Chinese Scallion Pancakes

All you need are just a few basic pantry ingredients for these satisfying and delicious Chinese scallion pancakes or Cong You Bing/葱油饼in Chinese. Strictly speaking, this is not a pancake, but rather a rich, flaky stuffed flatbread bursting with scallion flavour. No matter what it is called, they are delicious and comforting. The dough here is made with HOT BOILING WATER, which helps gelatinize the starch in the flour and create a soft, tender, and flaky texture. The pan must be HOT before you add dough to fry, otherwise they will end up soaking up a lot of lard and become too doughy and heavy instead of crispy and light. Grew up eating those pancakes as breakfast or snacks in the afternoon, my mom always prepared them with lard, but you can use oil or even coconut oil.

Pancakes	Soya Dipping Sauce
250 g Plain flour 1 pinch Sea salt 180 ml Boiling water 2 tbsp Lard, melted 2 tbsp Plain flour 1/3 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder, optional ¼ tsp Sea salt 4 Scallions, finely chopped 4-6 tbsp Lard, to pan-frying Sweet chilli sauce, to serve	80 ml Gluten free soya sauce 30 ml Rice vinegar ½ tbsp Honey 1 tbsp Finely chopped spring onions Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

Place the flour in a heatproof bowl. Pour in boiling water. Stir with chopsticks until no more loose flour or water can be seen. Use your hands to gather the mixture into a rough dough. Tightly cover the dough with cling film and leave to rest for 15-30 minutes.
Mix the melted lard, 5-spice powder if using, and salt together in a bowl until the paste is smooth. Finely chop the scallions. Set aside.
Knead the dough until it has become smooth. Place it on a lightly oiled work surface. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a thin, rectangular piece, roughly 50x35cm. Alternatively, divide the dough into 4 portions and roll each one into a log, then roll it up before flatten into a disc.
Spread the prepared paste over the dough and sprinkle the chopped scallions over. From the shorter side of the dough, roll it into a log.
Cut the dough into 4 or 8 pieces. Stand each portion of dough on one end. Press down with your hand, then roll it out with the rolling pin into a pancake that measures around 10-12cm if making small pancakes, or 15-18 cm in diameter if making bigger pancakes.
Heat the lard in a large skillet over high heat until melted and hot. Lower the heat to medium and put 3-4 pancakes into the pan. Cover the skillet with a lid and leave to cook for about 3-4 minutes until the side facing down becomes golden brown. Flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes until golden too.
In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for soya dipping sauce.
Enjoy the pancakes while still warm with the soya dipping sauce or sweet chilli sauce.

14 comments:

Floencuisine 22/8/25 12:01: j'y gouterai volontiers
DEZMOND 22/8/25 13:10: I would devour them all myself! I have seen them being made before and even the process is very appetizing nom nom nom....
My name is Erika. 22/8/25 14:26: I love scallion pancakes. Now I want some. That photo of you dipping them int he soy sauce is making me hungry!
Tom 22/8/25 14:28: ...angie, this sure is an interesting take on a favorite.
eileeninmd 22/8/25 16:17: I would never have thought of scallion pancakes, they look good.
Take care, have a great weekend.
ellie 22/8/25 17:29: I've always wanted to try these. Awesome recipe and presentation!
Caitlin'nMegan 22/8/25 17:30: So wonderful and yummy! Thanks so much! Happy Friday!
Ben | Havocinthekitchen 22/8/25 18:19: Delicious and satisfying - and they look beautiful, too!
Linda's Relaxing Lair 22/8/25 18:36: This looks scrumptious, Angie.
Ananka 22/8/25 18:51: These look amazing :-D
Granny Sue 22/8/25 19:32: I dont care for onions but these sound amazing!
Cocoa and Lavender 22/8/25 20:03: It is as if you read my mind! I was thinking yesterday that I want to make scallion pancakes for an appetizer before serving a Chinese meal. These sound quite easy and they look fantastic! David
Anonymous 22/8/25 20:44: Yummy -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
Bill 22/8/25 22:08: Amazing looking and yummy.