An easy mapo tofu recipe that creates the authentic taste of China that features soft tofu cooked in a rich, spicy, and savory sauce that is full of aroma. Serve it over steamed rice for a quick, delicious and healthy weekday dinner!
Mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐, ma po dou fu) is one of the most popular dishes from Sichuan cuisine. The tofu pieces are braised in a rich spicy, and savory sauce along with fresh garlic and scallions, with a small amount of ground pork to enhance the flavor. The dish is so appetizing and it goes perfectly with steamed rice.
Cooking mapo tofu is quite easy but you do need a few special ingredients to get the authentic flavor. I’m sharing my favorite mapo tofu recipe below. It creates the very authentic taste that you’d get at a restaurant in China. However, based on this recipe, you can easily tweak the dish according to your preferences.
Key ingredients for Mapo Tofu
Doubanjiang
Doubanjiang (豆瓣酱), also known as spicy fermented bean paste or broad bean sauce, is the most important ingredient in mapo tofu. And it has a strong fermented savory, salty and spicy taste. Try to find “Pixian Broad Bean Paste” at your Asian market. Pixian is a small county in Sichuan province that produces the best broad bean paste. If you’re using this brand, you’re already halfway there. You can also purchase this brand on Amazon here.
NOTE: Depending on the brand of Doubanjiang you use, the salt and spiciness level can vary a lot. This dish is designed to be served with rice, so it’s on the salty side. If you want to make your dish less salty and spicy, reduce the amount of Doubanjiang (to 2 tablespoons).
Sichuan peppercorns
Sichuan peppercorn (花椒, hua jiao) is another main ingredient in any Sichuan dishes. It has a citrusy taste with a numbing tingling sensation when you chew on it. It’s a secret to add aroma to your dish that no other ingredient can replace. You can purchase Sichuan peppercorns at Asian grocery stores, but I highly recommend these premium fresh ones from The Mala Market.
Homemade chili oil
The other important ingredient is chili oil (辣椒油). Although you can purchase bottled chili oil at the grocery store, I highly recommend you make it at home. Freshly cooked chili oil tastes much better than store-bought and is free of additives. You only need a few minutes to cook it and it is really easy. You can find an easy chili oil recipe here. And if you prefer to purchase it instead of making your own, you can also find it on Amazon.
PS. You will usually cook more chili oil than you’re able to use in one meal. You can store the extra oil in an airtight container in the fridge for 6 months up to a year. You can use the chili oil in various dishes, including bang bang chicken, dan dan noodles, Sichuan spicy wonton in red oil, and Fu Qi Fei Pian (Sliced beef in hot sauce). You can also add it into a dipping sauce for potstickers, or add it to wonton soup to enhance the flavor, or even put it on oatmeal!
It might look like you need so many specialty ingredients for this one dish. But trust me, if you love Sichuan food, you’ll be using them again and again.
How to cook mapo tofu
Once you gather the ingredients, making mapo tofu is a super easy process.
- Fry the Sichuan peppercorns in the oil to infuse the aroma
- Cook the ground pork with doubanjiang
- Once the pork is cooked, add the green onions and stir a few times
- Add the broth and braise with the cover on
- Drizzle in the cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce
That’s it! I think this is one of the easiest Sichuan recipes and the result is super rewarding 🙂
Tips on cooking with Sichuan peppercorns
Sichuan peppercorn is a crucial ingredient and it really enhances the flavor of the dish.
Again, I highly recommend using a high quality fresh brand such as the ones from The Mala Market.
The most common approach is to fry the Sichuan peppercorns in the hot oil to infuse the flavor, then you remove the peppercorns so you won’t accidentally chew on it and feel numb for 10 minutes. Once fried, Sichuan peppercorns will become much milder. You can grind it up and use it to garnish your dish later, to add more flavor if you prefer.
Alternatively, you can use ground up fresh Sichuan peppercorn. I recently got the Sichuan peppercorn grinder from The Mala Market and really enjoyed it. Instead of using whole peppercorn, you can grind a small amount and add it during the cooking or at the end to add flavor. If you have this product on hand, you can add 1/4 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorn at the time you add the ground pork. This is such a fast and easy way to use Sichuan peppercorn.
When you use super fresh Sichuan peppercorn, the flavor is super pungent and you might not need to use a lot. For example, if you just purchased a bag from The Mala market, you probably only need about half of the amount indicated in this recipe. The longer you store the Sichuan peppercorns, for example, a few months to a year, they will gradually lose fragrance and you will need to use more.
