Our love and near-obsession with the jianbing is well documented (for a total of six posts on this one simple street food). We’ve made the pilgrimage to Tianjin, birthplace of the jianbing, we’ve pestered numerous jianbing vendors around Beijing for tips, and of course, we’ve discussed amongst ourselves the ins and outs of how to make the magic happen in our tiny, crepe griddle-less kitchens.
We even contemplated the brilliant (we thought) idea of renting our Tsinghua jianbing vendor’s cart for the day to get some practice, learn a few tricks of the trade, and hopefully bag a few kuai in profits. However, seeing as she thinks we are one and the same person, we thought it might try her sanity to show up together with our odd little proposal – and one should never mess with the sanity of the woman who provides one’s daily breakfast.
So, go time. We’ve waxed poetic on jianbing long enough, and explained (perhaps in over-excruciating detail) all the bits and pieces that go into one of these wondrous snacks – now, we’ll divulge our attempt in putting this tasty critter together. It’s certainly not the giant, Big Mac-sized bundle of joy that we get from our friendly jianbing vendors, but we’d like to think our mini-jianbing tastes pretty damn authentic.
Here we go.
Jianbing Recipe 煎饼 (Amounts below are for one mini-jianbing, so multipy as appropriate)
- Hoisin sauce (tianmianjiang 甜面酱) (see Sauces post for recipe)
- Leek flower sauce (jiucaihua 韭菜花)
- Red fermented tofu (hong doufuru or nanru 红豆腐乳／南乳) (see Sauce post for recipe)
- Chili Sauce (lajiang 辣酱)
- Scallions, minced, a teaspoon per jianbing
- Cilantro, minced, a teaspoon per jianbing
- Pickled mustard greens, diced, a teaspoon per jianbing
- Black sesame seeds (optional)
- Deep-fried wonton skin, one per jianbing, unless you love crunch, then go nuts with two (see Innards post for recipe)
- Batter, approximately 2 tablespoons per jianbing (see Batter post for recipe unrecipe)
- Egg, scrambled, half an egg per jianbing
- Oil, for greasing the pan
Note: Before you begin making the jianbing, all the ingredients should be prepped and at the ready. It takes just three minutes to make the jianbing, so all the sauces must be ready to slather on, the greens ready to sprinkle on, raw eggs scrambled and ready to pour on, the wonton skin fried and ready to fufill its destiny as the heart of a jianbing.
1. Heat up your largest saucepan on low heat, and once hot, add a bit of oil to grease the pan. Given our unrecipe for batter, you may have to test cook a couple samples of batter to make sure your consistency is right – it should be quite thin, like crepe batter. (The batter in our picture is a little too thick, actually.)
2. Pour two tablespoons of batter into the center, and using a crepe-batter spreader (if you are so lucky to own one) or just the flat end of a wooden spatula, spread the batter as thinly as you can into a circle.
3. After the batter has been spread to create a crepe and has set a bit, pour approximately half an egg’s worth of scrambled egg on top of the batter and spread egg evenly over the whole crepe. There should be just enough egg to create a thin layer on top of the crepe, so depending on the size of your crepe, adjust accordingly. It’s not quite an exact science, this recipe.
4. Sprinkle the teaspoon of cilantro, spring onion and black sesame (if you opted to go hardcore) on top of the egg.
5. After the egg starts to set, carefully flip the crepe over, so the egg side is down in the pan. Then, saucing. Using a pastry brush (or just a spoon) brush a thin layer of each sauce on top of the crepe. We recommend covering the whole crepe with the hoisin sauce, and just a smear of each of the leek flower and fermented tofu sauces, as those flavors are pretty strong. As for chili sauce, well, that is up to personal preference, as it usually is with chili. We love the stuff though, so our dollop was rather large.
6. Sprinkle the diced pickled mustard greens on top of the crepe after saucing.
7. The crepe is now ready for the crisp. Given the size of your crepe, you may need to break your crisp in half to fit it into the crepe and still be able to roll it up. Feel free to overstuff the jianbing as well, since we all know the crispy bit is for all intents and purposes, the soul of the jianbing.
8. Now, it’s rolling time. Given that our crepe is mini, there is no way to fold it entirely around the crisp tocreate that multi-layered rectangular jianbing burger we all know and love. Thus, we decided rolling up the crepe into a jianbing tube, pigs-in-a-blanket style, would serve our tastebuds just fine. Just use the spatula (and perhaps fingers) to roll up the crepe, but be careful, since the mungbean flour tends to make jianbing crepes much more delicate than actual crepe batter.
9. Cut each mini-jianbing in half, just to make it pretty, or hell, just chomp down. It’ll just take three bites, but that is three bites of deliciousness that you can make at home when it’s too cold to run downstairs to your trusty vendor, or should you (tragically) live in a city that is jianbing-less. Enjoy!
