Chinese Scallion Pancakes often make an appearance on dim sum menus and are served as street food in China, they are also sold frozen in Asian supermarkets. These scallion pancakes are savory, chewy, crispy from the outside, and flaky from the inside. Serve as an appetizer, or for a delicious quick lunch!
These homemade Chinese scallion pancakes are much better than the frozen ones that you buy from your local Chinese supermarket. They’re perfect for a quick lunch, or even a late-night snack after a night out! They’re also freezable, so you can batch make them and cook as many as you need each time.
What are Chinese Scallion Pancakes?
Chinese Scallion Pancakes are referred to as Cong you bing 葱油饼 in China, which translates into ‘scallion oil pancake’. These savory pancakes are made with unleavened dough instead of batter, and the layers are separated with oil to create flaky layers of very thin dough. The filling is quite simple, made with just thinly sliced scallions (green onions), and spices of your choice (I use Chinese five spices).
The pancakes are then pan-fried with a little bit of oil on each side (or a lot of oil for restaurant-quality), until the edges are crispy and the pancakes are cooked through and golden brown.
Finish with a sprinkle of sea salt, cut into triangles and serve them on their own or with a simple soy dipping sauce.
The Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make the Chinese Scallion Pancakes:
- Scallions – green onions – spring onions – whatever you call them in your part of the word! 😊
- All-purpose flour, salt, and hot water to make the dough.
- Oil – You can either use neutral oil or sesame oil for the filling. But fry the pancakes in neutral oil. TIP: When buying sesame oil, always check the label, it should say ‘pure sesame oil’ rather than ‘blended oil’.
- Optional seasonings – I use Chinese five-spice powder and white pepper. You can also use toasted sesame seeds if you like.
The Directions
- In a large bowl, mix the flour with salt, then add the hot water. Using your hands, keep mixing the dough then knead it until you get a smooth dough ball. What hot water dough is “kill” the flour, which helps create the layers that are flaky and chewy rather than soft and fluffy. Add more flour and cold water as needed. Lightly brush the dough with oil, cover it and let it rest for half an hour (or overnight in the fridge).
- Divide the dough into 4 pieces. This portion will make four 7-inch pancakes.
- Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 3mm (1/8 inch) thick. Brush with oil (or sesame oil), and sprinkle with thinly sliced scallions and seasonings.
- Roll the full length of the dough to create a long sausage shape, then coil into pinwheels tucking the loose end underneath.
- Flatten each pinwheel using the palm of your hands, and you can even roll it out using a rolling pin into a 7-inch pancake. Heat oil in a flat bottomed pan, and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Keep flipping the pancake to ensure that it does not burn. Drain on kitchen paper towels, cut into quarters, and serve.
And there you have it! Perfect flaky scallion pancakes!
Freezing The Pancakes
What I love about this recipe is that you can make these pancakes, then freeze them lined between parchment paper. Then when you want one (or 2 or more!), take them out of the freezer and cook on a pan from frozen (no need to thaw), and they’ll turn out so fresh and delicious!
Dipping Sauce
You can either serve these scallion pancakes on their own, or with a dipping sauce. I like to make a simple dipping sauce for extra flavor, here’s how:
Mix 2 tablespoons of soy sauce with 1 teaspoon of honey, 2 teaspoons of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1 clove of garlic, and about 1 teaspoon of grated ginger.
If you choose to serve it with a dipping sauce, then don’t sprinkle the pancakes with sea salt as the soy sauce is already salty.
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Chinese Scallion Pancakes Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (500ml) hot water
- 2 tablespoons sesame or neutral oil for the filling
- ½ cup scallions thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon Chinese five spice optional
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper optional
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil for frying
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix the flour with salt, then add the hot water. Using your hands, keep mixing the dough then knead it until you get a smooth dough ball. What hot water dough is “kill” the flour, which helps create the layers that are flaky and chewy rather than soft and fluffy. Add more flour and cold water as needed. Lightly brush the dough with oil, cover it and let it rest for half an hour (or overnight in the fridge).
- Divide the dough into 4 pieces. This portion will make four 7-inch pancakes.
- Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 3mm (⅛" inch) thick. Brush with oil (or sesame oil), and sprinkle with thinly sliced scallions and seasonings if using.
- Roll the full length of the dough to create a long sausage shape, then coil into pinwheels tucking the loose end underneath.
- Flatten each pinwheel using the palm of your hands, and you can even roll it out using a rolling pin into a 7-inch pancake. Heat oil in a flat bottomed pan, and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Keep flipping the pancake to ensure that it does not burn. Drain on kitchen paper towels, cut into quarters, and serve.
Video
Notes
- Freeze the pancakes between sheets of parchment paper, when ready to cook, take them out of the freezer and pan-fry them with a little bit of oil (no need to thaw first).
- When buying sesame oil, check that the label says ‘pure sesame oil’ rather than ‘blended sesame oil’.
- You can either make 4 7-inch pancakes or 8 smaller ones.
- Fry in more oil for restaurant-quality scallion pancakes.
- For the dipping sauce: Mix 2 tablespoons of soy sauce with 1 teaspoon of honey, 2 teaspoons of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1 clove of garlic, and about 1 teaspoon of grated ginger.
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