50 Chinese Food Recipes That Beat Your Favorite Takeout

Chinese food recipes are best served hot and fresh. So, if you're bringing your takeout across town just to chow down, it's not the most ideal situation. It doesn't get any easier when you're living on a budget, either. That plate of sweet and sour chicken for under 10 dollars might sound good, but what if it's cold? Even reheating your Chinese leftovers has its pitfalls.

That's where home cooking — and this big range of recipes for Chinese and Chinese-American classics — comes in. Turns out, making your own fried rice is far cheaper and fresher than anything piled into takeout containers. You may not be able to get the real deal, but you'll be darn close and you'll be sporting some bragging rights for how you made some of the most amazing Chinese dishes out there right in your own home. Cooking from scratch also allows you to control some of the more unhealthy aspects of the popular dishes you know and love as well, from the amount of sodium in your soy sauce to whether or not you use MSG (which really you shouldn't be worried about, by the way).

The only question that's left is: What do you want for dinner tonight? Are you looking for crispy and saucy sesame chicken that takes under a half-hour to cook, or wondering how to get the lowdown on lo mein? Well, get cooking. It's time to talk the talk and to wok the wok with Chinese food recipes that beat your favorite takeout.

One of the most beautiful things about making fried rice is simply where it comes from. By using the dried-up leftover rice from the last time you ordered Chinese food for takeout, you get even more Chinese food. Brilliant!

By using the most basic quantities of fresh (or leftover, you do you) chicken and veggies, a couple of sauces, and some aromatics, you too can be chowing down on this chicken fried rice recipe within mere minutes. Once your prep in the kitchen is all lined up, which is known as mise en place, you may find the dish cooks up far faster than you anticipated!

Recipe: Chicken Fried Rice

This chicken stir fry recipe has to pretensions of being an authentic concoction, but don't think that means you can't do it. Stir frying is a fast and effective cooking technique, and this recipe is among many out there that introduces you to the basics of an incredibly versatile way to cook up every last scrap of vegetable and protein in your fridge. Best of all, it's a great way to cook up dinner if you've got a lot of mouths to feed at the same time, as this recipe is fit for eight servings right out of the pan.

Recipe: Chicken Stir Fry

Spicy chicken potstickers like these can make for a nice platter of appetizers, but we won't blame you if you fix up and chow down on a bunch of them yourself. You can also freeze a bunch for later, as there are just that many to make here. Stuffed with ground chicken, cabbage, carrot, shitake mushrooms, and sweet potato vermicelli, these dumplings are both light and filling. Whether you take them boiled or fried, we're positive you'll return to this recipe again and again. Intimidated by making dumplings from scratch for the first time? No sweat, as the process isn't that hard, to begin with, and gets even easier as you go.

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Potstickers

It takes a lot of guts to say your recipe will put an order of the same thing for takeout to shame, but that's what this recipe for classic sesame chicken does and dang it, it delivers (no pun intended). Made in less than 10 steps and less than 30 minutes total, the only thing you really need to watch out for is when the oil gets hot. Just make sure to follow some of these tips for cooking with oil to keep you safe while keeping your food crispy. Once you've got that down, this recipe will help you reach sesame chicken glory.

Recipe: Classic Sesame Chicken

Once you whip up this recipe for beef and broccoli lo mein yourself, you'll wonder why you ever ordered it for takeout (or paid for it when you see just how cheap it is to make this dish). As it goes for any of these Chinese dishes, however, you need to make sure all your ingredients are chopped and ready to go before you start cooking. That way, you can make sure you can make it in the advertised timespan, which can start to move pretty fast when cooking gets underway. That's just labor, though — the fun part comes from both cooking this up and eating it.

Recipe: 20-Minute Beef and Broccoli Lo Mein

A pillar of the dim sum experience, har gow — or shrimp dumplings — are undeniably delicious. But why wait until an occasion comes up to enjoy them when you just can make them yourself in the comfort of your own home? We're not talking about stuffing a bunch of chopped shrimp in some wonton wrappers, either. With this recipe for Cantonese-style shrimp dumplings, you're even making the wrappers from scratch! As technical as that may sound, it still only takes under an hour to put together a tasty dim sum experience for yourself.

Recipe: Cantonese-Style Shrimp Dumplings

Because of its deconstructed presentation and the removal of a deep-fried wrapper, this recipe for egg roll in a bowl isn't exactly an example of traditional Chinese takeout. However, it's still a delicious stir fry at heart that we'll make for dinner any day of the week. The recipe calls for a 20-minute burst of cooking that results in a sweet, sour, and salty dish you can wrap up and fry before digging in. That said, it's perfectly fine to eat over fresh rice, too. If you do want to want to wrap it up, however, feel free to skip the original recipe's garnish!

