8 Chinese Takeaway Favourites You Can Make at Home

It’s the weekend. I want a treat, I really fancy a Chinese, but I don’t particularly want to spend £45 on a takeaway that I know we won’t eat all of. And, in my opinion, Chinese takeaway is just no good the next day. Pizza? Absolutely. Curry? Sometimes even better. Last night’s chow mein and crispy chilli beef? Not for me.

So, I’ve been looking at what I can feasibly make at home that will give me something resembling my favourite Chinese takeaway without requiring professional kitchen equipment, 47 obscure ingredients or a wok burner capable of launching a small rocket.

Before anybody comes for me, I should probably make one thing very clear: these are my adaptations of dishes from a UK Chinese takeaway menu. They are possibly about as far removed from authentic Chinese cooking as it is culinarily possible to get. I know that. You know that. We’re all fine with it.

What I’m trying to recreate here is that very specific British Friday-night-Chinese experience: crispy chilli beef that’s ridiculously sticky, salt and pepper chicken with far too many chillies, glossy black bean sauce, fried rice and the sort of chow mein you eat directly from the container while supposedly “just having a taste”.

These are eight of my favourite Chinese takeaway dishes, adapted to make at home. They’re not claiming to be authentic. They’re not trying to be. They’re simply designed to scratch that Chinese takeaway itch — without the £45 bill at the end of it.

1. Crispy Chilli Beef

This is probably my ultimate Chinese takeaway order. It needs to be properly crispy, sticky, sweet, spicy and slightly ridiculous. There is absolutely no point making crispy chilli beef and then trying to turn it into health food.

The trick at home is slicing the beef very thinly and giving it a generous coating of cornflour. You want those scraggly little edges because they’re the bits that become wonderfully crisp when fried.

Ingredients

Serves 2

300g beef steak, such as sirloin or rump
4 tbsp cornflour
Vegetable oil, for frying
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
4 spring onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red chilli, sliced
Small piece of fresh ginger, grated

For the sauce:

3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp honey
Juice of ½ lime

Method

Slice the beef into very thin strips and toss thoroughly in the cornflour until completely coated.

Heat a shallow layer of vegetable oil in a large frying pan or wok. Fry the beef in batches so you don’t overcrowd the pan. Once deeply golden and crisp, remove and drain on kitchen paper.

Pour away most of the oil, leaving around a tablespoon in the pan. Stir-fry the pepper, spring onion, chilli, garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes.

Mix the sauce ingredients together, pour them into the pan and allow everything to bubble until glossy and sticky. Return the crispy beef to the pan and toss quickly through the sauce.

Serve immediately. This is one dish that waits for nobody.

2. Chicken Chow Mein

Chow mein is one of those dishes that sounds ridiculously simple until you try making it at home and realise you’ve somehow produced a pan of slightly damp noodles.

The answer is heat. Get everything chopped and ready before you start, use a big pan or wok and don’t drown the noodles in sauce.

Ingredients

Serves 2

250g fresh egg noodles
2 chicken breasts, thinly sliced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
½ red pepper, thinly sliced
100g beansprouts
3 spring onions, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp grated fresh ginger

For the sauce:

2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp sugar
Pinch of white or black pepper

Method

Mix all the sauce ingredients together first.

Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan until properly hot. Add the chicken and stir-fry until golden and cooked through, then add the onion, pepper, garlic and ginger.

Cook for another couple of minutes before adding the noodles. Toss everything together over a high heat, then add the sauce.

Finally add the beansprouts and spring onions and toss for another minute or two. You want the vegetables to retain a little crunch rather than collapsing completely.

Serve straight from the wok.

3. Sweet & Sour Chicken

I know pineapple in savoury food divides people. In sweet and sour chicken, however, I’m firmly in favour. Without the pineapple, it just doesn’t feel like the luminous, gloriously retro British Chinese takeaway dish I actually want.

And yes, we’re using ketchup. We’re recreating a takeaway, not auditioning for MasterChef.

Ingredients

Serves 2

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 tbsp cornflour
1 egg, beaten
Vegetable oil, for frying
1 red pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
150g pineapple chunks

For the sweet and sour sauce:

4 tbsp tomato ketchup
3 tbsp pineapple juice from the tin
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp cold water

Method

Coat the chicken in beaten egg followed by cornflour.

Heat a shallow layer of vegetable oil and fry the chicken in batches until crisp, golden and completely cooked through. Drain on kitchen paper.

In a clean pan, quickly stir-fry the pepper and onion, keeping them slightly crunchy. Add the ketchup, pineapple juice, vinegar, sugar and soy sauce.

Let the sauce bubble for a couple of minutes before stirring in the cornflour mixture. Once it becomes glossy and thick, add the pineapple and crispy chicken.

Toss everything together until coated and serve with rice.

4. Kung Pao Chicken

This is the one I want when I fancy something with considerably more heat.

My homemade version has plenty of chilli, crunchy peanuts and a sauce that’s salty, sweet, sour and spicy all at once. You can obviously reduce the chilli if you’re cooking for someone who doesn’t share your enthusiasm for setting their mouth on fire.

Ingredients

Serves 2

2 chicken breasts, diced
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 red pepper, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Small piece of ginger, grated
2–3 dried red chillies, sliced
60g roasted unsalted peanuts

For the sauce:

2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar
3 tbsp water

Method

Toss the chicken with the cornflour.

Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok and fry the chicken over a high heat until golden and cooked through.

Add the pepper, spring onions, garlic, ginger and dried chillies and stir-fry for another couple of minutes.

Pour in the sauce and let it bubble and reduce until it clings to the chicken. Toss through the peanuts immediately before serving so they retain their crunch.

