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Chinese Meat Pie, 千层肉饼

by:

Judy

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Posted: 9/3/2025

This Chinese Meat Pie is a real treat—after all, how often do you eat a meat pie? This one is extra exciting. It’s not dense like you might be picturing, but rather layered with a chewy dough and a delicious pork and scallion filling.

If you say “how about a meat pie?” to any omnivore around you right now, I bet they’d be pretty excited!

A Chinese Breakfast Item Turned Anytime Meal

How often do you eat a meat pie? Many Chinese northerners eat it as breakfast with a bowl of porridge and some pickled cucumbers or preserved vegetables. I’d also serve it as a meal along with a couple vegetable dishes.

They’re great for kids’ lunch boxes as an alternative to a sandwich. My grandson loved it! He picked up a whole giant piece and couldn’t stop eating it.

This Chinese meat pie is also relatively quick to put together. You just mix up the dough, and while it’s resting, make the pork filling. Then you assemble, pan-fry, and enjoy. This recipe makes two meat pies, each of which serves 2-3 people.

Regional Variations

Chinese meat pies come in many forms, depending on the region. Some are small and bun-like, for example, like Beijing’s 门丁肉饼 (mén dīng ròu bǐng). Some resemble a thick scallion pancake—they’re flatter with one layer of meat filling. Today, we are making this fun multilayered meat pie to evenly distribute the meat and dough. I think it’s a better eating experience, and it looks impressive too!

Make It Your Own With Different Flavors

You could call this recipe our 原味 (yuánwèi) version—as in, the “original,” like vanilla ice cream.

But you can use your choice of ground meats and the freedom to be creative with:

Herbs like dill (see my Pork and Dill Dumplings), cilantro, or Chinese chives
Spices like dried chili flakes or garlic powder
Sauces like sweet bean paste, spicy doubanjiang, or lao gan ma chili crisp
And anything else you can think of! Have fun with it!

I do want to point out, though, that as you customize, do not add too much liquid to the meat filling. This will make the dough wet, spongy, and soggy. This is why we add the oil to the filling last—so it seals in moisture.

An Unusual Dough Making Method

You’ll see in the instructions for this recipe that we have a rather unusual method of mixing the dough.

After adding the flour to the bowl, you level it off so it’s flat. Then you add boiling water to one half of the flour, mixing it well, and an equal amount of room temperature water to the other half of the flour in the bowl. Then you combine the two doughs, kneading them together into one ball. You could perform this process in two separate bowls, but we just do it in one bowl to reduce dishes.

Why this method? You’re essentially making a hot water dough and a regular dough, then combining them. The hot water dough creates a softer texture and increased pliability for very thin rolling. Regular water yields a “harder” dough with more gluten formation, which creates a nice chewy texture. Combining them gives you a “just right” dough for this meat pie.

Note that the hot water dough can create some stickiness. Don’t be tempted to add too much flour to this dough. If your hands have a lot of sticky dough bits, scrape them clean with a dough scraper or rubber spatula, then knead the bits back into the dough.

It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, but once it’s rested, it should be soft and pliable enough to roll out easily.

Chinese Meat Pie Recipe Instructions

Add the flour to a large mixing bowl, and level it off so it’s flat. Slowly add ½ cup boiling water to half the flour on one side of the bowl, mixing it in with a pair of chopsticks or a stiff rubber spatula (don’t use your hands or you’ll burn yourself). On the other side of the bowl, mix the other half of the flour with ½ cup of room temperature water.

adding boiling water to flour in glass mixing bowl

mixing dough with chopsticks while adding water to flour

Knead the mixtures together by hand for a few minutes, until you have one rough dough ball.

It does not need to be completely smooth, but the dough should feel soft and supple. If the dough is still stiff, add 1-2 tablespoons of warm water and knead until the dough reaches the desired texture. If a lot of dough is sticking to your hands, simply scrape them clean with a rubber spatula, then flour your hands to knead any pieces back into the dough. Cover with an overturned plate and let the dough rest at room temperature for 1 hour while you make the filling.

In a separate bowl, mix the ground pork with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, salt, and five spice powder, if using. Mix well. Next, stir in the oil until well-combined.

Lastly, mix in the chopped scallions. Set the filling aside.

Transfer your rested dough to a clean, lightly floured surface. Knead a few times to smooth it out, and roll it into a log. Cut the dough in half.

Cover one half and set aside. Roll the other half into a long sheet, about 8×24 inches (20x61cm). Spread half the filling evenly over the dough, keeping a ½-inch (1cm) border of dough around it.

Gently pick up one end of the dough and fold it onto itself by about 4 inches, repeating until you’ve folded the meat pie closed.

folding meat pie dough with filling onto itself

Pinch the seam closed, and pinch the ends closed so the meat pie is completely sealed.

Over medium heat, brush a nonstick frying pan generously with oil. Place the meat pie in the pan seam-side down. Use your hand or a spatula to gently press the top of the pie to make it a little thinner. Cover, and cook for 8 minutes. Flip and cook the other side for another 8 minutes, until the pie is golden brown and slightly puffed in the center. Flip the meat pie again and cook each side for another 2 minutes to crisp them up and ensure the filling is cooked through. Check on it periodically during the cooking process to prevent burning. Don’t rush this process!

Transfer the meat pie to a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut the pie in half or into thirds to serve, taking care not to squeeze out the filling. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling to make a second meat pie.

cutting Chinese meat pie with a knife on cutting board

To reheat leftovers, cook in an oiled frying pan over medium heat along with a few drops of water. Cover to let the steam warm the meat pie, and then do the same for the other side. Remove the lid, let out the steam, and crisp the meat pie for a few more minutes on each side before enjoying.

About

Judy

Judy Leung is the matriarch of The Woks of Life family, working on the blog alongside husband Bill and daughters Sarah and Kaitlin. Born in Shanghai, China, she immigrated to the United States at sixteen. Fluent in both English and three Chinese dialects, she also plays the important role of researcher and menu translator! Drawing from over four decades of cooking experience and travel, Judy aims to bring Chinese culinary traditions to readers and preserve recipes that might otherwise be lost to time. Her expertise spans from Shanghainese cooking and everyday homestyle dishes to a variety of regional foodways, showcasing the depth and breadth of Chinese cuisine for a global audience. Over the last decade, she’s helped transform The Woks of Life into what Saveur Magazine has deemed “the internet’s most popular Chinese cooking blog,” co-written a New York Times bestselling cookbook, and become convinced that we will never run out of recipes to share!