An authentic Lion’s head meatball recipe that uses breadcrumbs, water chestnuts, and aromatics to make super light, fluffy and juicy meatballs that are bursting with flavor.
Chinese pork meatballs are also called lion’s head (狮子头, shi zi tou). They feature tender, moist, and light meatballs with a savory taste. This dish is a staple food for my family, because it’s quite easy to cook in big batches and is so comforting to enjoy at any time. Eating savory meatballs with rice is as addictive as eating a burger. Juicy and flavorful meat and starch are the best combo in the world.
You’ll find quite a few versions of Lion’s Head in China. One popular rendition in northern China is braised meatballs. The cooking method for those is quite close to the one in this recipe. But instead of steaming, those meatballs are braised in a soy-sauce-based liquid after browning. Another type is meatballs cooked in chicken broth, from Shanghai cuisine. They’re usually served by themselves instead of over rice.
Today I’ll introduce a third type – a steamed lion’s head meatball. This recipe was passed down from my grandma. She used to make a huge batch of these every two weeks. After cooking them, she’d reserve a small amount to serve to guests who might be visiting her house. She would freeze the rest and give them away to family members, including my parents. These meatballs are my favorite and are even better than the ones from the restaurant. They are extremely fluffy and moist and are as tender as the pork in a slow-cooked Bolognese sauce.
How to make pork meatballs extra light
The secrets to creating super fluffy Lion’s head meatballs are:
- Mix water into the meat to make a very tender and moist patty
- Add plenty of breadcrumbs
- Add plenty of water chestnuts
The breadcrumbs create an airy texture. The water chestnuts add a really refreshing and crisp mouthfeel, so the meatballs will taste extra light.
How to make lion’s head meatballs
- Add water, seasonings and aromatics to the ground pork
- Mix in the water chestnuts
- Add eggs and breadcrumbs
- Mix in sesame oil
- Pan fry the meatballs
- Steam the pan fried meatballs
Mix the filling in order
It’s important to add all the liquid seasonings and water at the beginning, and mix until the liquid is fully absorbed. This will give the meatballs a moist texture and proper seasoning.
My mom always told me to add the sesame oil at the end, to seal the flavor and prevent the liquid from seeping out of the pork, if you’re not cooking the meatballs immediately.
One word about frying the meatballs
Once you shape the meatballs, you need to brown them to create the heavenly crust and seal the juiciness inside. It also helps the meatballs to keep their shape.
Since this is a very moist patty, it can be a bit tricky to pan fry while keeping them in an intact round shape. I wouldn’t worry if the meatballs are not perfectly shaped. And if you have trouble keeping them from falling apart, you can slightly press the meatballs so they have a slightly flat shape (but not as flat as a burger patty), so they’re easier to brown.
Steaming the meatballs
Once you steam the meatballs, some fat will be rendered out. The finished meatballs will be flavorful, tender, juicy yet not greasy.
How to serve lion’s meatballs
A lot of my American friends are not used to having meatballs without a sauce. But trust me, these Lion’s head meatballs are so well seasoned that they taste really good by themselves. I love to serve the meatballs as a main dish over steamed rice. And it’s always great to accompany them with some light and refreshing side dishes such as cucumber salad, okra stir-fry, or spinach salad.
The meatballs are one of my favorite lunch items, too. They freeze well and taste great after reheating. Stuff one of these into your lunchbox with steamed rice and some stir fried greens, and you’ll make all of your colleagues jealous when you heat it up in the office microwave.
Afterthought
My mom once told me, making the meatballs tender was not the original intention of adding so many other ingredients to the pork. It’s because pork was in short supply when she was a kid, so her parents needed to find a way to make these meatballs more filling with limited ingredients. Thus, the moist and tender texture of the meatballs was just a nice side effect of living poor. Even now, my family still enjoys cooking with this recipe. It tastes like home.
