Making Egg Foo Young at home is easier than you might have ever imagined. Arm yourself with eggs, some fresh veggies, and your favorite meats, and you will soon be making delicious take-out style egg foo young at home. No need to head out to a Chinese restaurant when you can cook so well at home.
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Easy Chinese Recipe
One of the best parts of making copycat recipes is you get to enjoy some of your favorite Chinese take-out recipes like Cream Cheese Wontons, Chinese Spare Ribs, and Broccoli Beef. So wanting to grow your take-out food repertoire, let’s add Egg Foo Young to your recipe war chest!
Egg Foo Young the perfect quick meal
Why is Egg Foo Young so good? It is the perfect quick meal. You can makes this delicious Chinese omelette anytime with just about anything you have on hand. The variations are only limited by what you have on hand. I love to use this to help clean out the refrigerator as it is packed full of fresh vegetables.
You could think of this as a protein-packed pancake. Whatever you want you can add to the egg mixture, and cook this in a skillet or a wok, and you have dinner. Pair this with some homemade fried rice and you will have a meal everyone will love.
History of Egg Foo Young
This omelet style of dish can be found in Chinese American, Chinese British, and Chinese Indonesian cuisine. Like many dishes, this one has been adapted and changes depending upon where it is served. Interestingly this dish has many different spellings, you might see it on the menu as egg foo yung, egg fu yung, egg foo yong, or even egg fu yung.
What is common is that egg foo young is served with fresh vegetables like bean sprouts, spring onions, mushrooms, cabbage, water chestnuts. Often this is served with meat like Chinese sausage, chicken, shrimp, or pork. So this is the perfect dish because you can adapt it to what you have on hand.
In the 1930s as Chinese American food was becoming popular and growing, a rich brown gravy began to be served with the egg foo young. This gravy is rich and full of umami.
Recipe Ingredients
Here’s a list of what you need to make Egg Foo Young Gravy:
- Chicken stock
- Oyster sauce
- Sugar
- Soy sauce
- Cornstarch
- Water
Here’s a list of what you need to make Egg Foo Young:
- Eggs
- Cooked chicken or shrimp
- Celery
- Mushrooms
- Green Onions
- Sesame oil
- Light soy sauce
- Vegetable oil for frying
Recipe Variations
This recipe is quite versatile and a great way to use up what’s on hand. Don’t be limited by the suggested ingredients, you can use a variety of fresh vegetables to customize for your taste:
- Celery
- Chinese Cabbage
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Spring Onions
- Onions
- Peas
- Corn
- Bean Sprouts
Now if you want to make the dish more hearty, you could add all sorts of meats like:
- Chinese sausage
- Cooked Chicken
- Roasted Pork
- Crab Meat
- Shrimp
- Lobster
How to Make Egg Foo Young with Gravy
- To make the gravy: Combine the chicken stock, oyster sauce, sugar, and sauce in a small pan over medium heat. Cook until warm and bubbly.
- Prepare a cornstarch slurry by mixing cornstarch and cold water together in a small bowl.
- Add in the cornstarch slurry to the gravy mixture and stir until it thickens.
- To make the egg foo young: Beat eggs in a large bowl then add cooked chicken or cooked shrimp, celery, mushrooms, sliced green onion whites, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Stir until well combined.
- In a heated wok, add vegetable oil and stir it around coating the sides.
- Pour about a half cup of the egg foo young batter into the pan.
- The eggs should bubble up when the batter is poured into the pan. Stir and push the uncooked batter gently to the sides of the pan so it will cook.
- Cook for about 2 minutes then gently flip the egg foo young to the other side, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown. Repeat with the remaining batter.
Serve egg foo young with brown gravy and topped with green onion slices.
Top off Egg Foo Young with Rich Egg Foo Young Gravy and Sliced Green Onions
The gravy served with this recipe is super easy to make. So don’t go without the gravy to go with your homemade egg foo young!
To make your dish complete also top off your creation with slices of green onion. No one will know you didn’t call for takeout on this recipe.
Looking for more Chinese American take-out favorites? Try these recipes
- Authentic Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Panda Chow Mein Recipe
- Panda Express Shrimp
- Hunan Spicy Chicken
- PF Changs Lettuce Wraps Recipe
- Crispy Fried Wonton Strips
- Chinese Restaurant Egg Drop Soup
- Chinese Almond Cookie Recipe
Chinese Sauce Recipes
Be sure to check out more of my easy Chinese food recipes and favorite copycat recipes.
