This quick and easy Chinese garlic green beans recipe uses a few ingredients to achieve maximum flavor and a perfect texture! The green beans are pan fried until blistered and tender, then stir fried with garlic and ginger to lend a great aroma. Serve this as a side dish to complete your dinner or over steamed rice as a light lunch. {Vegan, Gluten-Free adaptable}
Chinese garlic green beans is a simplified version of Sichuan dry fried green beans. This recipe is vegan and uses basic pantry ingredients to create a mouthwatering and satisfying side.
Perfect green beans, no wok and deep-frying required
If you’ve ever ordered this dish in a restaurant, you must have wondered how to get those perfectly charred and blistered green beans.
Chinese garlic green beans use a cooking technique called Gan Bian (干煸), which directly translated means “dry fried”. It is similar to shallow frying, as it uses much less oil to cook the ingredients, but achieves a result similar to deep fried food.
In this case, the green beans are pan fried with oil until they are perfectly charred and blistered. They’re then stir fried with aromatics and a touch of soy sauce to create a bold flavor.
How to make garlic green beans
Cooking garlic green beans is super easy.
- Cook the green beans in the large pan and stir to coat well with oil
- Flip the green beans occasionally, taking out the ones that are charred
- Once the green beans are cooked, fry the garlic and ginger
- Return the cooked green beans to the pan, drizzle in the seasonings and stir it together
That’s it!
To spice it up a little, you can sprinkle some chili flakes or add a splash of chili oil. I used a high quality peanut oil to add nutty flavor to the dish. If you use a neutral oil such as vegetable oil or avocado oil, you can add a splash of toasted sesame oil or sesame seeds at the end of the cooking.
Thoroughly pat the green beans dry before cooking
This is very important. You will need a very hot pan for this dish. Make sure the green beans are dried thoroughly so you won’t get crazy oil splatter.
How to blister the green beans with less oil
To make the perfect green beans, make sure the pan is heated until very hot. Once you add the green beans, do not stir them too often so they will have enough time to char.
You can fry the green beans in small batches. But I found it’s easiest to cook everything in one big heavy skillet. When you cook all the green beans together, you’ll find that some of them char quickly. You should remove the charred green beans from the skillet to prevent overcooking.
When the green beans are charred but still feel slightly tough inside, you should take them out. Because you will return them to the pan later and cook them with soy sauce. The green beans will be properly cooked by then – just softened yet still crisp.
How to serve garlic green beans
These garlic green beans are so flavorful that you can serve them by themselves or over steamed rice. It makes a perfect side dish or a part of a multi-dish meal. I also love to top it on the rice and add a marinated egg to make a quick lunch. They freeze and reheat well, so you can use them for meal prep too.
Here are some dishes to serve with garlic green beans
- Soy Sauce Fried Rice (酱油炒饭)
- Chinese Corn Soup (鸡蛋玉米羹)
- Sichuan Shrimp Stir Fry
- Beef Lo Mein
- Vegetarian Mapo Tofu
Chinese Garlic Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1 lb (450 g) green beans , tough ends removed
- 3 to 4 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable)
- 6 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 thumb minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry, or chicken broth)
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Chinese chili flakes (for garnish) (Optional)
Instructions
- Thoroughly pat the green beans dry with paper towels to prevent oil splatter.
- Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Turn to medium heat and add the green beans. Toss to coat well with the oil. Spread out the green beans as much as possible with minimal overlap and sprinkle with the salt. Let cook without touching for 2 to 3 minutes, until the bottom starts to blister and turn golden. Remove any green beans that have blistered and charred on one side and transfer them to a big plate. Keep cooking the rest of the green beans, flipping occasionally and taking out the ones that are blistered. The whole process should take about 6 to 8 minutes.
- If your pan looks dry, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Otherwise, directly add the garlic and ginger to the pan. Stir and cook for a few minutes to release fragrance. Add back all the cooked green beans and stir to mix a few times.
- Pour in the Shaoxing wine and soy sauce and sprinkle with salt. Stir immediately to mix everything well. Taste the green beans. Adjust seasoning by adding more salt or soy sauce, if needed.
