Authentic Chinese Breakfast At Home (Jianbing)

0:00 A lot of people when they think of Jian Bing, they think, "Oh,

0:01 it's like a crepe burrito kind of thing."

0:03 This is about 5,000 times more than that.

0:08 This isn't just some crepe.

0:10 This isn't just some burrito.

0:11 It is one of the greatest little eating experiences [music]

0:14 wrapped up in a handheld bite I can think of.

0:16 There's so many different textures and flavors.

0:18 It's something [music] that anybody can make, but I'm not doing this alone.

0:21 We're bringing Chef Jackie out from Portland.

0:23 I was out there not too long ago doing Street Food in America,

0:26 and he gave me a Jian Bing that was so good.

0:29 Not only did I have to shake his hand,

0:30 I brought [music] him out here to make it with us.

0:32 Now, there are many ways to make Jian Bing.

0:34 This is the loaded Jian Bing that I had at Bing

0:37 Mi that was my favorite of all time that I've ever had.

0:39 That's the one we're showing you how to make.

0:40 My favorite thing about this is the varying textures.

0:43 You bite into it, not only is it soft,

0:44 but there's massive crunch from the wonton inside.

0:47 It's flavorful.

0:48 There's Chinese sausage.

0:49 It's salty.

0:49 It's umami.

0:50 It's sweet.

0:51 It's so many different things in one.

0:52 I would say it's at the top of the list

0:54 for things that people should be making at home,

0:56 and they just don't.

0:57 Most people don't even have a place near them that makes it properly.

0:59 [music] And now, you can.

1:01 So, let's make this, shall we?

1:03 We're going to start by making a simple crepe batter,

1:04 then a signature sauce from our man Jackie.

1:07 Then we'll prep our fillings, and finally cook and assemble.

1:10 It's easier than it looks.

1:12 Okay, so we're starting with the crepe batter.

1:14 Walk me through this.

1:14 So, we're going to [music] do two cups of milk.

1:16 We use the 2% milk, but like at home, you can also use whole milk.

1:20 And then, two cups of water.

1:22 Beautiful.

1:22 And then we do 1 tsp of salt just [music] to give the crepe a base flavor.

1:26 Okay, let me know if I this up.

1:27 So, we've got four cups of all-purpose flour,

1:30 which I'm going to slowly integrate.

1:32 Try not to go all at once and ruin this.

1:34 Exactly.

1:35 I don't want to overmix this, so tell me how I'm looking here.

1:38 Yeah, that's good.

1:38 little chunks here.

1:39 If you see the [music] texture of your batter is slightly like look too thin,

1:43 you can always add a tiny bit more flour.

1:45 You're just looking for like a slightly thicker consistency.

1:47 [music] So, when later you make the crepe,

1:49 it's a smooth instead of like a little bit wrinkly.

1:51 And now, I'm just going to add a tiny bit more.

1:54 This is very close to what we want.

1:56 It's like sticking to [music] the whisk just a little bit,

1:59 but it's still like a smooth consistency.

2:02 So, it's like a little looser than pancake batter almost.

2:04 Very nice.

2:05 Okay.

2:05 So, this is a two-step blending process.

2:07 First, we're going to blend just the base batter,

2:09 no eggs, to get all the chunks out.

2:11 Then, we add the eggs.

2:13 I would recommend just like keep it under 2 minutes if possible,

2:16 cuz too much blending also changes the consistency of the batter.

2:19 Just making sure it's smooth, but not over mixing it once it gets to that point.

2:23 Okay, so now we're going to add five large eggs.

2:25 Finally, I really wanted to add these eggs.

2:27 I've been waiting to add these.

2:28 Crack them all in.

2:30 Very nice.

2:30 And then now we're going to integrate the eggs.

2:33 Wow, it got a lot more loose from that now.

2:35 So, now it's actually quite watery.

2:36 It's almost like the consistency of heavy cream.

2:38 [music] You know, it's not so thick that it looks like a pancake batter.

2:41 It's thinner and more of almost like a half

2:43 and half sort of heavy cream [music] texture.

2:45 So, that's done.

2:46 Final step, cover it and into the fridge.

2:50 The one thing that really makes a distinct, solid Jianbing is the sauce.