Recipe: Egg Roll in a Bowl

Fried rice is a classic "use up the leftovers" dish that can repurpose anything from leftover steak to fried shrimp. But what if you have no leftovers to supply the protein, or else you're having a meatless Monday? That's no problem at all, as long as you have a carton of incredible, edible eggs on hand. Scramble a few eggs, stir in some cooked rice and sliced green onions, season with soy sauce, then grab your chopsticks and dig in! (A spoon works, too.)

Recipe: Easy Egg Fried Rice

Is fried rice still fried rice if you're actually pressure-cooking it in an Instant Pot? Well, technically, no, but we'll set aside this semantic quibble when it comes to this shrimp "fried" rice recipe as it's tasty enough to earn a pass. It's not exactly "instant," either, as it will take about half an hour to prepare, but this includes fully cooking the rice. In fact, our estimate even accounts for the pressure cooker's needing to let off steam. As any Instant Pot owner knows, the steam release may be the most time-consuming part of any recipe involving this appliance.

Recipe: Instant Pot Shrimp Fried Rice

Stir fries are one of the simplest dishes a home cook can make, and they can be thrown together in minutes. All you need to do, as the name implies, is to add some chopped meat and veggies to a hot pan and stir until they're cooked. If you want a dish with some real flavor, though, you'll need to mix in a few condiments. There are numerous options you can use, ranging from Sriracha to fish sauce to rice wine, but if you want something sweet, salty, and super-simple, this 3-ingredient sauce may be just what you're looking for. It's a combo of soy sauce and sugar, while the third ingredient, cornstarch, not only thicken the sauce but the entire stir-fry.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Stir Fry Sauce

Congee is not a dish that's found on the menus of too many Chinese restaurants in the U.S., but then, how many of them are open for breakfast? This rice porridge is pretty much the Chinese answer to oatmeal — different grain, somewhat similar texture. Unlike oatmeal, though, congee isn't usually served with milk and sugar, much less flavored with maple and cinnamon. Instead, it's more often salted and may be topped with savory add-ons such as soy sauce, sesame oil, green onions, or a soft-cooked egg.

Recipe: Congee

How much fun is mei fun? Quite a bit, actually. If you're not familiar with it, it's one of numerous Chinese noodle-based dishes, and in this case, the noodles are made of rice. In this recipe, noodles get stir-fried with pork, eggs, carrots, cabbage, bean sprouts, and green onions, but you can swap out the meat or vegetables for whatever you have on hand, or even use it to re-purpose a leftover roast or veggies that may be starting to go soft in your produce bin.

Recipe: Quick Pork Mei Fun

Moo goo gai pan is a mild-flavored Cantonese dish with a name that means something along the lines of "chicken and sliced mushrooms." It comes as no surprise, then, that this dish includes both ingredients, but our recipe calls for a whole bunch of additional produce, as well: carrots, celery, snow peas, water chestnuts, and green onions. Been skimping on your vegetables lately? This moo goo gai pan will help you atone for that omission.

Recipe: Easy Moo Goo Gai Pan

Mongolian beef is one of those country-named dishes that really don't have anything to do with the country at all, as it's no more Mongolian than German chocolate cake is German. We're not sure what inspired the name, but it was created in Taiwan and popularized in America. Just to keep the fusion train rolling, we bring you a version created by a British recipe developer — the "chilli flakes" she calls for are what we call crushed red pepper, aka chiles. (One-l "chili," in U.S. English, refers to the dish, not the pepper.) Whatever its provenance may be, though, this Mongolian beef recipe makes for a tasty ginger and garlic-flavored crockpot beef stew.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

What is shabu shabu? Does it come from Bora Bora? Or perhaps from Walla Walla? No, and — true confession — it's actually not Chinese, either. Instead, shabu shabu is a Japanese version of hot pot, but it is fairly similar to the types of hot pot you might enjoy in a Chinese restaurant. While some of the ingredients called for in this recipe are kind of specialized, you can always skip the fish cakes and/or the daikon, sub in spinach for the chrysanthemum greens, and use just one kind of mushroom instead of the three different varieties used here. Hot pot, after all, is meant to be a forgiving dish where you make use of whatever's on hand.

Recipe: Easy Shabu Shabu

Egg rolls might seem like something you'd only buy from a supermarket freezer case or tack on to a takeout order, but they're actually not all that difficult to make at home. Well, it might be kind of tricky if you want to go 100% scratch and make your own egg roll wrappers, in which case, we wish you the best of luck. For a far easier version, however, you can save yourself the trouble and use store-bought wrappers instead. Add your choice of fillings (such as the ground pork/cabbage mixture suggested here), roll them up, then deep-fry them for a tasty, crispy snack.