Frequently asked questions
There is no correct answer to this, and you should choose what works best for you.
Some Chinese restaurants, including many in China, prefer to use soft or silken tofu to make this dish. It creates a very silky tofu texture that melts in your mouth. This method does require some experience in handling tofu, so you won’t break apart the very delicate silken tofu while cutting and cooking.
On the other hand, you can also use extra firm, firm or medium tofu for this dish. These types of tofu are much easier to handle. Plus, once you braise it in the rich spicy sauce, it absorbs a lot of flavor and tastes great.
Not at all! I found it’s easiest to cook mapo tofu in a nonstick pan. The tofu will sit flat in the broth and absorb all the flavor. Not to mention it won’t stick to the pan easily or fall apart when you stir it.
Doubanjiang usually contains fermented wheat, which is not gluten-free. Unfortunately I hadn’t found a great tasting gluten-free doubanjiang at the time of writing this post.
There is a Japanese brand doubanjiang that’s gluten-free and I see it quite often at Asian markets and on Amazon. Compared to the Chinese brand, this one is quite salty and has less fermented taste. If you decide to use this one for your mapo tofu, you should reduce the amount (to 2 tablespoons) so your dish won’t end up too spicy and salty.
I have a vegan mapo tofu here that tastes super flavorful and great!
How to serve mapo tofu
I love cooking mapo tofu for a quick lunch or dinner and serving it over steamed rice. Sometimes I double the meat and sauce, so it will be enough to serve two people as a one-dish meal. I also like to add a handful of greens (spinach, garlic chives, or other tender greens such as chopped up baby bok choy) at the end of braising before adding the cornstarch, to create a more nutritious and balanced meal. Sometimes I also replace the ground pork (used in the authentic version) with ground turkey to cut calories.
For special diets, you can make it less spicy and skip the rice so it will be paleo-friendly. You can also make it into a vegan dish by replacing the meat with mushrooms.
Yes, mapo tofu is such a versatile dish!
Other Sichuan dishes to make a full-on Sichuan feast
- Dan Dan Noodles (担担面)
- Chinese Bang Bang Chicken (棒棒鸡)
- Stir-Fried Pea Shoots with Garlic (蒜蓉炒豆苗)
- Chinese Garlic Green Beans
- Shui Zhu Yu (Sichuan Boiled Fish, 水煮鱼)
- Chinese Pickled Cabbage (A Quick Pickle Recipe)
Authentic Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐)
Ingredients
Marinating
- 4 oz (113 g) ground pork (or chicken, or turkey) (*Footnote 1)
- 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
For braising
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch (optional) (*Footnote 2)
- 2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns , increase to 3 teaspoons if you like your dish extra numbing, or reduce to 1 teaspoon if your Sichuan peppercorns are extra fresh
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 3 tablespoons Doubanjiang , reduce to 2 tablespoons for a less saltier and less spicy taste
- 2 green onion , chopped
- 1 block (396 g) firm or medium firm tofu , cut into 1.5cm (1/2 inch) squares
- 1 cup (240 ml) chicken stock (or water)
- 2 teaspoons homemade chili oil (*Footnote 3)
- 1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder
- 1 teaspoon sugar (or to taste)
Instructions
- Combine ground meat, cooking wine, soy sauce, and ginger in a small bowl. Mix well.
- Combine cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water in a small bowl. Mix well and set aside.
- Heat the oil and Sichuan peppercorns in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When the Sichuan peppercorns turn dark brown and crispy, scoop them out with a spatula and transfer into a bowl layered with paper towels to soak extra oil. Save to use for garnishing the dish (Optional).
- Add the ground meat and Doubanjiang. Cook over medium heat and chop the ground meat into small bits with a spatula, until pork is evenly coated with Doubanjiang and fully cooked through. Add green onion and stir fry for another minute.
- Spread tofu evenly on top of ground pork (*Footnote 4). Add chili oil, five-spice powder, and sugar. Pour in the broth and cook until brought to a simmer. Simmer, covered, over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced to half the original amount. Taste the tofu with some broth (be careful, it will be very hot!). Adjust seasoning by adding salt if needed. If the dish is too spicy, add another teaspoon of sugar to balance it out. Gently mix well with spatula.
