北京肉陷饼 Pork and Vegetable Stuffed Flatbread

These are one of many different types of stuffed flatbreads found in China. These are a pan fried bread. You can find a baked stuffed flatbread here. Bing is a Chinese word that can be used for just about any food that is flat, bread like and usually round such as cookies, biscuits, flat breads, ect.
The woman in the picture below is a friend that I made while living in China. We were teaching each other how to cook different things until she moved and then I moved. I miss her lots. We went with another friend, Erynn, to a little shop that makes tasty bings.

and they took us in the back and showed us how to make several of the bings that they sell. It was very interesting. Later on Vivian taught me how to make a delicious meat filling for the stuffed bings. In this post I teach you two ways to make these. One is a little more complicated, but my personal favorite because of the many layers of dough, and another version that is a little easier and more common. You can't go wrong with either.

Dough:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup boiling water with 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cold water with 1 Tbsp. oil

Filling
1/2 pounds regular ground pork (needs some fat)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 Tbsp. grated ginger
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic

3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. chili powder (I use paprika)
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. Cooking wine
1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4-1/2 pound chopped greens (leek, green onion, baby bok choy, napa cabbage, cilantro, ect.)

For Dough:

Put 2 cups flour into a bowl and split it into two , one side of the bowl having a little more then the other. Drizzle 1/2 cup boiling salt water while stirring with chopsticks into the side of the bowl with more flour. It will form a really shaggy dough. Next drizzle 1/4 cup cold water and 1 Tbsp. oil into remaining flour on the other side of the bowl. Then mix the two sides together. If needed add more cold water a little at a time until you have a soft but not sticky dough.

Knead into a smooth soft ball of dough. Kneed dough roughly 10 minutes. It should be soft like play doh but not sticky. In the picture below you can see that when I pressed my hands into the dough they left deep imprints.Cover and let rest at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Divide into 10 pieces for the simple bing and 5 pieces for the more complicated bing.

For the Filling:
Mix ginger and garlic into 1/2 cup chicken broth you can also add the chopped green onion instead of keeping separate like in the photos below.. Mix all filling ingredients and stir clockwise until you have an even mixture. Then stir in garlic, ginger broth a little at a time until fully incorporated. How much greens and which ones you put in there is according to your personal preference. Place in the fridge 1 hour to firm up.

Instructions for more complicated layered flatbread:

Oil your rolling surface and roll 1 of 5 pieces of dough out into a long oval being gentle so you don't rip holes in the dough.

Rub oil over the dough's surface. Place filling at one end of the dough.

 Roll a little ways and then fold in the sides.

 Continue doing this until the end.

Take the end of the dough and push it into the spiral at one end.

 Flip it over.

This is where lots of practice and patience come in handy. Gentle squish it flat using a rolling pin.

Instructions for the Simpler and more Common Xian Bing:

Roll 1 of 10 pieces of dough out into a cirlce

Put about 1/4 cup of filling in the center.

Seal like you would a baozi. You can find a video tutorial on how to seal it here.

Instructions for Cooking the Bings:

Heat a frying pan or griddle over medium low heat (electric) and add 2 Tbsp. oil. Place bings in the pan and cover pan with a lid. Cook for 5-8 minutes or until golden brown and then flip and cook for another 5-8 minutes.

When it is done the white sides of bing will have little tiny tiny bubbles in the dough. As you can see in the picture if you look closely.

And finally it is time to eat. Just be careful as delicious hot juices often squirt out when you take a bite.

This is the more complicated one. You can see the many layers of dough surrounding the filling.

And the more simple one but just as satisfying. I have also had these deep fried. That is really tasty as well.

Tweet