Chinese food is a great way to expand your personal recipe book, especiallyif you love to use simple, fresh ingredients with quick cooking time. These topten dishes are famous all over the world, and are must-haves in your collectionof Chinese food recipes.

Fried Rice – A must have dish in Chinese restaurants, fried rice is theultimate Chinese food, and can be one of the most flexible in your cookbookbecause you can use leftover rice and ingredients to make it.  Of course,you can use fresh ingredients but it’s best to use rice that has been kept inthe fridge overnight for best results. Ingredients usually involved in makingfried rice are eggs, scallions, diced meat of either beef, chicken or pork,ham, shrimps and vegetables such as celery, peas, carrots, bean sprouts andcorn. There are many varieties of fried rice but the more popular ones are theYangchow and Fujian fried rice.

Kung Pao Chicken – Kung Pao chicken or Kung Po chicken is a Chinese dishfrom Szechuan cuisine and is considered to be a delicacy. The recipe for thismouth watering dish commonly calls for diced chicken that is pre-seasoned andquickly stir-fried with unsalted roasted peanuts, red bell peppers, rice wineor sherry, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, and chili peppers.Alternatively, you can use prawn, scallops, beef or pork in place of thechicken.

Moo Shu Pork – This is a dish of northern Chinese origin and a favorite ofmany. Ingredients in a Mu Xu pork recipe often include green cabbage, wood earmushrooms, scrambled eggs, carrots, bean sprouts, day lily buds and scallions.Celery, onions, bell peppers, snow pea pods, bok choy and Shiitake mushroomsare occasionally used. The vegetables are cut into long and thin strips beforecooking, with the exception for bean sprouts and day lily buds. Fried Mu Xupork is then wrapped in moo shu pancakes that is brushed with hoisin sauce andeaten by hand. Moo shu pancakes are thin wrappers made of flour that is easilyavailable in supermarkets and steamed just before eating.

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General Tso’s Chicken – General Tso’s chicken is a Hunan dish that tastesspicy and sweet and very popular in Chinese restaurants in America and Canadawhere it’s often marked as a “chef’s specialty”. General Tso’s Chicken recipecommonly involves battered chicken deep-fried and marinated with hot chilipeppers, scallions, sugar, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar,garlic and ginger.

Egg Rolls – Egg rolls are one of the most popular Chinese foods, and forgood reason. This savory roll is made by wrapping a combination of choppedcabbage and meats and sometimes noodles in a sheet of dough. It is then dippedin egg and deep fried to perfection. Egg rolls are generally bigger insize  than its cousin spring roll, its skin is thicker and crunchier; andhave more filling.

Fortune Cookies – Chinese cooking would simply not be complete without theaddition of a recipe for fortune cookies. The ingrediesnts you need to makethese treats are some sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla extract, making them asimple way to add some fun to your home cooked Chinese food.

Orange Chicken – This appetizing  Chinese dish is made of chickenchopped into bite size pieces and battered, and then fried with thick sweet andspicy chili sauce flavored with orange. The traditionally Chinese recipe fororange peel chicken as it’s sometimes called, is to deep fry the chicken firstand then stir fry it in a lightly sweet soy-based sauce flavored with driedorange peels. Vegetables like baby carrots and bok choy are used as thegarnishing. However, cooks in Western restaurants do not use dried orange peelbut rather orange juice or fresh orange peel and a substantial amount of sugarto make the sauce. Chili peppers and steamed broccoli are used as garnishinginstead.

Sweet and Sour Pork – This savory-sweet famous Chinese dish is of Cantoneseorigin. It is a good dish to prepare when you are planning on having guests,who will be wildly impressed with your cooking skill. As with other Chinesefood recipes, the key to making a great Sweet and Sour Pork dish is in thesauce made of sugar, ketchup, white vinegar, and soy sauce. Its ingredientsinclude pork, onion, bell pepper and pineapple chopped into bite sizepieces.

Mapo Dofu – Mapo doufu or Mapo tofu is a popular Chinese dish from theSzechuan province. Ingredients used for this recipe include tofu or beancurd,and minced beef or pork cooked in a bright red spicy sauce based on chili.

Chop Suey – Chop suey or “za sui” or “shap sui” literally means ‘mixedpieces’ is an American-Chinese dish usually employs leftover vegetables andmeats stir fried quickly in a sauce thickened with starch. It is a great dishwhen you need to use up the last of yesterday’s chicken or pork roast and canincorporate meats of any kind such as pork, shrimp, beef, fish or chicken andvarious vegetables from bean sprouts to cabbage and celery. Chop Suey is ofteneaten with rice.

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