Five Spice Powder is probably one of the most well-known Chinese seasoning blends, and a popular shortcut for getting that signature flavor.
What is five spice powder made of?
We did an informal audit of five spice powders, and it’s usually a combination of: Chinese cinnamon, fennel seed, star anise, and cloves. When it comes to the fifth spice, it can be a bit of a wild card between ginger, white pepper, and Sichuan peppercorns!
That said, the beauty of this recipe is that there’s some wiggle room based on what spices you have on hand, and you can cater them to your taste.
Some of you may have also heard of another less common Chinese spice, thirteen-spice powder. If you want to recreate that recipe at home, that one will be a biiiit more complicated as you can imagine. It may include Chinese black cardamom (tsaoko/cao guo), amomum fruit, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, star anise, fennel, costus root, angelica, galangal, sand ginger, and regular ginger.
Our Five Spice Powder Recipe
Like I said, five spice powder has four core ingredients: cinnamon, fennel, star anise, and cloves—the last one can be up to you! That said, I like the dimension that Sichuan pepper powder adds. Sand ginger also adds a particularly good flavor, but I’ve included it as optional.
We started with a mix of powders and whole spices and used our blender to combine everything into a fine powder. You can also use a spice grinder if you have one, or just buy the individual powders and combine them (as long as they’re fresh!).
I know some of you may also want to multiply this recipe, so I’ve included standard tablespoon/teaspoon measurements as well as ratios, so you can make equivalents according to other units of measure.
How to Use Five Spice Powder
Some of our favorite recipes rely on five spice powder!
There are weeknight favorites like Quick and Easy Asian Pork Chops and Five Spice Chicken, for example. There are also authentic classics like Cantonese Roast Pork, our Easy Peking Duck with Mandarin Pancakes, and Char Siu BBQ Pork (you can also make Char-Siu Style Oven Baked Ribs!).
Then there are some fusion-inspired recipes like Five Spice Roast Turkey, and Five Spice Fried Chicken Drumsticks.
Experiment at home, and let us know what your favorite five spice powder recipe is!
How to Make Five Spice Powder: Instructions
Gather your cinnamon, fennel seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves, star anise, and sand ginger (if using). Take any of the whole spices you have and toast them in a dry pan over low heat until fragrant.
Transfer to a blender or spice grinder, and blend all the spices into a fine powder.
Store in a sealed container away from heat or light. Use within 24 months. Recipe makes about 1/3 cup.
How to Make Five Spice Powder
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground Chinese cassia cinnamon (1 part)
- 2 tablespoons fennel seeds (2 parts)
- 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns (1 part)
- 1 teaspoon cloves (1/3 part)
- 4 star anise (for calculations, consider this equivalent to 1 part)
- 1 tablespoon sand ginger powder (1 part; equivalent to about 4 grams dried sand ginger slices, optional)
Instructions
- Gather your cinnamon, fennel seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves, star anise, and sand ginger (if using). Take any of the whole spices you have and toast them in a dry pan over low heat until fragrant.
- Transfer to a blender or spice grinder, and blend all the spices into a fine powder. Store in a sealed container away from heat or light. Use within 24 months.
Star Anise doesn’t agree wth me. Can I leave it out of the recipe?
Hi Nancy, star anise is a very important ingredient in five spice powder, but I understand that if you don’t like it, you can leave it out. This homemade recipe is perfect for you, as you can make your own customized five spice powder to your taste and liking ;-)
Can you let me know the exact unit of measurements (like g) or whatsoever of each ingredients to make the five spice powder?
Hi Kelly, because the recipe relies on relative ratios, you can start with a base quantity of grams as equal to 1 then measure out each ingredient accordingly. Cheers!
Thanks for this recipe and taking the time to mention the differences between cinnamons and gingers.
I discovered your blog a few months ago when trying to find a recipe for general tso’s sauce to make a variation at home that more suited my tastes, and I’ve been hooked since. So easy to get distracted with all the useful information and the stories behind your family’s recipes.
The only downside is I’ve had to cut out rice, pasta and breads out of my diet for medical reasons, so some of most delicious looking recipes I won’t be cooking, but there’s plenty more to experiment with. I may just try to impress some coworkers with some homemade hot and sour soup soon.
I love grinding my own spice mixes and I think this weekend I’ll head up to the local “Chinatown Center” to get some ingredients. The helpful tips on finding the right ingredients are so helpful. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Jenn! I’m sorry to hear about the medical dietary restrictions, but it sounds like you’ve already found lots of things to make. Looking forward to hearing from you as you cook more in the comments! :)
This is timely. Went to make your char siu pork and realized I had No five spice.
Awesome, Kim! :)
What is Sand Ginger? Is there a substitute?
The ingredients have links to their (very useful) ingredient guide. It has details about Sand Ginger and other ingredients one may not be familiar with.
I use dried tangerine peel in mine……. Gives a little zing to it….
Hi Bernard, that’s a great idea! :) We’ll have to try that.
If I left out the cloves (allergy), is there a substitute?
Thanks
Hi Zee, not sure about that. You could experiment with a little bit of nutmeg—that’s the closest flavor that comes to mind—or just omit it and use one of the other spices like white pepper or extra sand ginger.
For what it’s worth, the only domestic source for dried sand ginger (either powdered or slices) is through Kalustyan’s online retail service in NY https://foodsofnations.com/?s=Kencur%2C+Lesser+Galangal+%28Sand+Ginger%29%2C+Powder&post_type=product&dgwt_wcas=1
If you know another, I’d appreciate knowing it.
https://www.amazon.com/Galangal-Lesser-Whole-Kosher-3-5oz/dp/B01LWSNEEM
Thank you, .
The spice mixture should be fresher in this recipe instead of buying a baggie and storing it on a shelf for a few years :-)
and as a side benefit to me I now know what Kentjoer/Kencur is in Chinese. A.k.a. sand ginger. I do a lot of Indonesian cooking and this spice has eluded me until now
Thank you.
Agreed, Gerrit! :)
How much msg would you use in a wok full of fried rice and vegetables ?
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None
Hi Donna, about a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon. You can add it to taste, as there’s already soy sauce in fried rice which adds to the salt content.