Other delicious pork recipes
- Chinese Braised Pork Trotters (红烧猪蹄)
- Pork Liver Stir Fry (炒猪肝)
- Pork and Chive Dumplings (猪肉韭菜水饺)
- Pork Chop Suey
- Sweet and Sour Ribs (糖醋小排)
- Jing Jiang Rou Si (Peking Shredded Pork, 京酱肉丝)
Lion’s Head Meatballs (狮子头, Shi Zi Tou)
Ingredients
- 1 lb (450 g) ground pork
- 4 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 3 tablespoons light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt (*Footnote 1)
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger
- 4 green onions , minced
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 12 (one 8-oz / 227-g can) water chestnuts , finely chopped
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup (50 g) panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
Instructions
Prepare the meatballs
- Add ground pork into a large bowl. Add 4 tablespoons of water. Mix well with a spatula until water is fully incorporated.
- Add Shaoxing wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, salt, sugar, grated ginger, cornstarch, and scallion. Mix well.
- Add water chestnuts and eggs. Mix a few times. Then add panko. Mix well.
- At the end, add sesame oil. Mix until it forms a soft paste.
Cook the meatballs
- Heat the oil in a medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Turn to medium heat.
- Brown the meatballs in batches. Scoop 1/3 cup of the ground meat mixture and shape it into a meatball. The meatball will be quite soft, barely able to hold its shape (so the finished meatballs will be tender and juicy). If the meatballs are too hard to handle and cannot hold their shape, add a bit more panko and mix again.
- Carefully place 3 to 4 meatballs in the skillet and make sure to leave enough space to flip them. When the bottom side turns golden brown, carefully roll the ball with a spatula to cook the other sides. Continue to do this until at least two sides are set and browned (*see footnote 2). Transfer to a deep plate or a bowl that can fit into your steamer rack. Continue to brown the rest of the meatballs.
- Steam the browned meatballs in batches. Heat water in a steamer until boiling. Place the plate of meatballs on the steaming rack and place the steaming rack onto the steamer. Cook covered until the meatballs are cooked through, 30 minutes or so.
- Cook the rest of the batches using the same method. After cooking the first batch, check the water level and add more if it runs too low. Serve hot as a main.
Storage and reheat
- Store the meatballs in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months. After steaming, the meatballs will render some fat and liquid. Drizzle it onto the meatballs before storage, to keep them tender and moist.
- The best way to reheat the meatballs is by steaming, the same method used to cook them. The meatballs will be heated evenly and still be moist inside. Alternatively, you can use the microwave. Make sure the container has some liquid (leftover grease or 1 teaspoon water) in it. Place a loose lid on top and heat it up in the microwave.
Notes
- I reduced the salt from my original recipe, since I received some feedback stating the meatballs were too salty. I think the current salt level (1 1/4 teaspoons) is great if you serve the meatballs as a main dish with greens. If you want to serve it with rice, consider using 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
- It can be difficult to keep the meatballs round shaped, because the meat mixture is quite runny. You need to handle them gently, so the balls won’t break apart. You can cook the top and bottom sides first, like cooking a very thick burger patty. Then you can use two spatulas to let the meatball stand, to cook the edges. The meatballs won’t look very pretty, but will still taste great.
Hi Maggie! I would love to try this recipe and I have all the ingredients. The only issue is I only have salted ShaoXing Wine. Would you be able to suggest how to alter the soysauce/wine ratio to accommodate for this? It sounds so good and I am eager to try it. I
Hi Maggie, just letting you know what a success these meatballs were! Tender, juicy, and savory! Definitely followed your advice on the salt since I used salted shaoxing wine and it was perfect. Looking forward to trying out your other recipes.
looks awesome can’t wait to try
I love all of your recipes you’re a great cook.