2:55 A lot of places don't do it right,

2:56 and the ones that have really blown me away have had incredible sauces.

2:59 You have the best sauce, in my opinion.

3:01 Jianbing sauce, we strive for like a savory,

3:03 sweet [music] with a little bit spicy kind of flavor.

3:06 That's why like we add the bean paste.

3:08 It gives it more of a savory flavor versus just more like [music] sweet.

3:12 What kind of bean paste is this?

3:13 Doubanjiang.

3:14 Doubanjiang?

3:16 Doubanjiang.

3:16 Okay.

3:16 Douban is kind of like the soybean pieces.

3:18 Like salty, umami kind of flavor.

3:20 Got it.

3:20 Okay.

3:21 Yeah.

3:21 So, we add the bean paste first and then Quarter cup.

3:23 Same amount of hoisin.

3:25 So, another quarter cup hoisin sauce, 1 Tbsp or 15 mils of toasted sesame oil,

3:29 1 Tbsp or 15 mils of water.

3:31 So, at this point, the sauce is just the base with no spice at all.

3:35 But, usually we do recommend to add a tablespoon chili crisp in it.

3:39 Adjust the amount that you want by your taste.

3:41 The chili crisp that we use is the Laoganma.

3:44 It has a lot of like Chinese spices in it already,

3:47 which adds more [music] flavor to it besides

3:49 just adding a little bit of spice to it.

3:51 Oh, it already looks so good.

3:52 The second that chili crisp went in, immediately just

3:54 was like Like the way you can smell it.

3:57 yeah.

3:57 It smells so good.

3:58 We are adding a little bit of our Chinese-inspired spice mix here.

4:02 Secret ingredient, okay.

4:03 We can't give that one away.

4:04 I should add that you can make this sauce without his secret spice blend,

4:09 and it's still going to be delicious because you already have the base sauce.

4:11 So, should you want to add Chinese-inspired spices, you could do that.

4:14 He has his own blend, which smells incredible.

4:18 But, uh we won't be giving that away.

4:19 Cuz you got to go there to get it, pal.

4:21 Yeah, you can come to Bing Mi in Portland.

4:23 Dude, Portland trip, let's go.

4:25 Okay, the sauce is ready.

4:26 It's actually quite thicker than I thought it would be.

4:28 I was expecting it to be a little bit more loose,

4:30 but we're going to brush this on essentially.

4:32 I'm going to try a little bit.

4:35 Oh god, it's so good.

4:36 Holy Okay, keep that away from me.

4:38 On to the next step.

4:39 We have a beautiful cucumber, cilantro, pickled vegetables, green onions.

4:43 Put me to work.

4:43 How should I cut this?

4:44 We cut the cucumbers on a bias about like a quarter inch thick,

4:48 and then we cut it one more time into like fries.

4:51 Yeah, just about that perfect.

4:52 And you cut them julienne like sort of like Yes.

4:55 That's good.

4:56 And this is an English cucumber, right?

4:58 So, we're doing You always do English.

5:00 Yes.

5:00 Cilantro, we just give it a coarse chop.

5:03 It looks nice.

5:03 It looks elegant.

5:04 All right, and then green onion.

5:05 How do you like these cut?

5:06 In between [music] of like paper thin and little coarse,

5:09 so it has a little bit more of a bite to it, but like still pretty small.

5:13 I always feel like I need to go super fine on everything,

5:15 but whenever I do go a little coarser or a little thicker,

5:17 it always reminds me that sometimes fine is not always better.

5:20 So, the last ingredient, which you actually don't chop,

5:23 is It says preserved vegetable, but I'm not sure.

5:25 I'm assuming pickled mustard green?

5:27 Yeah, pickled mustard root.

5:28 This one, the Chinese name is zha [music] cai,

5:30 translates into preserved vegetable or pickled vegetable.

5:34 There's MSG [music] in this.

5:35 Just a little bit.

5:37 Oh my god, it's so good.

5:38 Yeah, and it's crunchy,

5:39 so like you get that like crunchy texture and also the umami flavor,

5:43 the like a little bit pickle flavor.

5:45 Guys, do not skip this.

5:46 Holy that is so good.

5:48 Pickled mustard root does not sound appealing.

