Yu Xiang eggplant features crispy eggplant covered in a sticky sweet, sour, savory and slightly spicy sauce. A signature Sichuan dish that turns eggplant haters into eggplant lovers. {Vegetarian Vegan Adaptable, Gluten-Free Adaptable}
Yu Xiang eggplant (鱼香茄子), or Sichuan eggplant stir fry, is one of those under-appreciated Sichuan dishes that deserves more attention. Throughout the years, whenever I took a foreign friend or colleague to a Sichuan restaurant in Beijing, this stir fry was always one of the most popular dishes on the table.
What is yu xiang?
Yu xiang literally translates as “fish-fragrant” in Chinese, which might not sound as appetizing as the dish tastes.
In fact, fish-fragrant eggplant has nothing to do with fish.
According to folklore, a housewife was cooking eggplant for dinner and did not want to waste the leftover sauce used in a fish dish. The sauce was designed to cover up the fishiness and muddiness of river fish, so it was extra fragrant. The dish turned out so well and her husband loved it more than the original fish dish. Thus, the dish was named yú xiāng or “fish-fragrant” as an homage to the delicious sauce.
Yu xiang flavor is one of the seven key flavors in Sichuan cuisine. It contains soy sauce, Chinkiang vinegar, sugar, fermented spicy bean paste (dòubànjiàng), chili peppers, and a generous amount of fresh garlic, ginger and onion. It results in a well-balanced, sweet and sour spicy sauce that is bursting with umami. The taste might be considered similar to General Tso’s sauce, only 10 times more flavorful.
Yu xiang eggplant ingredients
What type of eggplant to use
The best eggplant for making yu xiang eggplant is Chinese eggplant or Japanese eggplant (they are very similar).
The long and skinny Asian eggplant contains less moisture than the Western type, which results in a crispier texture in the stir fry. However, you can also use Western eggplant by following the salt water soaking method in this recipe.
The best vinegar to use
Some yu xiang eggplant recipes call for rice vinegar. But if you really want the rich tangy taste like the restaurant version has, you should use Chinkiang vinegar instead.
Chinkiang vinegar (Zhenjiang vinegar, 镇江香醋) is a type of Chinese black vinegar. It is made from various grains and is aged until the color turns dark brown or inky black. It has a rich, pungent, and tart flavor, sometimes with a hint of sweetness. It has a fermented malty taste and a woody character that distinguish it from the light-colored and fruity rice vinegar.
These days it’s quite easy to find it in an Asian market and even at regular grocery stores. You can also shop for it on Amazon.
Doubanjiang
Doubanjiang (豆瓣酱), also called fermented spicy bean paste, is a key ingredient for the ultimate umami. It is a super rich, fermented, spicy paste made with dried fava beans, fresh chili peppers, salt, and wheat flour, then aged for one to eight years. Doubanjiang has a deep savory, spicy, and quite salty taste. It is a key ingredient in classic Sichuan dishes such as Mapo Tofu.
You can find it in an Asian market, on Amazon, or at Mala Market.
Sichuan peppercorns
Sichuan peppercorn (Hua Jiao, 花椒) is optional but I highly recommend adding it if you have it on hand. The taste of fresh Sichuan peppercorn is almost indescribable: numbing, tingling, and somewhat refreshing like mint. These peppercorns add a savory, smoky, and slightly citrusy flavor to a dish, and it’s that flavor that defines genuine Sichuan food. I consider it even more important than Sichuan chili peppers, truly distinguishing the dish and giving it a character unlike anything else. It’s a key ingredient in many classic Sichuan dishes such as Dan Dan Noodles, Mala Chicken, and Red Oil Wontons.
I highly recommend you purchase Sichuan peppercorns from Mala Market. They carry the freshest Sichuan peppercorns in the US, sourced directly from Sichuan. It truly makes a world of difference.
Mise en place
When you’re ready to cook yu xiang eggplant, your table should have:
- Mixed sauce
- Ground meat
- Aromatics (ginger, garlic, green onion)
- Sichuan spices (Doubanjiang, Sichuan peppercorns, dried chili pepper)
How to make yu xiang eggplant
- Pan fry the eggplant until crispy
- Sear the ground meat
- Add the aromatics
- Cook with doubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorn
- Thicken the sauce
- Add the cooked eggplant back in
The secret to cooking perfect eggplant on the stovetop
Eggplant is one of the trickiest vegetables to cook with, though the result is super rewarding if you do it right. In the past, I’ve discovered the method of creating crispy eggplant on the stovetop without deep-frying. The key is to marinate the eggplant in salted water and then dust it with cornstarch before searing it on a flat-bottom pan. You can read my Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce recipe to view the details.