Just wanted to say thank you for posting this. I have made this multiple times and it’s absolutely perfect each time. Ive never used chestnuts cos I personally hate them, but ive usually replace it with chinese cabbage and once i even replaced it with kale! It always turns out awesome. Also i skip the pan fry step and just place the balls on a plate lined with chinese cabbage leaves and put it straight into the steamer. Its authentic chinese home cooked steamed meat balls!! Just made them for lunch and as usual they were fab. Thanks!
I not only made this recipe for the first time, but it’s also my first time making Chinese meatballs ever. I used Turkey instead of pork because I had it on hand. They recipe was easy to follow, pretty quick to pull together and the final result was delicious, moist meatballs!! Great recipe!!
Maggie this was so nice.I love chestnuts in it.I never had a steamer but Google told me if I had a casserole dish which I have and boil water in it have a wire rack and put meat balls on and cover with baking paper to steam,It worked so good and made the meat balls so nice over rice.Love your dishes Maggie.
Thanks so much for leaving comment and I’m glad you enjoyed the dish 🙂 Also that is a great tip! I will remember it and recommend to people who do not have a steamer. 🙂
Wow! And wow again! Never heard of or tried this before. Amazing.
Hi Maggie. I’m looking forward to trying these meatballs. I usually bake meatballs. Can these be baked instead of fried?
These meatballs are a lot softer than the baked type and I do not recommend baking. They will probably collapse, the outside won’t be browned properly and the inside drier.
That being said, if you decided to bake them, I can’t wait to hear your feedback 🙂 Happy cooking!
I live in Houston and would love to find the wine. Where do you shop for it?
There is Ranch 99 in Houston where you can find everything 🙂
Made these to freeze and a 1/4 cup size instead of the recipe 1/3, my lovely enjoyed the crunch of the water chestnuts. Very easy recipe. Thank you Maggie
These meatballs are excellent, so tender and flavorful.
the meatballs are tender but way too salty
This looks so delicious, Maggie! Could you sub the pork for ground chicken or turkey? I really like the idea of the water chestnuts and my husband loves them.
I think ground turkey will work nicely because it’s a bit fattier than ground chicken and more flavorful. If you decided to try out the recipe, let me know how it goes!
Is the egg used here as a binder? Can I use flax egg?
We’ve got one child with an egg allergy
Yes, the egg is used as a binder. You can use flax egg. As long as you whisk the ground meat very well, it should become sticky and bind together.
This recipe was great, my meatballs were cracking a bit and maybe it’s because I didn’t stir enough or make the batter “paste” like enough, to bind the meat together. The flavor is great and really authentic, taste like my childhood. There are a lot of other receipts that have less soy sauce in the actual meatball, but if you’re serving this without another braising sauce, it’s perfect.
These are easily the tastiest, juiciest meatballs I have ever made; I followed the recipe to the T, except in one thing – where I live, it’s really hard to get water chestnuts, so I looked for a sub. As I understand, water chestnuts are in fact nothing like chestnuts, and different sites recommend either omitting them or using vegetables such as turnips instead. I’ve made them three times so far, once with turnips, and two times with kohlrabi; obviously, I have no idea what they would taste like with actual water chestnuts, but as far as flavor goes, I have to say these are spectacular. Thank you for another foolproof recipe!
The meatballs turned out very moist and delicious. Will definitely make again.
I can’t wait to try this! Have you ever refrigerated the mixture before making the meatballs? I often do this with my Italian meatballs and it makes it MUCH easier to form and cook them.
I have not but it sounds like a good idea! Let me know how it goes and happy cooking 🙂
I am making this soon!
Just steaming this and I’m sure it will be delicious. I must point out that in the recipe you list: “1 cup (100 g) panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)”. This is a huge amount to add so I checked and 1 cup is 50g. I’ve gone with 50g as I think it would be too dry with 100g. Is this something that needs correcting.
Thanks so much for pointing out the panko measurement! I double checked again and it was indeed 50 g. I have updated the recipe to reflect the correct number.
I’m glad to hear you liked the dish! Yes, I do think you can simply steam the meatballs and have a nice result 🙂