I prefer home cooked food: it is cheaper, healthier, and tastier. My grocery shopping has changed as a result, and I do most of my shopping in the produce and meat sections, going to the freezer section only for frozen seafood if I cannot get fresh. Though I work from home, my available time for cooking is limited. So, while I enjoy all of Jing’s recipes, I have compiled a list of those that are quick and easy to prepare for lunch. The recipes below are my go-to list for a quick homemade Chinese lunch.
We have many options for a quick, hot homemade Chinese lunch. From eggs to noodles, pork, chicken, and seafood, we have many recipes you will enjoy.
Hot chicken dishes
All of our chicken dishes could qualify for a quick lunch, especially if you can chop and prep ingredients rapidly. These dishes were chosen because you can pop them in an air-fryer or toaster oven, set the timer, and walk away.
Image credit: Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Image Credit: My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2021
Easy Chinese Fried Chicken
The chicken takes some time to prepare. I cook this on a weekend afternoon, and put it in the refrigerator. For lunch, I take a few fried chicken strips from the refrigerator and heat them in my toaster oven while I make my coffee. You could just as easily whip together a garlic cucumber salad as a side dish while you wait for the chicken strips to heat.
These wings need to marinate before cooking. Mix them with the marinade before you start work. When you break for lunch, put them in your air-fryer for 10 minutes, turn them, and then cook for an additional 10 minutes. Then lunch is ready!
Chinese consume more than half of all the pork eaten worldwide. We have more pork dishes than any other type of recipe on My Chinese Home Kitchen. Prepare kou rou in advance, in a large batch, and store it in the refrigerator until needed. For a quick lunch you can slice it and brown it over low heat with garlic leaves, or steam it and serve over hot white rice. The pork belly with green peppers uses uncooked pork belly, cut into slices and cooked with peppers. Both dishes can be ready in ten to fifteen minutes.
A finished piece of Kou Rou
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Glenn Emerson for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Jing’s Spicy Garlic Chicken Wings
Image credit: My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2021
Steamed Kou Rou with Rice and Green Garlic
Kou Rou is a unique Guangxi delicacy. If you like bacon, give Kou Rou a try. One of my favorite quick lunches is a few slices of steamed Kou Rou, over white rice, with a bit of soy sauce. Optionally, adding green garlic to the steamer gives a delicious flavor. You can have a hot, filling lunch in about 10 to 15 minutes.
In China, every kind of food has a variety of cooking methods, and pork recipes are no different. I remember when I was living in my hometown in Guangxi, I could see pork on the dinner table every day. This is almost our inseparable partner at the dinner table. The Hakka people like to fry the pork separately. Simple ingredients only need simple cooking methods, which preserves the flavor of the pork. My mother was from the Zhuang ethnic group, and she liked to stir-fry pork belly with vegetables. When tasting the delicious pork she cooked, I could also taste the delicious sweetness of vegetables. Either way, I think it is tasty.
You will want alkaline wheat noodles for these recipes. Use a pack of ramen noodles like those sold in grocery and convenience stores (throw away the seasoning packet) if you cannot find alkaline wheat noodles. We recommend Jianshui Wenzhou Mian used for Dan dan mian and Xiao mian dishes for flavor and texture, if you can get them.
Dry noodles
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Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Jing’s Homemade Chinese Fried Noodles Recipe
Image Credit: My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2021
Homemade Chinese Fried Noodles Recipe
This recipe calls for alkali wheat noodles, like those used in Dan dan mian, but you can use a couple packets of ramen noodles. With a little diced ham and fresh scrambled eggs, this dish can be ready in 15 minutes or less.
Braised noodles with beans is a traditional specialty food in northern China, but it is relatively rare in southern China. When braising noodles we use steam to simmer the noodles. The noodles are spread over the beans and pork in the broth, and the hot steam soaks into the noodles while the beans and pork are braised by the liquid. Raw alkaline wheat noodles are best, but you can use dried noodles if you increase the water just a bit, cover the pot with a lid, and simmer for 1 minute longer.