Classic Egg Foo Young (Chinese American) Take Out
Ingredients
Egg Foo Young Gravy
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 4 teaspoons water
Egg Foo Young
- 6 large eggs
- 1/2 cup cooked chicken or shrimp
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions whites only
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion tops greens only
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- Vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
Egg Foo Young Gravy
- Make the sauce by combining the chicken stock, oyster sauce, sugar, and sauce in a small pan over medium heat. Cook until warm and bubbly.
- Prepare cornstarch slurry by combining the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl. Stir to combine.
- Add in the cornstarch slurry and stir until the sauce thickens. Turn off the heat.
Egg Foo Young
- To make the egg foo young, in a large bowl add the eggs. Beat eggs together until the whites break down completely.
- Stir in the cooked chicken or cooked shrimp, celery, mushrooms, sliced green onion whites, soy sauce, sesame oil into the egg mixture, and stir well.
- In a heated wok add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil into the base. When the oil is hot stir it around coating the sides. Pour about a half cup of the egg foo young batter into the pan.
- The eggs should bubble up when the batter is poured into the pan. Stir the uncooked eggs gently to the sides of the pan so they cook. The egg foo young will cook for about 2 minutes before you will need to flip the eggs to the other side.
- Gently flip the egg foo young to the other side, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, or until this is a golden brown color.
- Serve with brown gravy and top with green onion slices.
Linda
I’ve made my own version of egg foo young using the recipe from a YouTube poster. I love spinach so of course that was in my mix, I added carrots and tomatoes. I also add a teaspoon of soy sauce and oyster sauce to my batter and cook in my special oil mixture (the tsp is for single patty use 1to 2 tbsp when making a bigger batch)
I personally didn’t like the soy sauce and oyster sauce for the gravy. Instead I found another gravy recipe online which happened to be a KFC gravy recipe where you make a roux with butter and flour and then add in equal parts of beef and chicken gravy. It turned out great and is SUPER delicious. I’ve even done the recipe using either the beef or chicken separately and the gravy is equally delicious. It might not be an Asian gravy but it’s darn good and pairs well with the egg foo young if you don’t believe me try for yourself.
Google KFC gravy Recipe and you won’t be sorry you did.🙂
Doris Ryan
When you list the calories is th I s per serving or for total amount. That you
Stephanie Manley
Calories are per serving.
Brian
These were very good. I fried mine using a small 9-inch skillet with a half inch of peanut oil. Beautiful golden brown. Made the gravy using poultry gravy powder, adding oyster sauce and soy sauce. Saved time and tasted like carry out. Very easy. Enjoyed the leftovers for lunch today.
David Royal Fogg Smith
Using left over chop suey for my veggies. Just gotta make the gravy, whip up some eggs, and fry.
Easy peezy.
bobbg
My mom used to make this but for the sauce she used soy and molasses
The omelet had bean sprouts bamboo shoots and water chestnuts red and green peepers sliced small
And mushroom might have bee added this on a bead of rice
This is one mean you can add about anything you like to but it should ahve a sweet flavor. for the sauce.
I’d be willing to try other flavor profiles. Like real oriental flavors and even hot flavors.
Really I don’t think you can go wrong.
I think with Shrimp a shrimp sauce would be good. if you add some sweet to it.
Eggs pair really good with shrimp sauce
Doris H. Elias
I made this for lunch for my family and my kids thought it was Awesome!
I made it with the vegetables in the original recipe and I added additional veggies such as: purple cabbage and carrots. Bean sprouts were not available so I added fresh ramen noodles that I had cooked and drained earlier in the day. Not healthy, but it was a good substitution for bean sprouts!
Fish
What, no bean sprouts? I never heard of such a thing!
Stephanie
You are right, I didn’t specifically add them to the recipe. They can be hard to find in some stores, I did note that you can add them in, it was one of my optional ingredients.
Kitty
Hi Stephanie,
May I suggest frying these in sesame oil? Deelish!
Stephanie
Definitely adding a touch of sesame oil or even toasted sesame oil is a great way to add flavor.