- (Optional) Meanwhile, grind the fried Sichuan peppercorns (you used when heating up the oil) in a coffee grinder or using mortar and pestle.
- Mix cornstarch water again until fully dissolved and swirl it into the skillet. Gently stir a few times with a spatula, until sauce thickens. Turn off heat and transfer everything to a bowl.
- Garnish with extra green onion and a small pinch of the ground Sichuan peppercorns, if using (*Footnote 5), if using. Serve hot over steamed rice or by itself as main.
Notes
- You can skip the meat and make this dish vegetarian. In this case, I highly recommend replacing the meat with mushrooms (such as rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms) to enhance flavor.
- If you like the tofu with more broth, you can braise the tofu for a shorter time and use the cornstarch slurry to thicken the broth. Alternatively, you can uncover and braise until most of the liquid evaporates. The tofu will absorb more flavor this way.
- You can also pour on more chili oil for the restaurant look!
- Do not stir the tofu immediately after adding it into the skillet, in order to keep the pieces from breaking apart. The tofu will get firmer after braising and you can stir it once it’s cooked.
- The Sichuan peppercorns add a numbing nutty aroma to the dish. The fried Sichuan peppercorns have a more rounded body so it works great for garnishing the dish or in a salad. You only need a small amount in this recipe to finish up the dish. Store the rest in an airtight container, no longer than a month.
Video
Nutrition
The recipe was posted in Sep 7, 2015, and updated on May 23, 2022 with new graphics.
can’t find your pot sticker recipie
your site is very crowded and cluttered
For ground pork, I use mild Italian sausages. They already have lots of good spices in them.
I would love to try this recipe but unfortunately I cannot due to health reason. Any spices, especially chilies, causes skin rash that eventually spreads all over my body. Simply, my liver cannot handle spices.
Do you have a suggestion for people like me? What can you substitute for those chilies?
Thank you,
Andrew K
Thank you so much for this recipe. It worked out perfectly! We didn’t have any ground pork, so we used ground bison. Excited to try more of your recipes!
We enjoyed the recipe! Thank you, Maggie!
The 3 tbsp of Lee Kum Kee brand Doubanjiang (810mg sodium/tbsp) listed in the recipe ingredient amounts converts to 1.6 tbsp Pixian Doubanjiang (1518 – 1590 mg sodium per tbsp in the affordable Pixian version) to maintain the same salt levels. My wife and I preferred using 2 tbsp of Pixian Doubanjiang with double the Sichuan peppercorns and with addition of 3/4 of ground whole dried Thai chile. We also increased the oil amount as you recommended, which worked great. Replacing the soy sauce by adding 2 tsp of crushed Yang Jiang Preserved Beans kept the salt amount consistent and was nice compliment to Pixian Doubanjiang.
I made several variations of the recipe and found that perceived salt amount was a function of spice/sugar levels. With lower spice levels the salt flavor was more apparent and 1 2/3 tbsp Pixian Doubanjiang (firmly packed into a measuring spoon and leveled with a chopstick) seemed to work best. As I increased the spice levels, 2 tbsp of Pixian Doubanjiang seemed to work best. Another example of the perceived salt level paradox: Lee Kum Kee Premium (light) Soy Sauce tastes very noticeably saltier than Lee Kum Kee Premium Dark Soy Sauce although the light sauce has 11% less sodium content than the dark sauce. It’s been my general experience with different light and dark soy sauces that one’s taste buds do not agree with the label regarding sodium content because the different amounts of sugar, molasses, as well as different fermentation methods change the perceived salt level.
When I lowered Pixian Doubanjiang below 2 tbsp it definitely felt as if a key flavor was reduced. Replacing soy sauce with the fermented black beans definitely filled the gap when using less than 2 tbsp of Doubanjiang.
When making the recipe with Lee Kum Kee brand Doubanjiang I would definitely keep the soy sauce because Lee Kum Kee chili bean paste version is balanced by soy sauce or black bean sauce. Based on the flavor of Mapo Tofu I have had in most restaurants across the US, they likely don’t use Doubanjiang at all and mix Sambal Oelek with black bean paste or soy sauce instead. At least, I was able to reproduce many US restaurant general public versions of Sichuan food using black bean paste or soy sauce and Sambal Oelek. The conversion, keeping the salt amount constant, is the following:
3 tbsp of Lee Kum Kee Chili Bean Sauce (Toban Djan) = 1.6 tbsp Pixian Doubanjiang = 2 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Garlic Sauce (or Lee Kum Kee Soy Sauces) + 1 1/3 tbsp Sambal Oelek = 2 1/4 tbsp Kikkoman Soy Sauce + 1 1/2 tbsp Sambal Oelek.