5:51 [music] I feel like to the average like Westerner,

5:53 like they're going to hear that and go like,

5:54 "I don't know about that." Dude, banger.

5:56 Very good.

5:56 It's really good.

5:57 So, just in vegetables alone, you have the onion fragrance,

6:01 you have a beautiful fresh fragrance, and then you have a crunchy freshness,

6:05 and then you have a crunchy sort of umami,

6:08 almost salty, pickly, funky flavor, which I love.

6:11 All just in vegetables alone, but

6:13 Is there I don't want to say secret ingredient,

6:15 but there is a a power move here, and that is the Chinese sausage.

6:19 This I love Chinese sausage.

6:21 It's one of my favorite things of all time.

6:23 How should we cut these?

6:24 I'd love for you to show me.

6:25 We do two links, and then we also cut the Chinese sausage on a bias,

6:29 and then sauté it in a pan.

6:30 So, [music] this Chinese sausage is a Cantonese style.

6:33 So, in Cantonese, it's pronounced lap cheong.

6:36 In the US, [music]

6:37 I see it go in like fried rice a lot, sometimes like stir-fried noodles,

6:41 and then [music] we add it to jianbing cuz

6:43 it's more of a like a sweet, savory flavor.

6:46 It goes really [music] well with the jianbing sauce.

6:48 God, the fat content is crazy in this.

6:50 It's unreal.

6:51 Look at this.

6:51 There's more fat in this than salami,

6:53 which is crazy cuz salami already is a very high-fat sausage.

6:56 [music] This is even higher fat.

6:57 So, not only is it sweet, but it's going to be like ultra rich.

7:00 It's going to add fat to this in a pretty significant way.

7:03 The one thing that I think shocks people with jianbing

7:05 first time that they have it is that crunch.

7:07 You're like almost not even expecting it.

7:08 It doesn't look like it's crunchy, and you bite into it,

7:10 it's like So, now we make the crunch, the crispy wonton.

7:15 So, the crunch is actually very simple.

7:17 Just wonton wrappers split in half.

7:19 Perfectly.

7:20 He has a nice technique where you take the top first layer,

7:22 fold it in half perfectly,

7:24 fold it back over, you see the seam, and you cut those beauties in half.

7:28 So, now you have beautiful even rectangles to then be fried.

7:31 We have a deep fryer.

7:32 This is around a 7-quart pot, 3 quarts of oil, 350 Fahrenheit.

7:36 [music] It does really matter the wontons

7:38 that you get because you'll see in a second,

7:40 when you fry this, right, it's going to bubble up.

7:41 You don't want it to be completely flat,

7:43 but you also don't want the bubbles too big.

7:44 Sometimes these guys are inconsistent, so it may take you a couple times.

7:47 Do better, okay?

7:48 Whoever's making these, manufacturers, you got the money.

7:51 Do better for this man.

7:53 Two at a time to be safe.

7:54 I'm going to drop this in then.

7:55 I'm scared now that you're watching me.

7:56 It's going to float.

7:57 You see the bubbles already?

7:59 Yeah.

7:59 We're just going to do one more.

8:00 So, the goal here is to keep them flat essentially.

8:02 You don't want them to fold over.

8:04 You want to try to keep one nice flat layer.

8:06 Yeah.

8:06 Like about 20, 30 seconds in, you can flip it.

8:09 Just looking for like a little bit golden kind of color.

8:12 When I take those out, I just leave it vertical.

8:14 I drain some oil over here first and then move it to the wire rack.

8:18 Now, do a second round.

8:20 It looks almost like pigskin.

8:21 Right?

8:21 It does.

8:22 And those bubbles are perfect.

8:24 There's a faster technique.

8:25 You can also like overlap the wontons just a little bit,

8:28 like half or like even 2/3 points.

8:31 That way you can [music] fit more fried crackers in each like round of frying.

8:34 I would be too scared to try that.

8:36 My first fear would be like they're going to stick [music] together,

8:37 but they're already separated.

8:39 already separated.

8:40 oils frying in between the layers.

8:41 So, how do you flip this then?

8:42 Just grab the whole thing, flip.

8:44 Bang, dude.

8:44 What?

8:45 side is already a good color.