And this is the end of our jianbing journey. We still need to fine tune the batter recipe somewhat, since without the crepe griddle or a crepe spreader, we found that getting the crepe thin enough was tough, but tinkering with the batter proportions should help iron out that problem. As for the taste, well, you can give our recipe a whirl and let us know what you think.
We hope we’ve managed to capture a jianbing’s essence – the subtle fragrance of egg and scallions, the play of salty, spicy, bitter, and sweet sauces, the pickled surprise of the mustard greens, and the piece de resistance, the crispy crunchy center integral to balancing out the eggy crepe. And there you have it, ladies and gentleman, the home recipe for jianbing.
atlas!!! let me be the first to congratulate you!! will soon be trying out your recipe…hope i could gather the ingredients where i am now…
Thank you! I lived in BJ for 6 months and ate these every day – but could not find a recipe to save myself since getting home.
hahah! due to over excitement, I misspelled “At last” hahaha! =D
Compiling a shopping list now. Will let you know how I get on.
This is genius. I am gobsmacked at your brilliance, One In The Same Person. I actually somehow have all the ingredients for this on hand and am trotting immediately into the kitchen to recreate. Thanks!!
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chibi: your enthusiasm is contagious! we’ll have a giveaway soon with some of the harder to find ingredients….
phil: good luck; please let us know how it goes and what improvements should be made to the directions!
bill: please do!
kate: *very impressed* that you have all the ingredients on hand. let us know how it goes!
I went to Tsinhua in 2005-2006, and me and my fellow American friend loved Jianbing so much, we went on a diet for 2 months that consisted only of 2 jianbing every day. I got to be familiar with all of the jianbing vendors around the campus.
The one actually inside the campus nearby the cafeteria buy the small store had a thicker dough, so it was good for a hearty meal.
There was one outside of the store nearby the post office past 北京语言大学, whose sauce was delicious.
There was one actually sold by a vendor inside an alley nearby 北京语言大学 that added shredded lettuce (it tasted almost mexican….)
But a trusty favorite was a vendor that was in a small permanent stall next to the KFC and the 成都小吃 in Wudaokou. They used to have 5 or 6 different 面 options, and would add extra 辣椒酱. I have gone back several times over the past years, and I think this past winter the shop had closed down. So sad.
However, I am happy to find your page, and that you are as obsessed with them as I am, and that you have a recipe. Especially because I live in Shanghai where the food sucks, and where the only jianbing I have tried here have been crispy skinned (no doughy goodness like in Beijing), and have had a weird sweet and sour sauce on them. Gross!
Jen,
So when are you having a jianbing party at your place? *stomach growl*
Hello, ladies! just an update, I tried making jianbing today following your experiment as framework. Since I did not have all of the ingredients at hand, I had to improvise and use what I had access to (chickpea flour instead of mung bean, Korean chili sauce instead of the usual Chinese chili sauce)….the result….SUPERB!!! I love it!!!! Although my critiques would have preferred a thinner crepe. But still, I think it was not bad for a first run!! thank you sooo much!!!!
at last!!! let me be the first to congratulate you!! will soon be trying out your recipe…hope i could gather the ingredients where i am now…
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This. is. my. next. adventure.
I studied abroad in China–I was only in Beijing for 3 days, but I had jianbing for the majority of those 9 meals. Here in Cleveland I’ll be hard-pressed to find vendors, but thanks to you I now have the ability to make my own! And, I can use my trusty dosa pan, because the process is much the same as for crepes and jian bing.
Many thanks!!
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WOW!! When I visited my relatives in Beijing at the age of 10, this was my go-to breakfast every day! I remember that every morning, I would take 2 eggs from my fridge (it was cheaper if you supplied your own eggs), run downstairs and wait in line at the nearby vendor. I would love just watching her cook it for the people in front of me and couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into the yummy goodness as I ran back upstairs. I am truly thankful for your recipe.
Recipe is simple and everyone can try it at home. Maybe, I can suggest you how if the recipe is combined with vegetables such as spinach, carrots or cabbage so that it is good for digestion.
Delicious I think! My sisters love East Asian foods: Korean, Chinese, Japanese.
I will tell for sure my sisters to make this recipe. They tried already the shawarma recipe. Is that a Chinese food? Korean foods are usually hot and spicy, right? it’s nutritious because of the eggs and the insides. So I guess this would attract my sisters’ taste.
Love your blog : ) yummy Crepe
A greatly written post
OMG! Thanks so much for this. I just discovered how to make crepes and after some time on Google – I’ve found you – and apparently, my destiny! This looks so awesome – Thanks for all the advice on making it at home!
You’re welcome! french crepes are lovely, but there is just something so wonderful about the crispy/spicy/salty combination of a jian bing that can’t be beat. hope you make a good one at home!
Your style fits the subject very well. I’ll be looking out for new entries.
This has made my day/week/year! I work near Chinatown so my first point of call tmr will be sourcing the ingredients!!! Yayyy!
Always glad to help out another jianbing lover out there! let us know how it goes!