Recipe: Delicious Egg Roll

Okay, we all know that General Tso's chicken isn't the most authentic Chinese food out there, but it's still pretty darn tasty. If you're embarrassed to order General Tso's when you're out because you feel you must opt for something trendier like mapo tofu, that's ok, you can still make this dish at home and enjoy it in judgement-free solo splendor. It requires no ingredients more specialized than the widely-available hoisin sauce and can be made from chicken thighs for a budget-friendly indulgence.

Recipe: Homemade General Tso's Chicken

Egg foo young may not be the kind of dish they eat in China, but it's an American Chinese classic, and for a very good reason. After all, it's made with the most budget-friendly of ingredients: eggs and leftovers! While this particular recipe calls for using pricier ingredients such as shrimp and Chinese cooking wine, feel free to skip the latter and swap the former for last night's Costco rotisserie chicken to make a low-cost version instead. Serve your egg foo young with a side of rice for a cheap, belly-filling meal.

Recipe: Egg Foo Young

While many egg roll recipes call for pork, chicken makes for a less-fatty filling. To make things even simpler, these egg rolls are made with ground chicken so there's no need to pull or shred the meat. The filling is padded out with budget-friendly shredded cabbage and carrots and flavored with garlic and ginger. Using store-bought wrappers makes these egg rolls easy to put together, and after a few minutes of frying they'll be ready to eat. They're tasty on their own, but even better with your choice of duck sauce or hot Chinese mustard. (Scroll down for an easy DIY version of the latter condiment.)

Recipe: Easy Chicken Egg Roll

While stir fries are often thought of as quick and easy one-pan meals, you can also do an all-vegetable one to work as a side dish. This recipe calls for baby corn, carrots, sugar snap peas, and zucchini, but you can exchange any or all of these for onions, mushrooms, peppers, water chestnuts, bok choy, or any other vegetables you enjoy in a stir-fry. If you want to make this into a meal, you can add your protein of choice to the vegetables as they are sauteing. Should you have cooked meat on hand, stir it into the vegetables when they're done.

Recipe: Simple Vegetable Stir Fry

Szechuan cooking is often spicy, but it may also involve a complex interplay of different flavors. While it doesn't require a laundry list of ingredients, this Szechuan beef dish still includes a variety of different taste sensations. The spiciness comes from three different ingredients: chili oil, crushed red pepper, and Szechuan peppercorns. Salt comes into play from the soy sauce, while brown sugar sweetens things up and mirin adds a certain je ne sais quoi. If you have no Szechuan peppercorns on hand, you can use a blend of dried coriander seed and black pepper, while dry sherry or white wine can be substituted for the mirin.

Recipe: Spicy Szechuan Beef

Egg rolls make for a great party snack ... well, sometimes. Not the kind that go from the freezer into the microwave — those are just limp, soggy, and sad. Sure, you can up your egg roll game by deep-frying the frozen ones, but if you really want to wow your guests, you can make these homemade mini egg rolls with a delicious shrimp filling. A note for the budget-conscious: Sure, shrimp aren't the cheapest protein for feeding a crowd, but the cabbage, noodles, and bean sprouts used in the egg roll filling go a long way toward stretching out the spendy shellfish.

Recipe: Crunchy Mini Shrimp Egg Rolls

Pineapple fried rice may be a Thai dish, but it's a spin on a Chinese classic so we're claiming it for this recipe roundup. In addition to fresh pineapple chunks, this rice dish also includes onions, carrots, and bell peppers, with Sriracha, fish sauce, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce providing the flavoring. As-is, this rice dish could be the perfect side for an Asian or Hawaiian meal, but it would make for an amazing main course if you added some shrimp or chicken to the mix.

Recipe: 20-Minute Pineapple Fried Rice

Tofu is pressed into a plethora of purposes these days, used to make non-dairy ice creams, condiments, and scrambled egg substitutes to the point where we tend to think of it as yet another lab-created all-purpose plant-based stand-in. It's actually quite an ancient ingredient, though, one that originated in China many centuries before the word "vegan" came into our lexicon. Take tofu back to its simpler roots with this basic preparation that stir-fries it with spices and vegetables.

Recipe: Salt And Pepper Tofu

Ok, you caught us -– yes, we know, gyoza is technically a Japanese dish, not a Chinese one. But wait, hear us out! These dumplings may well have originated in China and then been introduced to Japan via travelers (merchants, soldiers, wandering minstrels, or what have you — people in the ancient world got around a lot more than we give them credit for). The pork, cabbage, mushrooms, onions, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, garlic, and ginger used in the filling are all well-known in Chinese cooking, while the preparation method of wrapping the dumplings in dough and frying/steaming them is pretty popular throughout Asia, if not the entire world.

Recipe: Authentic Fried Pork Gyoza