- Transfer everything to a big plate. Sprinkle with chili flakes, if using. Serve hot as a side dish.
I love this recipe! It is easy, tasty and better than eating them in the restaurants.
This is my go-to recipe for Green Beans. I know my son will love this recipe too.
I tried this recipe for the first time tonight with green beans fresh from our garden. It was quick, easy, and turned out great. Will definitely make again and share with others. The peanut oil was a great recommendation. Thank you for this recipe!
So happy to hear you tried this one out and liked it! Thanks for leaving a positive review 🙂
Do you really add salt in both the first and second phases of cooking the beans? In the video it looks like you add salt only at the end?
I think adding a very small pinch of salt during first phase helps developing the flavor a bit more. But I do remember I totally forgot about it while shooting the video.
The best approach is to measure out the salt prior cooking. During the first phase, you use a small pinch of salt from the 1/2 teaspoon. Then during the second phase, you add the rest.
Hope it makes sense.
This is so good I made it two days in a row, eating it as my main course. I can’t get enough. Keeping my local farmers market in business.
This is our favourite way to make green beans. We often have lots during the summer when we are growing them. We had these at a great Chinese restaurant once and this recipe is very similar, if not better. This recipe is well explained and easy to follow and everyone eats their green beans.
Wow, delicious! I’m going to try this recipe with runner beans. I have so many right now. Do you know how people like to prepare them in China? I guess they’re pretty popular over there, but their name translates to something more like “broccoli beans.” 红花菜豆 is the term I found. I guess they’re well loved in some parts of the country, but I can’t find any Chinese recipes for them. Do they just sautee them fresh, like this kind of recipe? Do they pickle them whole? I’m so curious!
I haven’t cooked much with runner beans after moving to the US because I rarely find them. Seems like there are different varieties, but the ones I’m familiar with look like this: https://www.greedygourmet.com/recipes-by-course/side-dish/runner-bean-puree/ We harvest them when the peas are still tiny and soft, so the pods have a good texture.
We usually braise runner beans, often with some pork (my mom likes to use leftover pork stews, with a bit meat and the sauce) and potato. The beans will soak up the sauce and taste great.
The other method is called “焖”, or steam fry, which I think will work with this recipe. You can blister the beans, but maybe not wait until them to cook through. Once their surface is a bit wrinkled, you can proceed to add the sauce etc. Then you can cover the pan, so the runner beans will be slightly steamed through and become tender. The result is less crispy beans, but the texture will be tender and the beans will soak up the sauce.
Awesome, I added a tiny amount of oyster sauce at the end, beans picked from my garden, with a few snap peas, served on steamed rice, beautiful, I’m now full of beans.
I could eat green beans daily with this wonderful recipe! It is that delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Yum and simple to make. Thank you for sharing the recipe
Made this recipe and it turned out great. Recipe is easy to follow and quickly done. I like garlic so I added a pinch more. Definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing.
These green beans turned out incredible and they were so simple! Would highly recommend!!
I love this recipe and it is pretty easy to make. Make sure to allow time to prep the beans.
This was amazing! I made it last night and I ended up eating the whole pound of beans all by myself… no leftovers haha! I’ve bought beans like this before at Chinese buffet places and at T&T grocery store, and I’ve always liked them. I’m so happy I can make them myself now. Thank you so much for this recipe
Made this for the first time for Thanksgiving meal. I have tried other recipes but none that worked so well for frying the green beans. Everyone loved them. So glad I found it. Thanks for helping to make it easy, too.
maggie, i watched the video and would like to know more about your skillet. and where i can find one to purchase. thank you!
It’s a Debuyer 12.6″ carbon steel skillet: http://amzn.to/2fzKrjN
If you decide to buy it, make sure to check out my posts on how to season the skillet and how to clean and store it 🙂
https://omnivorescookbook.com/season-carbon-steel-pan/
https://omnivorescookbook.com/carbon-steel-pan-care/
this tasted and looked just like my favorite nyc chinatown dish. thank you for sharing it and teaching me how to make it at home.
Super easy assuming you have a good carbon steel wok and gas lame (wok ring). Phenomenal, no need to order in!
Great recipe, delicious
i like it，want to try it
this was delicious