Dry-Fried Green Beans (乾煸四季豆)
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String beans aka green beans are loved by many people because they are healthy and delicious. Like all legumes string beans are rich in protein and fiber and low in fat.
If you are like me who is considering shaking off a few extra ponds to get ready for the summer then string beans will be your best friends for the next few months.
String beans or green beans can be prepared in many different ways but for me there is no better string bean dish than the popular Sichuan (Szechuan) dish called Dry-Fried String Beans.
Known for its great flavor and outstanding texture, Dry-Fried Greens Beans are arguably one of most well known Chinese bean dishes served in virtually every Chinese restaurants ranging from takeout joints to high end places.
Traditionally, the green beans are first deep fried to seal the natural flavor. Then they are cooked using a special technique called dry-frying (乾煸) – a frying technique that involves high heat and little to no liquid. The technique is the key behind that famous slightly crispy outside but soft inside texture.
As usual let’s start with the step by step illustrations:
Prepare and rinse the string beans.
Fry the green beans until slightly wrinkly. Rinse off the oil if preferred
Stir fry the aromatic ingredients. Add minced pork and beef
Once the meat is almost done, add the green beans and fry in high heat
For those who are health conscious, I’ve added to step to rinse off the extra oil after deep frying. Also you can skip the minced pork or beef to make it vegetarian friendly. And don’t forget to make some steamed rice because this dish can be quite a rice killer 🙂
What’s your favorite string bean dish?
Ingredients
- 1 lb Fresh Green Beans (string beans)
- 6 oz Minced Pork or Beef
- 1 tbsp Dried Shrimp (optional)
- 2 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 tbsp Cooking wine
- 2 tbsp Chinese preserved vegetable, chopped
- 1 clove Garlic, sliced or minced
- 3 Dried Chili
Instructions
- Prepare the green beans by trimming off both ends. Cut beans into 2- to 3-inch lengths. Rinse well and drain string beans in a colander.
- Heat up about 2 cups of oil in wok or frying skillet. Fry the green beans over medium heat. Stir occasional to prevent from sticking. Fry for about 5 minutes or when the skin turns wrinkly.
- For a healthier version, immediately rinse the beans under running water to remove excess oil. Drain well in a colander.
- Heat up 1 tbsp of oil and add garlic, Chinese preserved vegetable, and dried shrimp. Dry fry for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Add minced pork or beef and mix well. Keep on turning the pork so it doesn’t stick to the cookware.
- Add the chili and cooking wine once the color of pork turns lighter. Once the pork starts to turn brown, turn the heat to high and add the green beans. Make sure your wok is hot enough to evaporate any liquid released from the ingredients. Add soy sauce while keep the string beans turning. Quickly stir a few times to mix well the soy sauce then turn off the heat. The string bean shouldn’t be stir-fried for more than 3 minutes.
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After trying out this dish in a Taiwanese restaurant in San Francisco, my wife and I had to find a recipe. After searching the internet, she came across this recipe and made it for the family. It was a huge hit. Thanks from all of us at Dinnerfromtheart.com
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Hi I tried this recipe but all the pork got stuck together, so I ended up with lumps of ground prok in different sizes. How can I avoid that? Thank you so much!
Hello Shely, thanks for checking out my blog. To answer your question, before you stir fry the pork, please make sure the pan or wok is really hot. Do not cook all the pork at once if you use a low output burner. Try to spread the ground pork in a thin layer and cook in small batches if necessary. Add the pork to the hot pan or wok, let it get a nice sear before you turn the pork. Once both sides of the pork get a good sear you should be able to break it part easily. I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I will definitely try that next time! I had such a great time browsing through your recipes.
It’s my pleasure Shelly. Glad that you have found my blog helpful!
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乾煸四季豆 is no doubt my favorite way of enjoying string beans but the step to fry the string beans usually puts me off as I tend to stay away from frying in my kitchen. Now I can only drool over your dish. :O
I totally understand why you don’t want to deep fry stuff at home. I normally try to avoid frying stuff in my apartment but this dish is one of the exceptions 🙂
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You asked what is my favorite string bean dish? THIS one!!!! It’s truth! I order this dish pretty often, and cook even at home (I’ve been using this particular recipe for a while). I should give yours try next time!
Thanks Nami. I am really happy to hear that you enjoy this dish and like to cook it at home. Please let me know how it comes out if you get to try this recipe:)
I love string beans made this way…as a matter of fact I always order with dish when available in restaurants…yours look delicious, love the crunchy string beans…so tasty.
Hope you have a great week ahead Yi 🙂
Thanks Juliana. Likewise I also like to order this dish whenever I eat out at chinese restaurants. Classic!
I love this dish! Although it’s been ages since I’ve made it. Your version is better than what I made. The addition of the dried shrimp is intriguing – I’ll have to try that. Sounds wonderful. Thanks for this.
Thanks for your kind comment kitchenriffs. Yes the dried shrimp and preserved Chinese vegetable add great flavors to this dish.
Hi Yi, I found another way for not using so much oil. I really would like to share with you. Baked the string beans on 400 deg. for 10-15 min., after finished trimming the beans on both side, drizzle with 1 tbspn olive oil and 1/2 tspn of salt, make sure the oil & salt are spreading out on the beans, then spread them on cookies tray. When you see the skin starting to wrinkle, then take them out from the oven. Next step, I just follow your recipes. Hope this help 😀
That’s a great idea Ria panda. Thanks for sharing it with me. By baking the beans one can definitely cut down a lot on oil and unnecessary mess. It’s funny I use this method to make my eggplants but totally blanked out when it came to this string bean dish. Thanks again for your suggestion.
I love simple but flavorful veggie dish like this. I normally just use a little bit of chopped up shrimp on mine. But minced pork or beef would work as well. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks Yudith. Hope you get to try this dish.
Yi thank you for this recipe, fried fried string beans is one of our favorite vegetable dishes. I remember while traveling to Southern California 3 years ago, we got so tired of eating non-Asian food, ended up in a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant inside Korean Town (I know, strange right?). their dried fried string beans were so good, we devoured 1 order while there, and took another order to go, which got eaten the next morning! Will give your recipe a try very soon!
Good to see you Jeno. This string bean dish is one of my favorite Sichuan vegetable dishes. I used to order it all the time when I ate out at Chinese restaurants.
Been looking forward to this. I may try it tonight. Thank you, Yi!!!
The pleasure is all mine. Thanks for the great suggestion as this appears to be a very popular dish on this blog. I’d love to hear how it comes out if you get to make it. And yes I’ll be working on that shaobin recipe soon 🙂
Yes, I did make it that night! I completely forgot to buy the other ingredients at the market, so just ended up using lots of garlic. But it came out well. They weren’t as crispy as they should have been, so I think I might have deep fried them for too long, or do you think that’s because I dry-fried them for too long? Thanks again, can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
Hi Hengde, I am glad to hear that you gave this recipe a try. When frying the string beans, I normally remove them from the oil as soon as the skin turns a little wrinkly. I usually stir fry for no more than 3 minutes over high heat. Hope this helps a little bit. Please let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions:)
I have been wondering how to add zing to this dish and now I have found it! In the past I usually cook ground beef with the string beans plain but now I can make it more flavorful. Thanks!
Thanks for your visit Mai. I am glad that you have found the recipe useful.
I suspect one can really cut down on the meat; just add enough for flavor.
Thanks Gregor. I agree. For this dish you can even skip pork or beef and just use the dried shrimp.