Fried rice makes a quick, satisfying hot lunch, and can be vegetarian or have meat. The goal of frying rice is not to make the rice crispy, or greasy, but to warm it thoroughly. Leftover rice works best. Cook the rice the night before using Grace Young’s Classic Rice recipe. You can use many vegetables. I like bean sprouts and water chestnuts. Some folks like chopped snow peas or green peas.
Jing’s Egg Fried Rice
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Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022
Egg Fried Rice, Southern Style
This is delicious and quick to cook. Southern-style, or Cantonese, does not use soy sauce to season the rice in the pan. Cooking time is about 10 minutes total.
Pork fried rice is my favorite after shrimp fried rice. This is an American-Chinese recipe, but fried rice is like apple pie: everybody's mom has their own recipe. I use pork belly, or pork chops, diced into bite sized pieces. If you make Chinese BBQ Pork or Hongshao Rou, you can use the leftover from that. This recipe marinates the pork with a bit of sugar, Shaoxing wine, oyster sauce, and dark soy sauce for flavor, but this is entirely my own creation, and not authentic Chinese.
These dishes are rich with flavor and nutrition, and satisfy an empty stomach with just a few minutes of preparation and cooking.
Image credit: Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Image credit: Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2021Image credit: Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022
Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes
My friend's mom comes home from work and she needs to cook lunch, but she's tired, she doesn't want to cook some complicated dishes, she just wants to have lunch right away. So she opens the fridge and she sees the eggs. Take out 4-6 eggs and some tomatoes to make a lunch dish. Today we share my friend's moms recipe for scrambled eggs with tomatoes, because her daughter, my friend, loves eggs with tomato!
This dish is simple, easy to prepare, and does not take much time to cook. When hot and sour potatoes meet rice, oh, I can eat it all! So, how can we cook potatoes any more delicious? Let’s make them together.
This is the simplest, and tastiest soup I have ever made. Take ten white mushrooms, snap off the stems and wash the caps. Heat your pan, add oil and the mushrooms, and slowly saute them over low heat until they release their liquid. Add 2 cups of water, and cook over high heat. Then add some chopped green onions and serve.
The squid and scallops recipes go from preparation to cooking to ready to eat in 15 minutes. The fried fish requires deep frying in hot oil, or cooking in an air-fryer. Also, the fillets are dipped in egg and coated with sesame seeds before frying. However, if you prepare the fish before going to bed and set it in the refrigerator you can fry them in minutes as soon as the oil is hot.
Scallops with cumin and chili
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Glenn Emerson for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Image credit:
Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Image credit: Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2021Quick Chinese seafood dishes
Sesame-crusted Fried Fish Fillet
This is another quick, hot lunch. To save time, you can prepare the fish fillets the night before, but they do not take long to prepare. Heat your oil and fry the fillets until the sesame seeds are a light golden brown, and serve. Any firm fish will work: carp, catfish, haddock, cod, tilapia, etc.
This is a variation of Jing's Cumin Squid Tentacles. Scallops make a great substitute, but since they have a more delicate flavor, some adjustment of the ingredients is recommended.
Squid is very popular on Chinese tables. It appears in barbecue restaurants, hot pot restaurants, and large and small banquets. When I went to banquets as a child, I always hoped that squid would appear on the table as soon as possible. Squid is of course one of my favorite foods. Squid contains various nutrients and its cooking method is also very simple. The cumin squid I will cook today will bring you a whole new experience. Note: Bay scallops make a good substitute for squid.
Central and Western Texas normally has hot summers, but this year we are having a La Nina drought too, making it very hot and dry. Daily temperatures have reached as high as 108 F (42 C), here and in parts of China. Who wants to run an oven or cook over a hot stove in such weather? Fortunately, you can have a quick, cold Chinese homemade lunch with little or no use of the stove!
You will want to keep a few things on hand, such as homemade Chili Oil, to give these dishes rich flavor. Shredding chicken for the chicken salad takes some time, so prepare the chicken salad the night before.
