality protein and amino acids, and slow braising makes it easier to digest. It isn't complicated, but it involves marinating, slow braising and long chilling, so beginners need some patience; it takes about 10 hours from start to finish.

Guizhou Spicy Chicken

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 1441 kcal

Guizhou Spicy Chicken is a classic home-style dish from the Guizhou region, cooked with Ciba Chili and various spices. The chicken is fragrant, soft, and tender, while the potatoes are smooth and flavorful. The overall flavor is spicy and rich. Chicken is rich in high-quality protein, and paired with potatoes and other side dishes, it is nutritionally balanced. The steps for this dish are numerous and pose some challenges for beginners, but if followed step-by-step, success is achievable. From preparation to serving, it is expected to take approximately 1.5 hours.

Soy-Braised Pork Ribs

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 1351 kcal

Soy-braised ribs are a deep reddish-brown, tender enough to fall off the bone, with a rich bone aroma and a thick, savory sauce that's salty with a hint of sweetness, a classic home-style dish. Ribs are rich in quality protein and calcium for balanced nutrition. Caramelizing the sugar and the long braise are a bit challenging for beginners, but following the steps you'll get the hang of it. Expect about 1 hour from prep to serving.

Stir-Fried Pork Slices with Peppers

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 425 kcal

Stir-Fried Pork with Peppers is a classic home-style dish with a strong Hunan flavor. The peppers are dry, aromatic, and slightly charred, while the pork slices are tender, flavorful, and taste salty and slightly spicy—perfect with rice. The pork is rich in high-quality protein and B vitamins, while the peppers provide a good amount of Vitamin C.

Romaine Lettuce with Black Bean Dace

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 416 kcal

Romaine lettuce with black bean dace is a savory, rice-friendly quick home-style stir-fry that originated from Cantonese canned-food dishes: crisp lettuce with crispy, fragrant fish. Combining meat and vegetables, it is rich in protein and dietary fiber. It's simple to make and very beginner-friendly, usually ready in fifteen minutes.

Dried Anchovy Soy Sauce Pork Ribs

Difficulty：★★★★☆

This is a popular dim sum style dish found in Cantonese tea houses. The flavor is umami-rich and rich, and the ribs are tender and easily detached from the bone. Ribs provide high-quality protein and calcium, while fermented dried anchovies add flavor and aid in absorption. The process involves soaking, marinating, and careful steaming, which poses a slight challenge for beginners, but the steps are clear and easy to follow. Preparation to serving takes about 1 hour. The leftover sauce is extremely delicious used to mix with rice or noodles.

Tomato Beef Brisket

Difficulty：★★★★★ 1569 kcal

Tomato beef brisket has a rich, thick, sweet and sour soup and soft, velvety, and aromatic beef. It is a comforting home-cooked dish that stimulates appetite and pairs well with rice. Rich in protein, vitamins, and lycopene, it offers a balanced nutritional profile. It poses a slight challenge to beginners, requiring mastery of the stewing heat and tomato sautéing technique. Beginners generally need about 90 minutes to complete it.

Steamed White Eel with Fermented Black Bean Sauce

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 472 kcal

Steamed White Eel with Fermented Black Bean Sauce is a classic Cantonese steamed dish. The savory aroma of fermented black beans and garlic permeates the fish meat, offering a tender, smooth, and fresh flavor. White eel is rich in high-quality protein and various unsaturated fatty acids, which are beneficial for the body. While the steps are clear, handling the raw fish and mastering the heat requires some practice and is suitable for cooks with a basic foundation. From preparation to serving, it takes about 30 minutes.

Velvet Pot Beef Stew (Tomato and Potato)

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 827 kcal

A classic home-cooked stew with a sweet and sour taste that stimulates the appetite. Rich sauce, soft beef, and dense potatoes. Beef provides high-quality protein, and tomatoes are rich in lycopene. With potatoes and onions, the nutrition is balanced. Simple operation and easy for beginners to handle. Takes about 1 to 1.5 hours from prep to finish.

