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Egg Foo Young is a delicious Chinese-style omelet filled with ground pork and a mix of vegetables. This is an authentic Egg Foo Young recipe, prepared just like it's done in Chinese restaurants.
What Is Egg Foo Young
Egg Foo Young is a Chinese-style omelet filled with ground pork and various vegetables. Sometimes misspelled as “egg foo yung” or “fu yong,” it is a staple in American Chinese food, and its name comes from the Cantonese language.
“Foo Young” or 芙蓉 (fúróng) means lotus, as it is said the dish resembles that of a lotus flower.
In this recipe tutorial, you will learn how to make an authentic and the best version of Egg Foo Young
A long time ago, when I first set foot on US soil for higher education, I went straight to middle America. I flew from Malaysia and arrived in the state of Iowa. After touching down, I dined at a Chinese restaurant, and the first dish I ordered was Egg Foo Young.
When the food arrived, I was shocked to find out that the American Chinese rendition was greasy and puffy, with a thick filling of vegetables inside the eggs, and doused in a thick and gloppy brown sauce. The taste was very bland and unappetizing. It was a major culinary culture shock, and alas, that was my first (sad) encounter with American Chinese food.
Difference Between Egg Foo Young And Omelette
Egg Foo Young and omelets differ in ingredients, cooking methods, appearance, texture, and cultural origins.
Egg Foo Young consists of beaten eggs mixed with vegetables including bean sprouts, shredded carrots, mushrooms, onions, and scallions, along with protein like shrimp, pork, and chicken. It’s fried until they puff up and turn golden brown in color, resembling a thick pancake. It’s commonly served with a savory Chinese brown sauce.
Omelets, on the other hand, are made by cooking beaten eggs in a skillet, then folding them over a filling of cheese, vegetables, and preserved meat such as ham. They are thinner in texture and there is no sauce doused on top of regular omelets.
Furthermore, Egg Foo Young is cooked until it is golden brown, with a slightly crispy and puffy exteriors. Omelets are softer, with a moist or creamy interior.
In short, egg foo young is an Americanized version of Chinese-style omelet, similar to shrimp omelet; it’s filled with an assortment of ingredients, seasoned with Chinese seasonings of soy sauce and oyster sauce.
Ingredients
My egg foo young recipe calls for the most basic ingredients as I believe in less is more.
- eggs
- bean sprouts
- ground pork – you want a bit of fat in the ground pork. A good ratio is 80% lean meat and 20% fat.
- shrimp
- Shaoxing wine – you may use Chinese rice wine, Japanese cooking sake, or dry sherry. If you cannot consume alcohol, skip it altogether.
- soy sauce and oyster sauce – two of the most important seasoning sauces in Cantonese cooking.
How To Make Egg Foo Young
The cooking process consists of four simple steps below:
Step 1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them with a fork. Add the remaining ingredients to the egg mixture and stir well to combine. Ensure that the oyster sauce is fully dissolved in the egg mixture.
Step 2. Heat a wok or pan on high heat. Add the oil. Once the oil is fully heated, ladle the egg mixture into the pan, ensuring that the diameter of the omelet is about 4-5 inches (10cm-12cm) wide.
Step 3. Use a pair of chopsticks to transfer the bean sprouts and other ingredients to the middle of the omelet, making it thicker in the center. Allow the omelet to set for about 3 minutes before flipping it over.
Step 4. Fry the omelet until both sides are golden brown and nicely puffed up. Repeat the process with the remaining egg mixture to make a total of 3 omelets. Serve immediately with steamed rice.
Egg Foo Young Gravy
If you are looking for the Americanized egg foo young gravy recipe, please trust me on this: you do not need the brown sauce. If you are wondering if Chinatown egg foo young is healthy for you, it’s not if you have the sodium-laden and starch-heavy gravy.
The brown sauce is made with chicken broth or stock, seasoned with soy sauce, MSG, and thickened with cornstarch slurry. There is no nutrition in it, and all it does is make the eggs soggy, losing their original crisp texture.
My recipe presents this iconic egg dish in the authentic way, and it’s much healthier and more delicious than your Chinese takeout, I assure you.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe is only 264 calories per serving.
What To Serve With This Recipe
Eggs pair well with steamed rice. For a wholesome Chinese meal at home, I recommend the following recipes to accompany it.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please share your photo in the Comments section and consider giving it a 5-star rating. I can’t wait to see your creations! Want more easy and delicious recipes? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Other Egg Recipes You Might Like
Egg Foo Young
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 oz (60g) bean sprouts
- 2 oz (60g) ground pork
- 4 medium-sized shrimp, peeled and cut into small pieces
- 1 scallion, cut into small rings
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon Shaoxing wine, optional
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 pinch sugar
- 3 dashes white pepper
- 3 tablespoons oil
Instructions
- Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them with a fork. Add the remaining ingredients to the egg mixture and stir well to combine. Ensure that the oyster sauce is fully dissolved in the egg mixture.
- Heat a wok or pan on high heat. Add the oil. Once the oil is fully heated, ladle the egg mixture into the pan, ensuring that the diameter of the omelet is about 4-5 inches (10cm-12cm) wide.