Image credit: Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Image credit: Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Pickled xiao mi la chili peppers
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Glenn Emerson for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Homemade Chili Oil
Cold meat dishes
The word “cold” is a bit misleading. These dishes are served cold, or at room temperature. However, the meat must be cooked. The chicken salad is best to cook the night before, and then put it in the refrigerator overnight for a quick Chinese cold lunch. You can cook the pork belly the night before, but it is easy to cook during your morning work. Start it simmering about half an hour before your lunch break. When it is tender enough that you can push a blunt end of a chopstick through the meat with ease, set it on a plate to cool to room temperature, then slice, and drizzle with the chili oil sauce.
Cold Shredded Chicken Salad
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Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Pork Belly with Garlic Sauce
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Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Cold meat salads
Cold Shredded Chicken Salad
This delicious dish is served cold, but the chicken must be cooked and shredded. Prepared the night before, the flavors will blend overnight in the refrigerator and make a tasty, spicy lunch.
This recipe is best with homemade chili oil, which needs to be prepared in advance. If you prepare this dish the night before and refrigerate overnight, you can let it warm to room temperature during your morning meetings, and enjoy a filling, spicy lunch rich in vitamins and nutrients.
These dishes are served cold, but you do need to boil water to prepare them. The tofu must be blanched, for about 8 seconds, and the noodles cooked before being cooled for serving, but either task only takes a few minutes with a single saucepan. Keep some homemade chili oil, ground Chinese chili powder, and Laoganma chili paste with black bean in your pantry, and you have all you need to put these together quickly.
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Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Northern style cold noodles with summer vegetablesCold Chinese vegetarian dishes
Spicy Cold Tofu
This vegetarian dish is quite filling and tasty. Preparation is quick: boil water, dice the tofu, mix the sauce. When the water is boiling, blanch the tofu for 8 seconds, then drain, mix with the sauce, and it's ready to eat.
The noodles must be cooked al dente, then either rinsed or fanned to cool. Fanning is best, as this retains the starch on the noodles to soak up the sauce. While the noodles are cooking, you can heat the oil for the sauce and mix with the chili powder, green onion, and garlic. Add the remaining condiments, and mix with the noodles. If you want, you can add the carrots and cucumbers. The carrots must be blanched, so if you are pressed for time these can be optional.
These vegetable salad recipes make great side dishes with your lunch, but on a hot day, you can make a light and healthy lunch with just these dishes. The beauty of these dishes is they are easy to prepare the night before and set in the refrigerator. They are simple to make, and sitting overnight, the flavors blend nicely.
Shredded Potato Salad is a great, simple dish to serve on a hot summer day.Image Credit: My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2021Image credit:
Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Chinese Lettuce Salad
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Chen Jing for My Chinese Home Kitchen, 2022Cold Chinese vegetable salads
Shredded Potato Salad
You can prepare this recipe the night before and set it in the refrigerator, or if you are good with a knife, you can make it for lunch in about 15 minutes. Put water on to boil, while it is heating julienne the potatoes and pepper. Blanch the potatoes for 1 minute, then drain and place in cold water. Mix the sauce, drain the potatoes, and combine with the green pepper and sauce.
The only trick to this recipe is finding the celtuce (Chinese lettuce, aka asparagus lettuce or stem lettuce). If there's an Asian grocer near you, this dish can be prepared in minutes with fresh vegetables.
These white radishes are a healthy, nutritious side for any lunch. However, they do need to soak in the brine for a while. Make a large batch and place in canning jars, and store in your refrigerator. Add some as a side to any lunch.
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Chen Jing
I was born in Guangxi. As long as I remember, I have liked cooking.
When I was a child, my dream was to become a gourmet and travel the world to taste the food of various countries. My ambition is to become a chef. The kitchen is my partner. There are many kinds of Chinese cuisine, there are 8 kinds, reflecting the richness and diversity of Chinese geography and history. I am very happy to share with you Chinese cuisine and cultural traditions.
