A list of the best easy Cantonese/ Hong Kong recipes that you can cook at home, and are better than takeout. From Congee, fried rice, Dim Sum and Char Siu to Wonton Soup, Sweet and Sour Pork, Egg Tarts, Pineapple Buns and even drinks such as Yuan Yang Milk Tea, I have the Hong Kong recipes for you! Perfect for Lunar New Year 2025.
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If you want to learn more about Cantonese food, I've included more about it below (under the recipes.) For now, we'll start with 1 of the things Cantonese cuisine is most famous for: soups!
Soups
Cantonese soup is so good, I can have 2-3 bowls (of different soups) when I go to a restaurant. They're particularly good at slow-cooked soups and double-boiled soups, but I've focused on easier soup recipes below that you can easily make at home.
For a list of homemade fall soups (including non-cantonese), click here.
To make good soup (and other Chinese dishes), you first need to know how to make soup stock/ bone broth!
Chicken Stock
A good stock is the secret to Chinese soup. Single meat soups like chicken stock or broth stock are basic stocks.
The most premium soup stock is "Superior Stock" in which chicken, pork and Jinhua ham are cooked together.
ABC Soup
This is a staple of Cantonese home cooking, made with carrots, potatoes, and corn!
Chicken Abalone Soup
For something more fancy, make this Chicken Abalone Soup, a staple during Chinese New Year feasts.
Cabbage Soup
Vegan Wonton Soup
To make it a complete meal, you can add some wonton noodles. Don't forget the spring onion garnish!
Macaroni Soup
This simple dish is very popular in Hong Kong's coffee shops, but super quick and easy to recreate in your own kitchen.
Ginseng Soup
Egg Drop Soup
This is a very popular dish at Chinese restaurants, but you can make a better version, using my family recipe, if you have chicken stock at home!
If you don't have corn, omit it with no issues.
Silkie Chicken Soup
Congee (Jook)
Jook or congee is the ultimate Cantonese comfort food, especially when you're under the weather- if you grew up in a Chinese home, you've definitely had this one time or another!
It can be eaten plain- and spiced up with toppings and small plates sich as century egg- or flavoured with seafood, chicken etc
Scallop Congee
Minced Pork Congee
Fish Congee
Abalone Congee
Abalone is considered a premium and auspicious ingredient in Chinese cooking.
For more canned abalone recipes, click here.
Shrimp Congee
Some less traditional jook recipes include this Chicken Rice-inspired recipe and this leftover rotisserie chicken congee.
Meat
Soy Sauce Chicken
This is a famous Cantonese dish that is often served as a trio with "siu Mei" (roasted meats) such as "siu yuk" (roast pork belly) and "char siu" (BBQ pork.)
However, to get the meat super tender, it will take a few hours of poaching so this recipe is not for the faint of heart. (It's an easy recipe but takes a while to cook.)
If you're in a rush, make the easy chicken thighs version below.
Easy Soy Chicken Thighs
Braised Chicken Thighs in Hoisin Sauce
Pork Ribs
An easy version of "tang chu pai gu" (sweet vinegar pork ribs, literally but usually called "sweet and sour pork" in the West), once you've made these 12345 ribs you'll never look back!
Five Spice Chicken
Char Siu Chicken
Char Siu Pork is more famous but since not everyone can eat pork, I've included a healthier Char Siu Chicken Thigh version here.
Pork Lettuce Wraps
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Sweet and sour chicken- traditionally pork- is another very popular Cantonese recipe.
Char Siu Pork
Never met a person (who eats meat) that doesn't like Chinese BBQ Pork!
Note: the cuts of meat are not interchangeable. You can't switch pork belly for pork tenderloin without changing the roasting time and temperature. (If not, the meat will become too dry!)
Pork Trotters
A classic Cantonese dish, often eaten during confinement (the period after a woman gives birth), is vinegar pig trotters as it's considered to be a very warming and nourishing food.
Seafood
Steamed fish
If you've ever eaten in a Cantonese restaurant, you'll know that a steamed whole fish is a can't-be-missed item on the menu. In fact, good Cantonese restaurants are so big on their fish, they cook live ones (and not frozen/ dead fish.)
