Xian Bing - Chinese Pan Fried Meat Pies

For the past few years Xiao Long Bao (aka Taiwanese soup dumplings) have become wildly popular. But another Taiwanese street food that you may not have tried are Xian Bing, also known as Chinese pan-fried meat pies. These meat pies have even more soup packed in the pastry and they only take half the effort to make as soup dumplings. In fact, they are so juicy, it’s almost hard not to make a big mess with the soup shooting out when you bite into the pie. My brother Chih-Wei is the only person I know who can skillfully eat this pie without spilling a single drop of soup onto the plate. If you like soup dumplings, you will love this yummy, juicy meat pie.

You will need:

Ingredients: (Serves 3-4 people)
For the pie:
3 cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp. granulated sugar
pinch of salt
½ cup boiling hot water
½ cup cold water
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

For the filling:
1 lb. ground beef
4 cloves garlic
1 onion
4 scallions
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. granulated sugar
½ tsp. white pepper
4 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. cooking wine
3 Tbsp. sesame oil
6 Tbsp. cold water

3 Tbsp. vegetable oil for frying


Directions:
Mix up flour, sugar and water. Stir in hot water to the flour mixture with a pair of chopsticks or the back of a wooden spoon to give it a mealy consistency. What you are doing here is half-cooking the dough. This is a very common method for making bun and dumpling skins.

 
Now add in the cold water and vegetable oil. Kneed for two minutes until the dough is smooth. Cover it up with plastic wrap and let it rest while you make the filling.

To make the filling, start by mincing the garlic, onion, scallion and ginger. Set it aside.

In a large bowl, mix salt and sugar into the ground beef. Add cold water, one tablespoon at a time, while stirring the beef until the water gets absorbed into the beef. This is what’s going to make the filling turn into soup once it’s cooked.

Mix in the soy sauce, cooking wine, sesame oil and white pepper.

Gently mix in the minced garlic, onion, scallion and ginger. Don’t stir it too much or else the water and oil will start to separate.

Now roll the dough into a log and cut it into 10 to 12 pieces.

Roll the cut-out dough individually into 4-inch-diameter disks with a rolling pin, but leaving the center thicker than the edges. The best way to do this is to spin the dough counter-clockwise while rolling the rolling pin back and forth on the edges of the dough with your other hand.

Take about 2 tablespoons full of the filling and place it in the center of the rolled-out dough.

Gather the edges of the dough to seal the pie. Pinch off any extra dough.

Gently pat the pie down to a disk with the seam side facing down.

Heat up 3 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large non-stick skillet on medium-low heat. Place the pies in the pan, seam side down. Cook for 5 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown. Make sure you check the bottom of the pie to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Turn the pie over and cover the skillet. This will make sure the filling gets cooked. Cook for another 4 to 5 minutes until both sides are golden brown.

You want to let these pies cool for 5 minutes before serving, or else the soup inside will be burning hot when you bite into them. Crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside is the key. As you can see, a lot of soup spills out when you bite into the pie!

Serve these pies with some soy sauce and vinegar and a little hot sauce. Enjoy while it’s warm.