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Sichuan Dry-Fried Green Beans (Ganbian Sijidou, 干煸四季豆)

By Taylor Holliday

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Published Mar 30, 2015, Updated Apr 23, 2024

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Chengdu Challenge #16: Frying, Old-School vs. New

Yes, I know it seems wrong to deep-fry green vegetables, but oh, it tastes so right. 干煸四季豆 (gānbiān sìjìdòu) actually means dry-fried green beans, but almost everyone nowadays quickly deep-fries them. That’s how the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine teaches the dish, and that’s how I’ve always done it.

But when I was researching the dish, I found that the recipe for ganbian sijidou in Mrs. Chiang’s Szechwan Cookbook calls for dry-frying the green beans the old-school way, for more than two hours, until they are “quite shriveled, limp and dry.” Two hours! The authors promise that despite their “unattractive condition”…”they are one of the more unusual and delicious specialties of Szechwan.”

Mrs. Chiang grew up in Sichuan in the years before the Communist revolution, and this is how dry-fried green beans was made in her home. In the ensuing decades, Mao dictated that food be purely utilitarian, so, while Mrs. Chiang had fled to Taiwan, the average mainland Chinese would not have been inclined—or even allowed—to cook a two-hour green bean dish. One can assume that by the time eating for pleasure was allowed again, most people didn’t have the luxury of time and deep-frying became the norm.

But I was intrigued. Dry-fried green beans is one of my two or three absolute favorite Sichuan dishes. Could it be even better made the traditional way? On further thought, it didn’t sound that strange. I live in the American South, where our tasty green beans are always cooked to death and always include pork—just like ganbian sijidou. So I decided to do a head-to-head green bean challenge. Old-school vs. new. Long and slow dry-fry vs. quick and easy deep-fry.

Mrs. Chiang’s Recipe: Dry-Fried Green Beans

Though I’m intrigued by Mrs. Chiang’s cooking method, I’m less enamored of some of her ingredients. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup dried shrimp as part of the seasoning. I left these out because a) I’ve never seen dried shrimp in ganbian sijidou in Sichuan, and b) I personally dislike the taste of dried shrimp. I substituted ground pork, because that’s how the dish is made nowadays. If you want to use the dried shrimp instead, soak them in hot water for two hours, then clean them thoroughly (including deveining) and chop very finely, to “the consistency of coarse bread crumbs.”

I also substituted yacai for the Sichuan preserved vegetable, or zhacai, that she calls for. I am guessing that she called for zhacai because yacai wasn’t available in the U.S. in the 1970s, when she wrote this book. Contemporary cooks use yacai, and there’s no way to improve on the perfect combo of yacai and crispy pork, in my opinion.

The Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine’s Recipe: Deep-Fried Green Beans

The Institute’s recipe is more representative of what is served in Chengdu’s restaurants today. I tweaked this one quite a bit too, adding soy sauce and Shaoxing wine to flavor the pork as well as ginger, scallions and dried chili peppers for color. (Leave the chilies whole, as this dish is not meant to be hot.) The dish traditionally includes pork, but it is almost as good without pork as it is with, since it features yacai, which is the true flavor bomb. Leave out the pork if you like, but do not leave out the yacai. I usually increase the amount of yacai and aromatics if I’m not using pork.

The Winner

I used basically the same ingredients for both versions, so the difference was all about the cooking method. (I did omit the chili peppers from the dry-fried version.)

Deep-frying leaves the green beans crisper, greener and more visually appealing than dry-frying. If you take the green beans out of the deep-frying oil when their skins are about half-puckered they will still have a good bite to them; if you leave them in until almost all of them have puckered skin, they will have just a slight bite and be like they are in Chengdu.

I had my doubts as I was dry-frying, stirring the wok every 10 to 15 minutes as the beans got darker and darker, making sure the pork didn’t burn. When making dry-fried beef, one of Chengdu’s most delicious cold dishes/appetizers, you definitely can’t rush the cooking process, which produces an almost-beef-jerkyish, chewy treat. But with green beans, I wasn’t sure the trade-off in my time and energy (not to mention gas energy) was worth it. Call me a modern gal, but I like my green beans to resemble green beans.

But in the end, I realized that these are no longer really green beans. Dry-frying green beans for an extended period produces a whole different beast, with no bite, but with its own interesting texture and, indeed, a deeper taste, a true mingling of the bean, pork and yacai. The green beans begin to caramelize, like a long-cooked onion, and are undeniably delicious. Interestingly, Mrs. Chiang recommended eating them wrapped in a thin Mandarin pancake, like a mooshu pork wrapper. Too bad I didn’t have any. Though one could use those two hours to whip up a batch, I suppose.

In any case, once you try them I think you’ll make the deep-fried version often. But I also urge you to add the dry-fried version to your repertoire; nothing else tastes quite like a pre-revolutionary green bean.

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Sichuan Dry-Fried Green Beans (Ganbian Sijidou, 干煸四季豆)

By: Taylor Holliday | The Mala Market | Inspiration & Ingredients for Sichuan Cooking

Deep-fried version inspired by Sichuan (China) Cuisine in Both Chinese and English. Dry-fried version inspired by Mrs. Chiang’s Szechwan Cookbook.

Ingredients 

• 1 pound green beans, trimmed 450 grams
• 3 ounces ground pork (traditional but optional)
• 10 whole dried red Sichuan chili peppers; omit from dry-fried version
• 3 tablespoons Yibin yacai preserved vegetable
• 2 tablespoons scallions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 1 tablespoon Chinese light soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil

Instructions 

Deep-Fried Method:

• Heat wok over a high flame until wisps of heat start to rise and add enough canola or peanut oil to deep-fry. Bring oil temperature to about 350°F (175°C) and deep-fry green beans until most of them have puckered skin. Do not brown them. Remove and drain on paper towel.
• Remove all but 2 tablespoons oil from the wok. Reheat until hot and add pork, breaking it up into crumbles and cooking until it starts to brown. Add dried chili peppers, yacai, scallions, ginger and garlic and continue stir-frying. Add Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and sugar and cook until the pork bits are crispy.
• Add back the green beans and stir-fry until well-mixed and hot. Add the sesame oil, give a stir, and plate.

Dry-Fried Method:

• Heat wok over a high flame until wisps of heat start to rise, then add 2 tablespoons oil. When hot, add green beans, stir-frying vigorously for about 2 minutes. Lower heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 6 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towel.
• Reheat wok until hot and add 2 tablespoons more oil. Add pork, breaking it up into crumbles and cooking just until pink disappears. Add yacai, scallions, ginger and garlic and continue stir-frying. Add Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and sugar and cook briefly. Do not brown.
• Add back green beans, mix well, and lower heat to very low setting. You should hear a slight sizzle as the mixture cooks over the next couple of hours. Stir every 10 to 15 minutes to make sure pork isn’t burning. Cook for about two hours. Add the sesame oil, give a stir, and plate.

The Happy Medium:

• Add ⅓ cup oil to a very hot wok. Reduce heat to medium and add the green beans. Stir-fry the beans until they are mostly cooked through and have patches of brown, about 10 minutes. Remove from wok and follow deep-fried method starting with step 2.

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