Beijing breakfast stew — mostly pork intestine with a little pork liver, in a glossy starch-thickened brown sauce, eaten with steamed buns. Despite the name, nothing is stir-fried.
Documented in Beijing since the late Qing dynasty (mid-1800s), originally evolved from a plain boiled-offal soup ('white-soup za sui') sold at the Qianmen restaurant Huixian Ju (会仙居), which around 1900 dropped the heart and lungs, added soy color and a starch thickening, and renamed the result 炒肝. Tianxing Ju (天兴居), founded 1933 in the Qianmen district, is the canonical version. The 'fry' (炒) in the name is a misnomer: the original 19th-century method involved a quick wok-stage with the offal that has since shifted entirely to slow simmer plus starch thickening.
A Qianmen street-vendor offal stew documented since the mid-1800s; Tianxing Ju (founded 1933) is the canonical shop. The 「炒」 in the name is a misnomer — the wok stage gave way long ago to slow simmer plus starch slurry.
Served in a small porcelain bowl barely the size of your palm — Beijing tradition is to drink it from the rim, rotating the bowl, no spoon. The sauce is thick enough to coat your lip, glossy brown, smelling almost entirely of raw garlic. Liver is silky and just-pink, intestine is chewy with a clean fat note. Bite the bun, sip the sauce, repeat.
Garlic is the non-negotiable aromatic, used in two stages: minced garlic is first fried in hot oil until golden (with star anise and yellow bean paste) to build the sauce, then a second hit of raw mashed garlic is showered on just before serving. This double dose is what cuts the offal funk — the saying is 'taste the garlic but never see it.' The starch slurry must go in AFTER the liver, not before: liver shrinks if simmered, so it gets the briefest contact with the already-thickened sauce.
Variations
Tianxing Ju keeps it garlic-forward and thick; Hufang Bridge stalls run a thinner gravy; Tongchun Yuan adds a touch of tianmianjiang for sweetness.
On the Palate
Where Beijing Stir-Fried Liver sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
5 steps · 30 min
- 160 min
Clean 400g pork small intestine: turn inside out, scrub with flour and salt, rinse three times until no slick remains. Boil with scallion, ginger, and Shaoxing wine for 60 minutes until just tender. Slice into 1.5cm rings.
Watch outEnsure the intestines are thoroughly cleaned to avoid any unpleasant texture.
- 235 min
Soak 200g pork liver in cold water for 30 minutes, changing the water twice to draw out blood. Slice into 3mm pieces. Blanch 20 seconds in boiling water — they should still be pink at the center. Set aside.
Watch outBlanch the sliced liver just twenty seconds — pull it while the center's still pink; that flash keeps it tender for the final glaze, cook it grey now and it goes chalky.
- 33 min
In a clay pot, heat 2 tablespoons lard. Sauté minced garlic (a lot — at least 8 cloves) and a teaspoon of ground sand-ginger (沙姜) until fragrant. This sand-ginger note is the load-bearing aromatic of the dish.
Watch outFry the minced garlic in the lard until it's golden and the sand-ginger smells fragrant — that toasted aroma is the backbone of the bowl, so don't let it burn dark.
- 415 min
Add 800ml of the intestine cooking broth, dark soy for color, light soy for salt, and a small piece of rock sugar. Add the intestines and simmer 15 minutes to absorb flavor.
Watch outMonitor the simmering to prevent the broth from reducing too much, which can concentrate the saltiness.
- 52 min
Slip the liver in. Immediately pour in a slurry of potato starch and water — the broth should turn glossy and coat the back of a spoon in seconds. Liver cooks in 30 seconds. Garnish with more raw garlic and serve in small bowls with steamed pork buns.
Watch outSlip the liver in and pour the starch slurry straight after — the broth should turn glossy and coat the spoon-back in seconds; the liver needs only thirty seconds, so serve it the instant it's cloaked.
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