With this technique the eggplant pieces turn out extra crispy with a tender inside. Better still, you can use regular Western eggplant instead of Asian eggplant, and it will work perfectly!
It proves again that you can cook perfect yu xiang eggplant if you follow the right method. Next time you don’t need to make the extra trip to the Asian market to make this hearty dish.
How to keep the purple color of the eggplant?
The yu xiang eggplant from a Chinese restaurant has a beautiful bright purple color. It is achieved by flash frying (过油, Guo You) – the eggplant pieces are quickly fried in a pool of oil in a wok, until the outside is crispy and the inside is al dente. Many dishes use this method to preserve the color of the vegetable while maintaining a great texture.
I do not use the flash frying method at home because it requires a lot of oil. It is quite messy for a home kitchen, and creates a lot of smoke.
The pan frying method cuts the oil to a minimum, and the result is still great. To preserve the eggplant color, try cooking the eggplant until al dente instead of turning tender fully, for the best color.
How to serve yu xiang eggplant
Yu xiang eggplant is a very satisfying dish that you can serve as a main dish over steamed rice. In China, this one is a lunch set menu favorite!
Of course you can also serve yu xiang eggplant as part of a multi-course meal. For a full-on Sichuan dinner, serve this one along with dishes such as Pickled Cabbage, Mala Chicken (La Zi Ji), Dry Fried Green Beans, Dan Dan Noodles, and Stir Fried Pea Shoots.
More vegetable main dishes
- Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce
- Di San Xian (Fried Potato, Eggplant and Pepper in Garlic Sauce 地三鲜)
- General Tso Tofu (Crispy Tofu without Deep Frying)
- Chinese Vegetarian Noodle Soup
- Vegetarian Chow Mein
Yu Xiang Eggplant (鱼香茄子, Sichuan Eggplant Stir Fry)
Ingredients
- 2 (400 g) Chinese eggplant , cut to bite-sized pieces (or regular eggplant) (*Footnote 1)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch (to coat the eggplant)
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons Chinkiang vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 cup chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
Cook
- 3 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 4 oz (110 g) ground pork (or chicken) (*Footnote 2) (Optional)
- 2 green onions , sliced
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger , minced
- 8 to 10 dried Chinese chili peppers
- 2 teaspoons doubanjiang
- 1/4 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorn (Optional)
Instructions
- Place eggplant in a large bowl and add water to cover. Add 1 teaspoon salt, mix well. Place a plate on top so the eggplant pieces are submerged in the water. Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes while preparing the other ingredients. Once done, drain and pat dry with paper towels.
- Add all the sauce ingredients into a bowl. Stir to mix well.
- Sprinkle eggplant with cornstarch and mix by hand, until eggplant is evenly coated.
- Add 2 tablespoons of the oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat until hot. Spread eggplant across the bottom of the skillet without overlapping. Cook the eggplant, stirring occasionally, until the edge of the eggplant is lightly charred and the texture just starts to soften, 5 minutes or so. Transfer to a plate. If the skillet gets too hot and starts to smoke, turn to medium heat.
- Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and the ground meat. Cook and chop the pork into smaller pieces, until fully cooked.
- Add green onion, garlic, ginger and chili pepper. Stir a few times to release fragrance.
- Add the doubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorns. Stir and cook until the pork is evenly coated.
- Stir the sauce again to completely dissolve the cornstarch, then pour into the pan. Stir until the sauce thickens. Return the eggplant to the pan and quickly stir to mix everything well. Serve hot as a main dish or side dish.
Notes
- Long Asian eggplant (Chinese or Japanese eggplant) works the best and the soaking step can be skipped if you are using one of those two kinds. You can use regular Western eggplant instead. But make sure you use the salt soaking method if using regular eggplant.
- You can skip the ground meat to make a vegan dish and the sauce will still be very tasty.
I have just finished scraping the pan out with fist-fulls of scrunched rice. This recipe is so very, very good. Thank you so much for the work and time it took to develop this!!
