I know this as Cong You Bing, but I’ve seen it sold in the stores as Green Onion Pancake (which I’m sure sounds disgusting to Americans) and Pan Fried Green Onion Cake or Fried Scallion Pancake or Pan Fried Scallion Pancake… This is why I like pictures. This is one of my boys’ favorite things to eat! We eat it with Chinese egg omelette or just plain cut into wedges. 🙂
Thank you Julie for this recipe! She said she never learned to cook till after her boys were born. I’m very impressed!
She says she first learned this dish just by the ratio of flour to water – which is how most Asian grandmas I talk to tend to also make this. She referred me to this video and it was super helpful.
Julie uses the scale to measure. Measure flour first then tare the scale to 0 then add water. She tried other method before to make the scallion pancake and didn’t like it (too complicated). She thinks this is the easiest way to make it and still so delicious.
This dough is also the basis for other things like pan fried radish cake. You can do so much with it.
Chinese Green Onion Pancake
Ingredients
- 300 g all purpose flour
- 190 g cold water
- 1-3 Green onions
Instructions
- Mix flour and water, knead until tacky( not sticky) ball forms.
- Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 mins or longer
- Prepare green onions, thinly sliced.
- Divide dough into 4 portions; roll each portion into a circle ( sprinkle some flour on the dough and rolling pin to help rolling into circle)
- Sprinkle some salt on the pancake and roll it to press the salt into the dough
- Brush oil on the dough evenly (olive oil or sesame oil)
- spread green onions on the dough
- Roll dough into cylinder. Coil cylinder into spiral, tuck end underneath, and flatten spiral with your palm.
- Cover with plastic wrap and repeat with remaining dough
- In a large skillet, heat 1 TBSP oil.
- Over medium-high heat, Cook 1 pancake at a time until both sides golden brown
- Serve immediately
More from Julie
I never cook until I became mom and it was really frustrating for me to learn to cook at the beginning so I hope my boys won’t suffer like me in the future.
My boys love making this with me. They love to make it their own shapes. Triangle, rectangle… And we all agree that we like to roll it thinner. You can quickly make the dough and let it rest aside until you have time to come back for it. ( can also refrigerate the rest dough up to 24 hours )
Try 300g and 190 g water. This is less water than the YouTube video suggests, making the kneading time shorter. I just knead it until it’s not sticky then cover it to let it rest. I feel like it only took me a few minutes to get it done. I didn’t take the dough out of the bowl to knead it more like she showed in the video.
If your pancakes are too doughy, might be because it didn’t rest enough of time before you frying them, let them rest longer and add some flour on top of it to help rolling it thinner.
Another tip to share: one time I doubled the volume of flour and water. I used a stand mixer to do the work.
Yay, scallion pancakes!! Make me want to have some now too😂
Julie, mom of 2 boys
Paratha Style
If you like your Cong You Bing more like Paratha – a similar Southeast Asian flaky crispy fried dough recipe, you can try this person’s folding method next time. My friend Vanessa said she actually liked this method.