- Use a pair of chopsticks to transfer the bean sprouts and other ingredients to the middle of the omelet, making it thicker in the center. Allow the omelet to set for about 3 minutes before flipping it over.
- Fry the omelet until both sides are golden brown and nicely puffed up. Repeat the process with the remaining egg mixture to make a total of 3 omelets. Serve immediately with steamed rice.
Notes
- You want a bit of fat in the ground pork. A good ratio is 80% lean meat and 20% fat.
- You may use Chinese rice wine, Japanese cooking sake, or dry sherry. If you cannot consume alcohol, skip it altogether.
- Soy sauce and oyster sauce – two of the most important seasoning sauces in Cantonese cooking.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
The title says it all!
Absolutely loved this! And I am so thankful for your website, which has been such a reliable go-to for me! Thanks Bee!
Preferred onions and gravy added, Oh its on now”
Best egg foo young ever!! I’ve been making this recipe for years. Thank you!!
Thank you!
I have yet to try this as the instruction are a bit confusing. Instructions says to beat egg and ad the rest of the ingredients into the egg mixture in step one, but step 2 says use a pair of chopsticks to transfer the beansprouts (which looks like it should have ben done in step 1) and then add other ingredients . What other ingredient’s? Step one already says add all other ingredients. Hoping someone can translate what this means. I can not add other ingredients in step one and two.
Hi Tone, after you ladle the egg mixture on the skillet, bean sprouts and other ingredients will be spreading out. So use a pair of chopsticks to gather the bean sprouts and other ingredients and place in the middle.
The recipe is right. Follow Step 1 — when the egg mixture is in the pan use chop sticks or the spatula to move the bean sprouts to the middle of the circle. (step 2) — It just makes the egg circle higher in the center. — You’re not adding the bean sprouts, you’re just moving them to the center.———– You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to — you could just even out the bean sprouts so they aren’t in a clump but distributed evenly in the omelet.———– Egg Foo Yung is very easy to make.
Hope this helps.
Perfect! No gravy needed at all. We thought one would be leftover, but we split it instead! Delicious
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I made this and put duck sauce and it was delicious
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Hello. Thank you for what looks like a great recipe. I can not, for various reasons, eat FRESH bean sprouts (or any fresh sprout for that matter). Could I use well drained canned bean sprouts in this recipe. I have been told that doing that will likely not allow the patty to stick together when it enters the hot oil. Can I have your opinion on that?
Thank you and regards.
Just skip bean sprouts if you can’t eat fresh bean sprouts.
I finally learned after 50 years, I had been eating bean sprouts wrong. You don’t just pull them out of the package and add them to your dish.
You are supposed to pinch off the wilted rancid water smelling ends, and put them in ice water. You do the whole lot of them. Then you heat up a wok and then toss them around in a hot wok for a few minutes. Don’t let them cook to the point they are wilted. You still want them snappy.
After you are done, the bean sprouts are ready to be used.
Another trick you can do for a fresh snappy bean sprout substitute in some dishes, not Egg foo young, but stir fries.
Thinly slice iceberg lettuce and toss it in at the end when finished cooking. Don’t leave it on the stove.
Egg foo young rocks minus the shrimp and pork.still cooks and tastes Great!
One of my favorite!
Thanks!
Were the ingredients for the sauce to be served with the omelette?
There is no sauce in this recipe. You mix the sauce in the egg mixture.
I’ve only had Egg Food Young with Gravy & that’s what makes the dish extra special to me. I was surprised to see that so many here prefer it without gravy.
Part of what makes a food authentic has something to do with its “first experience” – I think. Of all the food I had in Malaysia I consider the version made in my mom’s kitchen to be the most authentic, or the hawker food I had during my first few years in life to be authentic. And then, for the rest of my life, is just a continuing journey trying to revisit that flavor (not much luck so far haha!). I am glad so many people around the world love Asian food, and found the flavor authentic to their own experience. I equally enjoy the different version of the same dish developed by creative people who enjoys the food as much as I do.
I grew up in Malaysia and Fuyoong Egg is my favorite whenever i have to work overtime. My version of Fuyoong Egg is accompanied with shrimp, onions and green onions, the eggs are beaten up with a bit of chicken broth, quick fried in high heat (and lots of oil… ), top it over rice, and squeeze some ketchup over. Yummy. Could definitely use less oil.
Thanks for prefacing about experience and authenticity. It allowed me to think before responding “Yuck!”. Ketchup on this dish doesn’t sound like my bag. But I know people who eat it on omelets and scrambled eggs all the time.
My creative way is to stir fry the meat as you would for another dish, and add that to the gravy. Like fried Mongolian beef, after it’s marinated in eggwhites, and soysauce, then coated with cornstarch. I put on the side, I put corn starch, and a tsp cornstarch, and white pepper in the egg mixture. Any stir fried vegetables. And fry. I then make a classic gravy, and toss in the Mongolian beef after it thickens. Then pour that over the plate of 4 or 5 patties laid overlapping on the plate. Then eat family style with white rice.
Okay that sounds amazing . I’m gonna have to give that a try . Thanks