However, to make life easier at home, I'm showing you how to steam salmon fillets instead- you can also use white fish fillets. This is 1 of my favorite home cooked fish recipes, thanks to the flavourful soy sauce.
Fun fact: if you know how to eat it, the fish head is considered a delicacy- the meat in the cheek is super tender! If you eat the head, you need to take responsibility for the tail too as, for every beginning (head), there's an end (tail.) In Chinese, this translates to "有头有尾 you tou you wei."
Eggs & Shrimp
Eggs are often scrambled with shrimp for an easy weeknight dish- click here for a 5-star recipe from Omnivore's Cookbook!
Veggies & Tofu
Salted Ducks Egg Yolk Tofu
P.S. The same ducks egg sauce is used to coat deep-fried prawns or chicken and pork too!
Stir-fried Vegetables
A classic veg would be Choy Sum in Oyster sauce (here's a 10-minutes, easy recipe from Ohmyfoodrecipes.)
Carbs
Noodles
Lobster noodles is a classic Cantonese dish- my family used to eat it every time we visited Chinatown in London- but, for something easier to cook at home, try these stir-fried noodles by Woon Heng. (Use rice noodles, not egg noodles, as the flavor of the latter doesn't go.)
Fun fact: (uncut) long noodles are a must-have dish for a Chinese birthday or Cantonese New Year as they symbolise long life!
Easy Chow Mein
Chow Mein and Lo Mein are Chinese takeout staples- to make them easy to cook at home with readily available ingredients, I've used spaghetti in these 3 recipes so don't expect a super traditional recipe!
Veggie Lo Mein
If you prefer a more saucy noodle, try Lo Mein Spaghetti instead.
Chicken Lo Mein
If you're after some meat, try these chicken lo mein noodles.
Singapore Noodles
Despite the "Singapore" in the name, this is actually a dish invented by Cantonese chefs in the West!
Fried Rice
Rice is a staple at any Chinese table. If you end up with too much, overnight white rice is the secret ingredient to a good plate of fried rice, such as this Cantonese salted fish fried rice by The Woks of Life. The rice grains aren't so wet and don't clump together as much.
Click here for more Chinese fried rice recipes.
Claypot Rice
Claypot rice is another delicious Cantonese dish but it's not exactly for beginners- you need to buy a claypot for one and, if you don't know what you're doing, your claypot may crack!
Hence, I'm showing you a hack to use a rice cooker instead- you don't get exactly the same flavor but it's tasty enough and SO EASY TO MAKE.
Dim Sum
My favourites include:
- har gao
- If you're wondering whatside dishes to serve at a dumpling party, click here. And don't forget the jiaozi sauce or spicy dumpling sauce.
- char siu bao
- Click here for a RasaMalaysia recipe (If you're wondering why I'm choosing a Malaysian recipe- there are lots of Cantonese in Malaysia. In fact, most Chinese people in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, speak Cantonese!)
- For other bao fillings, such as a sweet salted egg custard bao, click here.
- lo bak gao (savoury carrot cake or turnip cakes)
- Here's a RedHouseSpice recipe
- It's not really made with carrot, but turnips are called white carrots in Chinese
- sio mai
- A RecipeTinEats recipe for you!
- In Philippines, they eat their siomai with calamansi dipping sauce!
Home Cooking
There are some Cantonese foods that we make at home but you seldom see at fancy restaurants:
- tomato omelette
- A recipe from Chinasichuanfood
- ABC soup
- Coca Cola wings
- Here's a Noobcook recipe for beginners!
- Make sure your soda doesn't contain aspartame as when aspartame is heated to above 86F/ 30C, the wood acid in it converts to formaldehyde and then formic acid which leads to metabolic acidosis (and mimics Multiple Sclerosis.) (Aspartame also loses its sweetness when heated.)
Steamed Egg Custard
Desserts
These are some popular tong sui (the Cantonese word for dessert- literally "sugar water."
Sea Coconut
Black Sesame Soup
Extra black sesame seeds can be used in these recipes, such as sesame cookies. I also show you how to make your own black sesame paste.
