Chinese Chive Pie (Leek Pie, Garlic Chive Pie, Chinese Chive Box, 韭菜盒子)

Have you ever had a Chinese Chive Pie? Translated literally as a “chive box”, this Northern Chinese dim sum delight is one of my favorite dishes to order.

I guess you could say it’s sort of like a hot pocket, filled with a delicious (and reasonably healthy!) filling of cellophane noodles, Chinese garlic chives, bits of eggs, and pork (or 5-spice bean curd in a vegetarian version). It’s hearty, satisfying, and totally hits the spot.

I’d never made this before until the other day, right after Chinese New Year, when I found myself stuck with a ton of leftover garlic chives, ground pork, and cellophane noodles, ingredients I had originally set aside for making dumplings.

It was at that moment that I became inspired to try making these chive pies. For some reason, I had always thought that these would be really tricky to make. I had never considered trying to make them myself at home.

I was delighted at how easy it was. Sure, there’s a bit of prep that goes into making the filling. But once you have that, the dough is surprisingly easy to make, and the chive pies come together really quickly.

In fact, once I had the filling in hand (made the previous day), I was able to make the dough from scratch, wrap the chive pies, and pan fry them all in about 30 minutes after getting home from a long day at work. If you’ve ever made Chinese dumplings, it’s really not that different at all.You’ll feel right at home making these. They’re kind of like a bigger cousin, in some ways.

I loved how these turned out. I loved it so much, I may just start making these on a regular basis and maybe freezing some as backup food for inclement weather (you never know when another snowstorm might hit!). I might even play around with the filling, maybe trying a vegetarian version, a ground turkey version, or swapping in various types of vegetables (spring ramps, maybe?).

I love the versatility of these pockets, and I think it’ll be great fun to experiment.

But first, shall we learn how to make the classic version?

This recipe takes a lot of prep work. However once all the pieces are laid out, it’s pretty easy to put it all together. A lot of this can be prepped over the weekend. The actual assembly does not take that long. Like I said above, I was able to make the skin from scratch, wrap the chive pies, and pan fried them all in about 30 minutes on a weeknight.

Making the Filling

It’s best to prepare the filling when you have a bit of time, since all of the individual components take a bit of work to prep. You can chop the garlic chives using a food processor by using the pulse feature and chopping the chives in batches. Alternatively, you can chop by hand with a knife as well.

The cellophane (or bean thread) noodles cook pretty quickly in hot boiling water. Once cooked, drain them and mince them into small pieces (similar in size to the ground pork and chives). Cook the ground pork in a saute pan until it is fully cooked throughout. I seasoned it a bit with salt and pepper. Finally, the eggs need to be pan fried and (again) minced into small pieces.

In a wok over medium heat, stir fry all of these filling ingredients until everything is well mixed.

Set aside the filling.

Making the Wrapper

Measure out flour into a large bowl. Add the boiling water to the flour and mix together. It won’t come completely together at this point, but it will start to look a bit shredded and clumpy.

Once mixed, add the cold water and continue mixing until it all comes together. Knead until soft and elastic (about 5 minutes).

Using your hands, roll out the dough into a thick rope and cut into 10 equal sized pieces. I like to keep the dough pieces under a wet towel in order to keep them moist while I am rolling out each individual skin.
Form a sphere with each piece of dough and then flatten into a disc. Roll each piece out with a rolling pin until it’s about 4-5 inches diameter. I like a thinner skin, so I rolled mine out quite a bit.

Putting it All Together

Add the filling and fold into a half moon. Because the dough is fresh, it should stick to itself. You technically don’t need to crimp the edges, but it looks pretty and helps it keep its shape.

The nice thing about these chive pies is that they are essentially already cooked on the inside, so once you finish making them, pan frying them is pretty fast.

Hello lovelies!

Add oil to coat the bottom of a pan (1-3 tablespoons depending on how big your pan is!) and bring to medium heat. Place the chive pies down and pan fry for 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown. Be careful and keep a close eye on these – they can burn pretty easily! Flip over and cook on the other side until both sides are a gorgeous golden brown.

Serve immediately! We ate them with a bit of soy sauce, but you can use all sorts of dipping sauces, such as Sriracha, vinegar, chili oil, and much more. It’s pretty much up to you.

Enjoy!

Chinese Chive Pies (Chinese Chive Box)  韭菜盒子
5 oz cooked cellophane noodles, minced
12 oz Chinese garlic chives
10 oz ground pork
2 eggs, scrambled, cut up into small pieces
1 tsp salt [or to taste]
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper [or to taste]
1 T dried mushroom powder {optional}
1-2 tablespoons sesame oil

The filling ratios are flexible and largely based on personal preference. I didn’t actually measure any amounts exactly. My general rule of thumb was to have close to equal amounts pork and chives, with a slight bias towards adding a bit more chives. I then added about half the amount of noodles. Of course, this is very flexible. In fact, if you want to make a vegetarian version of this, you can replace the pork with minced 5-spice tofu instead, which will also work quite well. If you like a more vegetable heavy version, increased the vegetable amount and reduce the meat amount. It’s really up to you what you want to put inside. Please note that the dough is a different story, and the ratios are a bit more important there.

Noodles
Depending on what kind of cellophane noodles you buy, you may need to either soak them in hot water or cook them in boiling water for a few minutes. After you are done cooking the noodles, rinse the noodles under cold water and then chop finely into small, 1/2 inch long pieces. Set aside.

Garlic Chives
Chop the garlic chives into tiny (about 1 cm) pieces using a knife or the pulse function on a food processor. Don’t pulse for too long – otherwise you may pulverize the vegetables! Set aside.

Pork
In a wok heated over medium heat, add 1 tsp cooking oil. Add ground pork and stir fry, breaking up the pieces and mixing it all around until it is fully cooked. Set aside.

Eggs
In a frying pan (nonstick, ideally), cook the 2 eggs over medium low heat until fully cooked. Mince the eggs so that they resemble the size of the ground meat or chives. Set aside.

Put it all together!
In the wok heated over medium heat add 1 tablespoon sesame oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic chives, noodles, pork, and eggs. Stir it all together and add salt, pepper, and optionally mushroom powder (or other favorite flavoring agents) to taste. Set aside.

Dough + Wrapping
2 cups flour
1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup cold water

1. Measure out flour into a large bowl.
2. Add the boiling water to the flour and mix together. It will look a bit shredded and clumpy. This is normal!
3. Once mixed, add the cold water and continue mixing until it forms a ball.
4. Knead until soft and elastic (about 5 minutes).
5. Roll out into a long rope and cut into 10 equal sized pieces. Keep unused pieces under a damp towel to prevent them from drying out.
6. Roll into a sphere, flatten it, and then roll out circular skins.
7. Fill with the filling, fold into a half moon, crimp, and set aside.
8. Pan fry on medium to medium-high eat for about 2-3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
9. Serve immediately!

Enjoy!

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