8:46 This is already insane.

8:48 You got 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 in there.

8:51 So, you're going eight at a time.

8:52 It's not bad.

8:53 Once you're done frying your wontons,

8:55 let them cool on a wire rack while we move on to our sausage.

8:58 Now, for your Chinese sausage,

8:59 you don't want to put this in just straight up sliced and cold.

9:01 You want to heat that up in a pan

9:02 over medium heat tossing occasionally for about 2

9:04 to 3 minutes or until it starts to crisp

9:06 a little bit and it's rendered much of its fat.

9:07 Should look something like this.

9:09 Once it's done, drain it of its fat through a fine mesh

9:11 sieve or over paper towels if you don't want to save the oil.

9:13 And your sausage is ready to be used.

9:16 So, cooking a crepe.

9:17 If you have ever done this before, it's very simple.

9:18 You need a pan.

9:19 We have this 15-in massive pan.

9:22 I know a lot of people don't have this.

9:23 Don't worry, you can absolutely use a 12-in skillet, nonstick, etc.

9:27 Just know that you won't be able to fit as much in there, [music] right?

9:30 The bigger the skillet, the bigger the crepe,

9:32 the bigger the crepe, the more proper the Jianbing.

9:34 At the restaurant we use like a 16-in [music]

9:36 crepe grill.

9:37 This is very close to the size.

9:39 So, if you really want to go all out,

9:40 you'll need like a 15-16 in pan of some sort.

9:43 You could use a kamal, you could use a griddle,

9:44 you could use anything as long as it is 15 to 16 in if you want the proper size,

9:49 otherwise use a 12-in skillet.

9:51 So, at home, we can just use some paper

9:53 towel and then dip it in a little bit oil.

9:55 Vegetable oil is fine.

9:57 I assume it has like a higher smoking point.

9:59 And then just to use the paper towel on the pan to grease the pan lightly.

10:03 Just be very careful of your finger this part.

10:06 I don't know what's worse.

10:07 It's like using a cheese grater and then your knuckles hit the cheese grater

10:09 [music] or slipping off the paper towel and then going across a hot pan.

10:13 It hurts a lot more on the pan.

10:15 Yes, true.

10:17 For a 12-in pan, you can just use 4 oz of the batter.

10:21 This is like a crepe wand and then it's specifically for making

10:24 crepe and helps make it like this shape and get it pretty thin.

10:27 It's kind of necessary to have it to make a thin crepe.

10:31 At [music] home, kind of like if you do like the wiggle the pan style,

10:34 it's just going to be a little too thick.

10:36 Then you're going to let that cook just until the edges look dry,

10:39 start to curl a little bit, and the full crepe is cooked.

10:41 This could happen as early as 45 seconds

10:43 and up to a minute 30 depending on the heat.

10:45 Then using a thin spatula, gently lift the edge, carefully flip,

10:48 cook on the other side for another 25 to 30 seconds,

10:50 then proceed to assemble your jianbing.

10:53 Okay, so Jackie's going to show us how to do nice [music] quality crepe.

10:57 So, we use a 6 oz of batter for this size pan.

11:00 Now, you can see he's carefully using a wide

11:03 circular motion to spiral outward towards the edges

11:05 of the pan until the batter is spread

11:07 into a perfect circle and the thickness is [music] even throughout.

11:10 This may take a couple tries.

11:11 It's okay if you don't get it perfect the first time.

11:13 More you do it, the better they'll get.

11:14 And then put the [music] egg on it.

11:16 Two eggs in this one and then we are tapping the egg yolk to break

11:21 it and then try to spread the egg on the crepe like very evenly.

11:25 [music] You can almost treat the egg like the crepe batter right now.

11:29 Just kind of spin, [music] get close to the edge,

11:31 but it doesn't have to be like exactly to the very edge of it.

11:34 So, the egg is scrambled on top of the crepe as a very thin layer.

11:39 Sometimes we would have customers come back and ask,

11:42 "Where's the scrambled egg in my crepe?" We would have

11:45 to explain because it's like combined together as the crepe.

11:48 It's part of the crepe already.

11:50 Are they like mad?

11:50 They're like, "Where's my egg?" Sometimes they would think

11:52 we missed the scrambled [music] egg for their order.

