Sichuan dry fried green beans feature blistered green beans tossed with a savory aromatic sauce, making this dish too good to pass up! It’s an addictive side dish and substantial enough to serve as a main. {Vegan Adaptable, Gluten Free Adaptable}
Sichuan dry fried green beans, or Gan Bian Si Ji Dou (干煸四季豆), is a famous traditional Sichuan dish. The fresh green beans are roasted in a pan until blistered and beautifully charred, then tossed with ground pork, pickled mustard greens, ginger, garlic, chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, soy sauce, and wine for a rich and fragrant taste.
It is one of my favorite ways to cook green beans because it gives them a heavenly texture and a rich taste that goes so well with rice.
When I would host foreign colleagues and friends back in China, I took countless people to experience real Sichuan food. The Mala Chicken and Dan Dan Noodles might be the most famous ones. But at the end of the day, vegetable dishes like these dry fried green beans and Sichuan Eggplant always won everybody over and became their new favorite dishes.
Dry fried green beans ingredients
Sui Mi Ya Cai
Sui Mi Ya Cai (碎米芽菜), or Sichuan Sichuan fermented pickled mustard greens, is the secret ingredient that makes this dish very authentic.
The mustard greens are hand pickled, sliced, and dried. Then they are seasoned with salt and packed into ceramic pots to ferment for three to six months. After the first fermentation, they are boiled with brown sugar for eight to nine hours and then hung out to dry once more. In the final stage, these greens are sealed again with star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and other spices, for another three to six months.
The ingredient adds sweetness and a super umami to a dish to make it irresistible.
You can find Sui Mi Ya Cai at most Chinese markets and online.
If you have Sui Mi Ya Cai, it’s very easy to turn dry fried green beans into a vegan / vegetarian dish without compromising on flavor.
However, if you do not have this ingredient, I highly recommend adding ground meat to the dish to boost the flavor.
Mise en place
When you’re ready to cook, your table should have:
- Prepped green beans
- Ground meat
- Aromatics (ginger, garlic, dried chili pepper)
- Ground Sichuan peppercorns
- Sui Mi Ya Cai
- Seasonings (Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and sugar)
Ground pork is often used in this dish, but I’ve tried it with ground chicken, turkey and beef. They all work really well.
How to cook dry fried green beans
- Pan fry the green beans
- Take out the green beans once they are blistered and just turning tender
- Cook the ground meat, with Sichuan peppercorns and Sui Mi Ya Cai
- Add the aromatics
- Return the cooked green beans to the pan
- Add the rest of the seasonings and stir everything together
What is dry frying?
Dry frying, or Gan Bian (干煸), is a Chinese cooking technique. It is somewhere between pan searing and deep frying. But it uses less oil, with a longer cooking time, to cook vegetables or meat to slightly dehydrate them, thus creating a crispy and charred surface. The texture of dry-fried vegetables is similar to that of grilled ones, with a hint of smoky flavor.
Seasonings are added after dry-frying; in this recipe, soy sauce, dried chili peppers, and Szechuan peppercorns are used. The withered surface of the green beans holds the spices well, making for an appetizing, intense, and pungent flavor without using a ton of sauce.
How do I make this dish vegetarian / vegan?
The authentic version always uses ground pork as a way to enhance the flavor of the veggies. For a vegetarian alternative, you can choose from minced rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms, a bit more Sichuan pickled mustard greens, a spoonful of fermented black beans, or some fermented spicy bean paste (the dish will be slightly spicy).
Do I need to use a wok?
Yes and no.
In fact, the first part of the cooking, pan roasting the green beans, works better in a skillet than a wok. It provides a larger contact surface and the beans will be cooked more evenly.
Normally, the second part of the cooking is done in a wok, where you toss the green beans with pork and the rest of the spices. However, I’ve done various experiments and discovered that you can create great results using a skillet, as well. I highly recommend you stay with the skillet, especially if you have an electric stove. For more information, check out why you should stir fry with a frying pan instead of a wok.
Other delicious Sichuan recipes
- Sichuan Eggplant Stir Fry (鱼香茄子)
- Authentic Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐)
- Kung Pao Shrimp (宫爆虾球)
- Chinese Potato Stir Fry (炝炒土豆丝)
- Sichuan Spicy Wonton in Chili Oil (红油抄手)
- Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce (鱼香肉丝, Yu Xiang Rou Si)
Sichuan Dry Fried Green Beans (干煸四季豆)
Ingredients
- 1 lb (450 g) green beans , tough ends removed
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 4 oz (115 grams) ground pork (Optional but highly recommended) (*Footnote 1)
- 2 tablespoons Sichuan pickled mustard greens (Sui Mi Ya Cai) (*Footnote 2) (Optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorn
- 3 dried chili peppers (*Footnote 3)
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Pat the green beans dry with paper towels to prevent them from splattering.
- Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the green beans and a pinch of salt. Stir to coat well with oil. Spread the beans to prevent them from overlapping, as much as possible. Flip every 15 seconds or so. Cook and stir until some of the surface is brown and withered, and the green beans just start to turn soft, 6 to 8 minutes. If you prefer a softer texture, wait until most of the surfaces have charred, 10 to 12 minutes. Turn to medium heat if the pan starts to smoke too much. Transfer the green beans to a plate and set aside.
- Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, ground pork, pickled mustard greens, and the ground Sichuan peppercorns. Cook and chop the pork to separate it into small pieces, while mixing with the rest of the ingredients.
- When the surface of the pork has cooked, add the dried chili pepper, garlic, and ginger. Stir a few seconds to release the fragrance. Add back the green beans. Swirl in the Shaoxing wine, light soy sauce, and sugar. Cook and stir until the sauce is mostly absorbed, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Turn to low heat and carefully taste a green bean with some pork. Adjust seasoning by adding more salt, if needed. Transfer everything to a plate. Serve hot as a side dish or one of the main dishes of a multi-course meal.
Notes
- The purpose of ground pork is to add flavor and texture. It helps a lot, especially when you don’t use the Sui Mi Ya Cai (pickled mustard). You can also use ground chicken or ground beef instead of pork.
If you choose to skip the ground meat, I highly recommend adding Sichuan pickled mustard greens to enhance the flavor. If you do not have Sichuan pickled mustard greens, adding a bit of chicken bouillon, or 2 tablespoons of fermented black beans, or 1 tablespoon of fermented chili bean paste (Doubanjiang) will help develop the flavor too. - Sichuan pickled mustard greens add savory and sweetness to the dish, making it extra rich. If you do not have pickled mustard greens, 2 tablespoons of fermented black beans, or 1 tablespoon of fermented chili bean paste (Doubanjiang) will work great, too.
- The dried chili peppers add a fragrance and smokiness to the dish but not much in terms of heat. If you want the dish to be a bit spicy, break apart the chili peppers before adding them.
I made this without the pork because I’m a vegetarian, and it came out incredibly! Absolutely delicious; will 100% be making again!
This recipe is great. To accommodate my vegan partner I used Quorn Mince instead of pork and the texture works perfectly. I added more of the mustard greens as well, and a dollop of sambal paste I had on hand since sweet and spicy were base components already. Will be making again
I had this with my family at an authentic szechuan restaurant and loved it. Now I can make my own. This is my favourite way of making green beans. Thanks so much for sharing your delicious recipe.
Hi Maggie, Love this recipe! I want to make this recipe with the fermented black beans, but do they need to be soaked before you put them in the dish?
I prefer to soak them so they become a bit tender (you can even chop it after soaking for a finer texture). If you use them directly without soaking, the texture will be a bit tough and your dish will end up slightly saltier.
I accidentally ordered so many packets of sui mi ya cai and wasn’t sure what to do with them all after I used half of one of them for a dan dan noodles recipe, and then I found and tried this and my god. I may use them all up very soon because this is easily something I can picture myself making and loving every week. Thank you so much!
EXCELLENT!!! I bought a very good Sui Mi Ya Cai – decided, since it was my first time, to use 1/3 of the amount. and we didn’t have the peppercorns but I had some hot dried peppers from last year’s garden so I chopped those into 4 pieces and threw them in. The Sui Mi Ya Cai made the dish whole – really excellent. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes. I have a well-seasoned carbon steel big wok and a gas stove with a powerful burner so it was great. I’ve bookmarked your site – great stuff.
Hey Maggie had this recipe last night.I added a bit more Pork to make it into a meal.Green Beans have never tasted so nice.It was so nice with the sauce.Thanks Again.
This recipe is now in our regular rotation. I made it with thinly sliced beef and long beans. We didn’t have mustard greens but used chili sauce with beans for flavor. Will try with both pork and tofu in the future.
Made this for dinner tonight and really enjoyed it! I wish I’d made even more for leftovers tomorrow.
This recipe was great. I added a chopped medium onion (lightly sauteed) and some chili bean paste. We recently moved from a metropolitan area that had hundreds of great restaurants to a very rural small town with very limited dining options. I have been adding recipes to my repertoire over the past couple of months as we have missed having a large variety of dining options. This will definitely be a keeper. I truly appreciate your sharing your cooking experiences so that we can enjoy these authentic dishes. They definitely add culture to our lives in this rural paradise. Peace to you!
Made mostly as directed (4 oz pork instead of 8), added the lightly-crushed peppercorns back in at the end, and served over rice. A wonderful payoff for just a few ingredients and a little patience, and I’ll definitely try again when I can get my hands on the optional ingredients.
YES! I used mushroom,as suggested instead of pork. I almost finished the beans before the rixe finished
Where are the footnoets please?
It is under “Notes”, below the recipe instructions.
The recipe is nice, I love gan bian sijidou. However, the video that autoplays is incredibly disruptive, takes up a very large part of the screen on mobile and can’t even be closed like on other recipe websites. I ended up copying the text to my notes app and just referring to that because it was so irritating! Please consider allowing people to at least close or minimise the undesired videos if you absolutely feel the need to have autoplay videos on every page (which honestly is such a pet peeve of mine that puts me off certain websites).
Great dish!
Hi All, as I’ve cooked dry fried beans using the recipe with added variables I can say Five Stars . As a vegetarian I add carrots & potatoes But it would not have been possible without the structure of the original recipe
As usual everything I make from
Your recipes turn out awesome. So good just the right spice. The Sui Mi Ya Cai add that unique difference. I used red pepper flakes instead of the whole dried chilies. I just limited the amount. Thank you.
Super tasty, would definitely make it again. I added the Doubanjiang sauce and a little bit of dark soy sauce for color.
This was really good.