Glutinous Rice Balls
Delicacies
There are several luxurious and sometimes controversial Cantonese dishes, such as bird's nest and shark's fin soup.
Egg Tarts
Hong Kong Egg Tarts are quite different from Portugese ones. Try both and let me know which you prefer!
Drinks
Yuan Yang Tea
What is Cantonese Cuisine?
Cantonese cuisine, also known as Yue cuisine (粤菜 yuè cài), is 1 of the cuisines of China's Guangdong province in Southern China.
It is specific to the Cantonese speaking parts along the Pearl Delta River: Guangzhou (its capital), Hong Kong and Macau. (Guangdong has 2 other groups- Hakka and Chao Zhou- which have their own cuisines, but Cantonese cuisine is the most famous of the 3.)
Fun fact: If you've ever eaten in a Chinese restaurant in America, Canada or UK, it's 99.9% likely that you're eating Cantonese food. (The majority of Chinese restaurants outside Asia are Cantonese.)
Chinese culture is big on food and Cantonese cuisine is considered 1 of its 4 great traditions of Chinese Food (in addition to Chuan, Lu, and Huaiyang i.e. the cuisines of West, North, South & East China.)
It is also 1 of its 8 modern culinary treasures:
- Anhui (徽菜; Huīcài)
- Guang Dong/ Cantonese (粤菜; Yuècài)
- Fujian (闽菜; Mǐncài)- where my family is from!
- Hunan (湘菜; Xiāngcài)
- Jiangsu (苏菜; Sūcài)
- Shandong (鲁菜; Lǔcài)
- Sichuan (川菜; Chuāncài)
- Zhejiang(浙菜; Zhècài).
Characteristics
How do you tell if the food is Cantonese?
- Scallion, ginger and garlic are considered the Holy Trinity of Cantonese recipes, similar to mirepoix (onions, carrots and celery) in French food
- Please do not substitute with onion or garlic powder!
- Emphasis on preserving the taste of the ingredients (a little like Italian cooking): the flavor is from the freshness and quality of the food used, so there is little application of spices
- It's all about the "wok hei" or breath of the wok- a somewhat smoky flavor that the best Cantonese dishes have thanks to the super hot fire
- This is why it can be hard to cook restaurant quality Cantonese food at home- our fires just aren't hot enough!
- Herbs are used in moderation, mostly as garnishes
- Preserved ingredients are used to add flavour. Some examples are:
- salted egg
- dried shrimps
- dried scallops
- dried shiitake mushrooms
- Mei cai (pickled cabbage)
- La Chang (dried sausage)
- The Cantonese are known for its soups, such as old fire soup/ lao huo tang, silky congee, and dim sum.
- As Guangdong has a coastal location, seafood is another key ingredient of Cantonese recipes
- ordering steamed fish is a great way to tell if the restaurant is worth its salt! The fish should be fresh, silky and savory, with a delicate taste.
- You sometime see "weird" ingredients, such as chicken feet, entrails, frogs and snakes, in Cantonese dim sum restaurants.
- Frogs meat is delicious! It's like a really tender chicken
- Lamb and goat are uncommon though
Sauces
Savory sauce is often used in Cantonese food recipes, such as:
- light soy sauce
- dark soy sauce
- shaoxing wine
- you can use sake as a substitute
- oyster sauce
- or a luxe version- abalone sauce
- XO sauce
- sesame oil
- salted egg yolk sauce
- rice vinegar
- hoisin sauce
- plum sauce
- shrimp paste
- douchi/ dried black beans
- white pepper (not interchanegable with black pepper)
The most common sauce brand is Lee Kum Kee- it's pretty authentic so you can buy it with no worries. For more about Chinese sauces, click here.
What are your favourite traditional Cantonese recipes? If you've enjoyed this list, maybe you'd like to sign up for my newsletter?
Angie says
lo bak gao (savoury carrot cake). Do they call it carrot in Singapore? It's white turnips based upon my experience and other recipes.
Zen says
Yep we call it carrot cake in Singapore, Angie, but some people also call it turnip cake or radish cake. I just made some for lunch today actually! (My Mom's fave dish!)