Mapo tofu is one of my favorite foods in the entire world, and this recipe makes a fantastic mapo tofu! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Easy to follow instruction and very tasty!
I’ve made a few different versions of mapo tofu before coming across this one. This one is the best!! Perfect amount of spice (i didn’t have the Sichuan peppercorns so i used fresh black pepper and then diced a Thai red chili into the ground meat which worked well!) I loved all the flavors in this, especially the addition of the 5 spice which i haven’t seen before. Will definitely make this again!
Your recipe is quick, easy and delicious. So much healthier and better tasting than the store packaged version. I make this often. Thank you.
I love your recipes. Thank you for sharing them.
Hi there: I love this fish and usually buy the premade sauce. So I wanted to use a full pound of pork and I think I threw the whole thing off. Possible to suggest how to up the other ingredients if I do that? Quadruple everything?
I think it’s possible to scale up the recipe, although it can be a bit tricky to braise many blocks of tofu at the same time.
You probably need to use firm tofu and handle them carefully, so they won’t break apart. I think use a large skillet (instead of a pot) will help keeping the tofu in the braising liquid.
Alternatively, if you just want to use more pork, I think it’s possible to double the rest of the ingredients and keep the dish delight. I would start with 4 tablespoons doubanjiang just in case it gets too salty (because the pork will absorb the sauce better than tofu).
Despite of the too hot from chili much but I do always add more and more into my dish. Love the taste of Chinese meal.
Thank you much for what you sharing in this site!
This is THE recipe that got me hooked on this blog, so I figured that it was about time that I write a comment. My wife likes this mapo tofu better than the one we used to get from her favorite takeout place.
The doubanjiang (spicy bean paste) that Maggie recommends is great, but my wife prefers the Pixian brand:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M31VHNZ/ref=dp_cerb_2
But no matter which one you use, it will come out great.
If you are interested in trying a twist on this recipe, replace the tofu with cauliflower. I know it sounds weird, but it is amazing. One night my wife wanted mapo tofu but I didn’t have any tofu in the fridge (I know, I am a really bad husband!). However, I did have a head of cauliflower, so I cut the cauliflower into steaks, dusted them with flour and fried them until they turned a golden brown. Then I removed the cauliflower from the pan and followed the recipe as is, but added the fried cauliflower instead of the tofu at the end. My wife loved it and now requests this variant frequently as a veggie side dish.
Thanks again Maggie!
Cheers,
Quinn
Wonderful recipe. I used it on the first homemade tofu I’ve ever made. It was more medium/firm, but still worked and held together (and next time, I’ll press more water out). Thank you so much for the recipe–loved it and will surely make it again.
Maggie,
You continue to knock it out of the park, thank you. The music rocks too. You need to give musicians attributions and royalties are due if applicable. You just can’t use people’s music without giving them credit. Maybe they’ll trade for take-out.
Love everything you do!
Dan
Happy to hear you like the dish!
Re music – I use a subscription service that I pay monthly to use their loyalty free songs. Will make sure to add the attributions next time!
Delish! Only caveats: I had to use Thai chilis in my homemade chili oil and they seemed to be sharper and less rounded. Don’t know how old they were. I’ll use a bit less chili oil next time. Also, I used the same oil I fried the Szechuan peppercorns in to fry the meat. Next time I’ll change the oil. The Doubanjiang I had was Lee Kum Kee, and it tasted great but I had to stir it like mad since it had separated. BUT…my wife and I really enjoyed!
I’ve never tried using Thai chili in the oil but that sounds pretty spicy! Yeah definitely use less and you can add a bit more sugar to round up the taste.
oh. this so delicious, convenient and make easy. i think almost everybody like dish. Thank you so much!
Just how I like it! Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙂 I will have less doubanjan in the dish for my next attempt XD
MAggie,thank you for the Consistently amazing recipes. Ease of use and clear instructions. ‘Tastes like home.’ Says my Taiwanese born neighbor.
If I wanted to cheat to save time and use storebought chili oil, would that be a dealbreaker for this recipe? The chili oil is a very strong one with flakes in it from my favorite Asian market near my house in Brooklyn
Yes, that will work just fine 🙂