I’m currently living and working in the middle of Congo during the Covid pandemic. I never thought I’d be able to enjoy something so authentic and delicious while living here. Even with my limited access to “speciality” ingredients (looking at you doubanjiang *sigh*) it was fabulous. Took me back to my favourite jiachang restaurant in TianTongYuan (shout out to all outside-ringroadfive-homies). To anyone who might be thinking of making this. Do it. Tonight. The eggplant cooking technique is perfect. Don’t change a thing. And please make sure you have some really decent white steamed rice. I’d recommend twice as much you make. You’ll need it.
it takes me quite a bit longer than the estimated time to make (mostly bc of batch cooking) but this recipe is so incredible, thank you!! i’ve made twice now and it is so so good. i’ve done it with both ground pork and finely minced mushrooms and it’s better than restaurant quality!
Delicious, thank you for all the tips!
Could I use chicken instead of pork?
Yes! Chicken would work great.
The best Yuxian Eggplant recipe anywhere, and I’ve tried so many!! Couldn’t believe how easy it was to achieve the perfect texture and with so little oil too. I used ground beef which turned out beautifully. THANK YOU Maggie! Your recipes consistently deliver successful meals for my family!
OMG where has this recipe been all my life? I love chinese eggplant with spicy sauce and this recipe is absolutely by far the best I have ever made. Soaking the eggplant–perfect. Putting in the eggplant last into the sauce–perfect. The eggplant was nice and crispy on the outside and super moist on the inside. I made one change–I put sliced chicken instead of ground pork and it worked perfectly. The chinese vinegar is sweeter than regular vinegar but it gave it a great taste. Thanks for a fantastic recipe
This was really delicious. Did I miss the part where the peppercorns go back in the pan? I wasn’t sure, so I added it with the scallions, ginger and garlic.
This is very tasty and a welcome edition to the recipe collection for eggplant which our garden seems to produce at a great rate.
However, points 5-9 need some editing – conflicting instructions.
So happy to hear you liked the dish and thanks for letting me know about the mistake! Sorry about the confusion. I have updated the recipe with the correct instructions.
Unbelievable recipe…best chinese eggplant dish ever ty so much
Hi Maggie – I am about to make this for dinner and noticed
– When do we add the dried chillies. In step 7 did you mean add chillies iso the sichuan peppercorns?
– There is no Footnote 3
– I think I am going to season the pork mince a bit with salt and pepper before frying
Am sure it will be delicious as all your recipes are…
Hi Michael, sorry about the confusion! I just udpate the recipe to reflect the correct instructions. (There is no footnote 3)
Orignally I used a slightly method – adding whole Sichuan peppercorns to infuse the oil, then scoop them out. But now I’m using the ground peppercorns instead for a better result.
Re season the pork – sounds tasty and it’s a great idea!
Happy cooking and hope you enjoy the dish 🙂
Excellent recipe! This will go into my “keeper”file.
The recipe works great! good technique with soaking eggplant in salted water,
It could use more heat and tang ( spice & black vinegar)
Perfect in every way. The local dim sum place near me makes this eggplant stir fry but at over $20 with tip I can’t have it as often as I’d like. After investing in some of the less common Chinese ingredients over the past few years, I was able to make this at home for under $5 all in! It was SO delicious, perfectly sweet and sour and garlicky and umami. Amazing recipe!!
Thanks for the beautiful recipe, the only thing I changed was ground beef, and add water instead of wine and stock, it turned out so so delicious and amazing . I went to the store to grab the ingredients and its worth it, peppers and vinegar were the game changer. We will make it again for sure. Thanks
Thanks for using authentic ingredients! Amazing how bad most online recipes are for this. A couple changes I made:
1. Halve the sugar, unless you want that American style sweetness.
2. Sichuan Peppercorns make the dish! Get on amazon and order some. I would double the recipe amount.
3. Chilis don’t add much heat unless cut or ground, so this dish is quite mild as is. I lightly toast the chilis with double the peppercorns till fragrant and then grind 2-5 of them with the peppercorns. Add to taste, and useful if your family have different levels of heat tolerance. You can add more to your plate if you like it spicier or more numbing.
PS- The website is very glitchy on iPad (refreshing the page), making it hard to use and impossible to comment. Now, even on my desktop Safari warns “this webpage is using significant energy” and suggests closing it, I think due to the ads. Made me almost abandon your version.