Wugang Duck in Blood Sauce

Difficulty：★★★★★ 2482 kcal

Duck in blood sauce is a traditional signature dish of Wugang, Hunan. The duck is fragrant, crisp and tender, and after soaking up the vinegared blood even the ginger and chilies become sweet and mild. Duck meat and duck blood provide quality protein and iron, good for replenishing blood. There are quite a few steps and you need to watch the heat and keep stirring, but by following the steps even beginners can finish in about 2 hours.

Ants Climbing a Tree (Wormy Noodles with Minced Meat)

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 791 kcal

Ants Climbing a Tree is a classic Sichuan home-style dish. It is salty, savory, and slightly spicy. The vermicelli is soft and spongy, soaking up the sauce, while the minced meat is tender and fragrant. Main ingredients are sweet potato vermicelli and minced meat, rich in carbohydrates and protein for quick energy replenishment. Difficulty: Medium. Clear steps, beginner-friendly. Takes about 20 minutes to complete.

Stir-fried Minced Pork with Garlic Scallions

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 258 kcal

Stir-fried Minced Pork with Garlic Scallions is a staple home-style dish from Northern China, characterized by its salty and fresh flavor, crisp texture, and rich garlic aroma. Garlic scallions are rich in dietary fiber and vitamins, while pork belly provides protein, creating a balanced mix of meat and vegetables. The method is simple and preparation is easy, making it suitable for beginners to pick up quickly. From preparation to serving takes approximately 10 minutes.

Stir-fried Chicken Thighs with Scallions

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 850 kcal

Stir-fried Chicken Thighs with Scallions is a simple home dish that relies only on chicken thighs and green onions as core ingredients. The thigh meat is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside with a rich scallion fragrance. The method is simple, uses a single pot throughout, and is beginner-friendly.

Tiger-Skin Braised Pork Knuckle

Difficulty：★★★★★ 1018 kcal

The finished dish is glossy and red, the skin shows an enticing tiger-skin pattern, and the meat is tender and flavorful—rich but not greasy, with soft lean meat. It's a traditional Chinese banquet showpiece. Pork knuckle is rich in collagen and quality protein, which become easier to absorb after long braising and are somewhat nourishing for skin and joints. The process includes scorching the skin, deep-frying, making caramel color and pressure-braising, which is quite challenging for beginners; it's best attempted with some cooking experience. From prep to table, expect about 2.5 hours in total.

Radish Stewed Lamb Ribs

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 1259 kcal

This soup is fresh and not greasy. The lamb is tender, flavorful, and soft. After soaking up the broth, the radish is sweet and soft. It is a common home-style warming dish for winter in Northern China. Lamb is rich in high-quality protein and iron, while radish contains vitamins and dietary fiber. The combination nourishes the spleen and stomach, dispels cold, and aids digestion. Although it requires blanching to remove the 'fishy' smell and a two-step cooking process, the steps are clear and easy to follow, even for beginners. The overall preparation takes about two hours, but can be shortened to about one hour using a pressure cooker.

Mustard River Prawns

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 579 kcal

This dish is fresh, fragrant, slightly spicy, and has a rich wasabi flavor. The shrimp meat is firm and tender. It is a quick, home-style seafood dish. Prawns are rich in high-quality protein and calcium and are low in fat, making wasabi a great appetizer that cuts through the richness.

Sautéed Luncheon Meat with Snow Peas

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 606 kcal

Sautéed Luncheon Meat with Snow Peas is a refreshing, savory home-style stir-fry. The fat from the luncheon sausage coats the emerald green peas, resulting in a texture that is crisp and tender rather than greasy. Snow peas are rich in high-quality protein and various vitamins, helping to enhance the body's disease-resistance capabilities. The method is simple; it requires almost no knife skills, allowing beginners to get started quickly. From prep work to serving, it takes about 15 minutes.

Meat Patty Steamed Eggs

Difficulty：★★☆☆☆ 1124 kcal

Meat Patty Steamed Eggs is a traditional, home-style dish known for being savory, tender, and delicious. The meat patty soaks up the flavor, while the egg sits comfortably in the center, offering a soft texture that pairs perfectly with rice. It is rich in high-quality protein and various amino acids, making it excellent for replenishing energy. The preparation is extremely simple, making it beginner-friendly in the kitchen, with the entire process from prep to serving taking about 20 minutes.