5. Beef in Black Bean Sauce

This is my choice when I want something less sweet than crispy chilli beef but still properly rich and takeaway-ish.

You can buy jars of Chinese black bean sauce in most large supermarkets, which is exactly what I’m doing here. Could we start fermenting our own black beans? Probably. Are we going to? Absolutely not.

Ingredients

Serves 2

300g rump or sirloin steak, thinly sliced
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 green pepper, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 small onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Small piece of ginger, grated
3 tbsp black bean sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
100ml water
1 tsp sesame oil
3 spring onions, sliced

Method

Toss the sliced beef in cornflour.

Heat a wok until very hot, add the vegetable oil and quickly fry the beef. Do this in batches if necessary; overcrowding the pan will make the beef steam rather than sear.

Remove the beef and add the peppers and onion. Stir-fry for two or three minutes before adding the garlic and ginger.

Add the black bean sauce, soy sauce and water and allow everything to bubble. Return the beef to the pan and cook briefly until the sauce has thickened and coated everything.

Finish with sesame oil and spring onions and serve with rice.

6. Salt & Pepper Chicken

If crispy chilli beef isn’t my number one takeaway dish, salt and pepper chicken probably is.

I want loads of chilli, garlic and spring onion and plenty of those salty, spicy crispy bits at the bottom. The beauty of making it yourself is that nobody can stop you adding far more seasoning than would ever be considered sensible.

Ingredients

Serves 2

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
5 tbsp cornflour
Vegetable oil, for frying
1 small onion, finely diced
4 spring onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1–2 fresh red chillies, sliced
½ green pepper, finely diced

For the seasoning:

1 tsp Chinese five-spice
1 tsp fine salt
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp sugar

Method

Combine all the seasoning ingredients in a small bowl.

Toss the chicken generously in cornflour.

Heat a shallow layer of vegetable oil in a pan and fry the chicken in batches until golden, crisp and cooked completely through. Remove and drain.

Leave around a tablespoon of oil in the pan and add the onion, spring onion, garlic, chilli and green pepper. Stir-fry over a high heat for a couple of minutes.

Return the chicken to the pan, sprinkle over the seasoning and toss everything together vigorously.

Eat immediately while it’s still ridiculously crispy.

7. Sticky Char Siu-Style Pork

Traditional char siu has a whole history and technique of its own, so I’m deliberately calling this char siu-style pork. This is my easy home version designed to give us that sweet, sticky Chinese barbecue flavour without spending half the weekend on it.

It also makes a brilliant fakeaway centrepiece because you can slice the pork and serve it with rice, greens and a couple of the other dishes here.

Ingredients

Serves 2–3

500g pork tenderloin

For the marinade/glaze:

3 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp Chinese five-spice
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp grated fresh ginger

Method

Mix all the marinade ingredients together.

Place the pork in a dish or food bag, add around three-quarters of the marinade and coat thoroughly. Refrigerate for at least two hours, although overnight is even better.

Keep the remaining marinade separate for glazing.

Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Place the pork on a foil-lined roasting tray and roast for around 25–30 minutes, depending on its thickness, brushing regularly with the reserved glaze. The pork should be properly cooked but still juicy.

For those sticky, slightly charred edges, put it under a hot grill for the final couple of minutes, watching it carefully because the honey can catch quickly.

Allow the pork to rest before slicing and spoon any sticky tray juices over the top.

8. Chicken Fried Rice

Finally, the side dish that quite often becomes dinner in its own right.

The most important thing I’ve learnt about fried rice is not to make it with freshly cooked, steaming rice. You need cooked rice that has been completely chilled, ideally made the day before, because it’s drier and will actually fry rather than turning into a sticky heap.

Ingredients

Serves 2 generously

300g cooked and completely chilled long-grain rice
1 chicken breast, finely diced
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp vegetable oil
75g frozen peas
4 spring onions, sliced
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
Pinch of white pepper

Method

Heat a wok or large frying pan until very hot.

Add a little of the vegetable oil and cook the chicken until golden and completely cooked through. Push it to one side of the pan.

Add the beaten eggs and scramble quickly. As they begin to set, break them into pieces with your spatula.

Add the cold rice and remaining vegetable oil. Stir-fry over a high heat, breaking up any clumps and keeping everything moving.

Add the peas, spring onions, light and dark soy sauces and white pepper. Continue frying until the rice is piping hot.

Finish with sesame oil and serve immediately.

How to Build Your Own Chinese Fakeaway

The danger here, of course, is that I started this whole exercise because I didn’t want to spend £45 on a Chinese takeaway and I’ve now effectively created my own eight-course banquet.

You definitely don’t need to make all eight.

I’d choose one main, one noodle or rice dish and perhaps one extra if it’s Saturday night and you’re feeling ambitious. Crispy chilli beef with chicken chow mein would be my first combination. Salt and pepper chicken with fried rice would be another.

A lot of the ingredients repeat across these recipes too. Soy sauce, cornflour, spring onions, garlic, ginger, chillies, sesame oil and peppers appear again and again, so once you’ve bought the basics you aren’t shopping for an entirely new set of ingredients for every dish.

There is also something rather satisfying about putting several dishes in the middle of the table and helping yourself, particularly when you’ve managed to get the chicken properly crispy and the sauces suitably glossy.

Will my kitchen smell like a Chinese takeaway afterwards? Almost certainly.

Will I have used every frying pan I own? Probably.

But will I have spent £45 on enough food for six people when there are only two of us?

No. And that was rather the point.

Joanne Brook-Smith is a writer and editor with two decades of publishing experience. She launched Crave Magazine during the Covid period to create a fresh, inspiring space for food, travel and lifestyle content.