11:55 Yeah.

11:55 At this point, the egg is seems to be pretty solid.

11:58 It's not all the way cooked yet.

12:00 I'm going to give it a flip to make sure the egg is like fully cooked.

12:04 And then this is the perfect color.

12:06 I would recommend maybe using a spatula because you

12:08 don't got hands like we got them, all right?

12:10 Chef's hands.

12:11 But yeah, give it a few seconds and then flip it back.

12:14 So, now the egg is all the way fully cooked.

12:16 Yeah.

12:17 With the crepe done, we're ready to assemble.

12:20 First, we're adding [music] 2/3 to 1 spoonful,

12:22 depending on how saucy you like your jianbing.

12:25 The sauce is the flavor for the whole crepe, basically.

12:29 All the like savory comes from the sauce

12:31 and the sweetness and then [music] the chili, like the little bit spicy flavor.

12:35 I love how tailored to the individual [music] it is.

12:37 You can kind of do it however you want in a way.

12:39 And then we put the green onion on it, cilantro, pickled vegetable,

12:44 like five or six bigger pieces on each side should be okay.

12:47 And then we put a little bit cucumber

12:49 because we are making a Chinese sausage loaded jianbing.

12:52 [music] So, you're lining this up and you're

12:53 kind of leaving a gap in the middle.

12:55 Is that intentional?

12:55 Yes.

12:56 So, the reason is when [music] we are putting

12:58 the wontons on, we're trying to cut right in between.

13:01 So, anything that's heavy like this would be

13:03 [music] like falling out if we cut on it.

13:05 If we cut on the cucumber or if we cut on the sausage,

13:07 when you cut it, try to stack it, it's going to [music] make a mess.

13:10 Okay.

13:10 So, you're sort of lining this like a burrito, but leave a gap in the middle.

13:13 Yeah, a little bit.

13:13 And then Chinese sausage, usually like one link per jianbing.

13:18 And the key is the crackers.

13:20 So, we're doing the double cracker for the loaded one.

13:22 Just kind of wrap this around.

13:26 Cut in the middle and then stack those two halves.

13:30 It's going to look like this.

13:31 Wow.

13:31 We've done it.

13:32 We've made our Jianbing.

13:34 Cheers.

13:34 Thank you.

13:35 Cheers.

13:37 Oh, yeah.

13:38 I want to be clear.

13:40 This has been sitting for like 20 minutes and still You hear that?

13:45 Still really crunchy.

13:45 to say.

13:46 Double cracker is the way to go.

13:48 Oh, yeah.

13:48 See?

13:49 Even he agrees.

13:50 The perfect example of an amazing Jianbing at home.

13:53 So soft and lush just on the outside.

13:55 The crepe even has a bit of like stretchiness to it in a nice way.

13:58 Gives it that elastic chew.

14:00 The inside [music] is super crispy, but also very,

14:02 very, very flavorful from the Jianbing sauce.

14:05 That texture of the egg just kind of enrobes the whole thing.

14:08 And of course the Chinese sausage is like

14:09 I think you have to do Chinese sausage.

14:11 Yeah, it goes really well with the bing sauce.

14:12 [music] If you're vegan or vegetarian,

14:15 maybe just skip that for a day and make it this way.

14:17 Yeah?

14:18 Incredible.

14:19 The thing I love about Jianbing is I think it's something that feels

14:21 very fancy and very almost difficult because people don't know how to make it.

14:25 But now that I've seen the whole process from beginning [music] to end,

14:27 I really think this is something that anybody can make at home.

14:30 Truly, I really do.

14:31 It doesn't require a ton, a ton, a ton of practice to have something delicious.

14:34 It may not be perfect like our man Jackie's,

14:36 but it will still be absolutely [music] delicious.

14:38 Beautiful work, Jackie.

14:39 Thank you so much.

14:40 Absolutely incredible.

14:41 If you haven't been to Bing Mi in Portland, [music] please go.

14:44 Support our man.

14:45 Absolutely the best Jianbing I've ever had.

14:48 Period.

14:48 And now you know how to make it.

14:49 But also, you should go see him.

14:51 Anyway, love you so much.

14:52 Subscribe.

14:52 Thank you.