Sichuan Dry Fried Green Beans are a very popular dish both in China and here in the US, as Sichuan cuisine becomes more prevalent. This dish is also known as Szechuan dry-fried green beans of Chinese stir-fried green beans but if the restaurant is any good, they are prepared using the same method and quite tasty.
I’m always a little reluctant to order this dish in restaurants, however, because the green beans are deep-fried. (If you didn’t already know this distressing fact, sorry for being the whistle blower!)
Deep-frying makes a healthy ingredient very unhealthy, so I’ve been contemplating how to modify the recipe to make it healthy and simple to follow. It’s funny, because when you think about the name of the dish in Chinese, 干煸四季豆(ganbian sijidou), it literally means “dry seared.” So rather than deep-frying the green beans (a method used in restaurants because it’s a faster process), I did just that—seared them in a dry wok without oil. The outcome was brilliant.
Also, just as a shout out to any vegetarians and vegans, you can easily omit the ground pork (you can just omit it all together or replace it with more of the pickled suimi yacai). It will still be super tasty.
You’ll need:
- 1 lb green beans
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1/4 cup ground pork
- 2 garlic, smashed and coarsely diced
- 2 dried red hot peppers, de-seeded and diced
- 2 tablespoon of sui mi ya cai (碎米芽菜), store bought
- 1 teaspoon Chinese cooking wine/shaoxing wine
- 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
- A pinch of sugar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Heat your wok over high heat until just starting to smoke, and add the green beans and salt. Immediately lower the heat to medium low, and sear the green beans for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want to see small scorch marks on the green beans.
During this process, gather the rest of the ingredients and have them ready. This is always very important to Chinese cooking–the actually time on the stove is usually very short, so having everything prepared and ready to go is essential!
Once the beans are somewhat tender, take them out of the wok and set aside.
Heat the oil in your wok over medium high heat and brown the pork. It should only take a couple minutes.
Add the garlic and chili, and stir for 30 seconds.
Add the sui mi ya cai, and stir everything together. Cook for another minute.
Toss in the seared green beans, cooking wine, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. Crank the heat back up to high and stir-fry for a final minute.
And you’re done! Wasn’t that fast? Serve these healthy Sichuan Dry Fried Green Beans immediately.
Sichuan Dry Fried Green Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound green beans (450g)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1/4 cup ground pork
- 2 garlic (smashed and coarsely diced)
- 2 dried red hot peppers (de-seeded and diced)
- 2 tablespoon sui mi ya cai (碎米芽菜, store bought)
- 1 teaspoon shaoxing wine
- 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Heat your wok over high heat until just starting to smoke, and add the green beans and salt. Immediately lower the heat to medium low, and sear the green beans for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want to see small scorch marks on the green beans. During this process, gather the rest of the ingredients and have them ready. Once the beans are somewhat tender, take them out of the wok and set aside.
- Heat the oil in your wok over medium high heat and brown the pork. Add the garlic and chili, and stir for 30 seconds. Add the sui mi ya cai, and stir everything together. Cook for another minute.
- Toss in the seared green beans, cooking wine, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. Crank the heat back up to high and stir-fry for a final minute. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Kahrin says
These were really good. I had to use TIANJIN PRESERVED VEGETABLES Tianjin Preserved Vegetables because my Chinese store didn’t have the Sui Mi Ya Cai. When I asked about these two ingredients the two ladies behind the counter gave me a funny look and asked what the heck I was trying to make. I showed them the recipe and they said wow and how unusual that was. I think they were impressed
Elsie says
This was insanely delicious!
Judy says
Awesome!
Elsie says
Actually the review I wrote was meant for this recipe:
https://thewoksoflife.com/dry-fried-string-beans-sichuan/
Is the taste significantly different between the two? Since I loved that one so much, I don’t know if I want to miss a chance to eat it by trying this one.
Judy says
Hi Elsie, they are both very good. You can try this recipe as well.
Nico says
Some green beans freshly delivered this morning, I couldn’t resist cooking this recipe. I made some twists though: no pork in the fridge so I went with bacon (finely minced/shredded) and that was a big thumbs up for lunch! Thank you Judy for sharing this recipe and I am already wondering which recipe is going to be on my radar next!!
Bill says
Hi Nico, sounds delicious with the bacon. It’s definitely the season to eat green beans, so enjoy!
John says
very tasty! I couldn’t find sui mi ya cai at my local asian market unfortunately, so I just left it out and it still turned out great. the sweetness from the sugar and soy sauce wonderfully complements the heat from the chillis! The ground pork is another awesome touch. I’ve never been happy with how the texture of green beans turns out in other recipes, they always end up too hard, too soft, too squeaky, or too burnt. The dry frying used in this recipe is incredible! They end up perfectly tender, great crunch, all around amazing. Will be cooking this regularly from now on. I cooked the recipe “as is” twice now, but in the future I think I’m going to add some onions because I love crispy onions with my green beans.
Judy says
Sounds great! Thank you for your lovely comment.
Fred says
Hi Judy,
Thanks for this great recipe which I will try soon. I already have the sui mi ya cai, so it is just a matter of planning which day of the coming week. I’ll rate this dish after trying.
I have one question: should I soak the dry red chillies before using them in this dish? Since you dice the dried chillies I expect we are supposed to eat them, right? Or should I eat ‘around’ them, like one does when whole dry chillies are added to a stir-fry? Not sure.
Thank you.
Fred says
Made this today with fresh red chilli. It is a simple, though delectable dish! We will surely eat this on a frequent basis in the future.
Bill says
Hi Fred, great to hear it worked out. We order this dish frequently whenever we’d eat out, but nowadays, we have to make it at home.
Gillen Reed says
I’ve made this twice now to very tasty results. It is fun to make and though my experience with Sichuan Dry Fried Green Beans is limited to one local restaurant, I think I did pretty well, and they are very similar! I couldn’t find Su Mi Ya Cai but I was able to find another Chinese pickled vegetable, also of indeterminable vegetable but it added an interesting depth of flavor. I enjoy your recipes, thank you! Gillen
Judy says
That’s lovely, Gillen, so glad you enjoyed it.