Classic Chinese-Style Double-Cooked Pork Slices

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 882 kcal

Double-Cooked Pork is a classic Northeast Chinese dish, originating in the Daotai Prefecture of Harbin. It features a distinct sour aroma from white vinegar, a crispy crust, tender meat, and a sweet and sour flavor profile. Pork provides high-quality protein, while aromatics like scallions and ginger help stimulate the appetite and cut the richness. This dish requires mastering the battering technique, oil temperature control, and double-frying methods. The cooking difficulty is medium to high, so patience is needed for beginners. The total preparation time is approximately 90 minutes.

Braised Noodles with Lamb Ribs

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 1616 kcal

Braised noodles with lamb ribs is a hearty northern Chinese home dish with rich meaty flavor and chewy noodles: the ribs are tender, and the wide noodles soak up the sauce for a satisfying bite every time. With meat, noodles and vegetables, one meal covers protein, carbs and fat for well-rounded nutrition. You stew the ribs first, then make the dough and braise the noodles, so there are a few more steps; it suits people with some cooking experience. Expect about an hour and a half in total.

Soybean Curd Pork

Difficulty：☆☆☆☆☆

This is a classic Jiangnan home-style dish. Braised with red fermented bean curd, the pork has a translucent red appearance like amber and the meat is tender enough to melt in your mouth. The interplay of salty, sweet, wine, and soybean flavors unfolds on the tongue layer by layer. Rich in high-quality protein and B-Vitamins, it becomes more digestible after slow stewing.

Mom's Pig Trotter Soup (Laoma Tihua)

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 1425 kcal

Mom's pig trotter soup has a milky white broth and trotters so tender they fall off the bone, with a delicate texture; paired with a sour-spicy dipping sauce it is very appetizing, a classic Sichuan home-style dish. Trotters are rich in collagen and the white beans add a creamy texture, making it nutritious. It needs a pressure cooker and soaking ahead, which is a bit challenging for beginners, but it is not hard if you follow the steps. Including soaking and pressure cooking, the whole process takes about 2 hours (not counting soaking the beans overnight).

Red-Braised Chicken Wings

Difficulty：★★★☆☆ 1016 kcal

Red-braised chicken wings are a home-style dish that goes great with rice: savory with a hint of sweetness, glossy red, and so tender the meat falls off the bone. Chicken wings are rich in quality protein and collagen, easily absorbed. Difficulty is moderate; beginners can master it by following the steps, and it takes about 40 minutes from prep to plate.

Southern-Style Red-Braised Pork Belly

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 3248 kcal

This red-braised pork is glossy red; the fat melts in your mouth and the lean meat is tender rather than dry—savory with sweetness, a typical southern sweet flavor. Pork belly provides quality protein and abundant collagen, and the spices remove odors and warm the stomach. Although it requires making caramel and slow braising, every step is broken down clearly, so beginners can succeed by following along. It takes about 1.5 hours in total.

Red Braised Pork Trotters

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 639 kcal

Red Braised Pork Trotters is a classic home-cooked dish with rich sauce and tender meat. It is savory, sweet, and goes very well with rice. The trotters are rich in collagen and protein and are nutritious. This dish poses a slight challenge for beginners, but using a pressure cooker simplifies the process, and those with some cooking experience can handle it more easily. Prep to finish takes about 1 hour.

Steamed Pork Belly with Rice Flour (Fen Zheng Rou)

Difficulty：★★★★☆ 1606 kcal

Steamed Pork with Rice Flour is a classic Chinese steamed dish known for its rich aroma and soft, sticky texture. It is a kind of home-style cuisine widely enjoyed. Pork belly provides high-quality protein and fat, paired with root vegetables like potatoes for a balanced nutrition. This dish is suitable for those with some cooking experience; approximately 90 minutes are needed from preparation to completion.