There’s just something about Shrimp Egg Foo Young. Everyone loves the combination of fluffy egg, shrimp, aromatic onions, and crunchy bean sprouts—all doused with a tasty brown gravy. If it doesn’t sound good to you at first—just wait until you taste it. You’ll see what we mean!
Also, for the first time, we’ve got instructions for the traditional deep-frying method AND a pan-frying method that is much lighter on oil. We’ll share our thoughts on the difference but leave it up to you to decide which is better!
Restaurant Memories
Shrimp Egg Foo Young was one of the most popular dishes at Sun Hing, my family’s Chinese restaurant from the 80s and 90s. (Now that it’s 2023, it’s crazy to think how many years ago that was!)
We served a lunch special that came with two shrimp egg foo young patties and pork fried rice, and it was one of our most ordered items! When I blogged this with Sarah and Kaitlin, the smells and tastes brought back many memories.
NOTE!
You can serve the shrimp egg foo young with pork fried rice or plain white rice—we usually go the classic route, and eat it with plain rice.
Restaurant-style egg foo young is deep fried in a wok full of oil which makes the egg patties fluffy and crispy.
Restaurants use the oil for deep frying other dishes like General Tso’s Chicken and sweet and sour pork. The same oil may be used for stir-fried dishes, so the oil is not wasted. Reusing frying oil in this way actually gives some extra flavor to stir-fried dishes. What’s not used by the end of the day is usually discarded.
Many home cooks wonder how to recreate that restaurant flavor they crave. Part of it may just be the reuse of that “fresh” frying oil. All in all, we don’t see it as a bad thing!
What Is Shrimp Egg Foo Young?
This dish is a bit retro, so if you’re not familiar, Shrimp Egg Foo Young is a deep-fried omelet with eggs, a protein, diced onion, and bean sprouts. You may see it spelled Egg Foo Young, Egg Foo Yung, or Egg Fu Yung.
As with many Americanized Chinese dishes, you can usually find choices of shrimp, pork, chicken, vegetables, and even tofu. If you’re not a fan of shrimp, check out our recipes for chicken egg foo young or roast pork egg foo young!
The Original Egg Foo Young Recipe?
The original egg foo young or 芙蓉蛋 (foo yung daan in Cantonese or fúróng dàn in Mandarin), is a Cantonese dish popular in Hong Kong cafés or diners known as cha chaan teng (茶餐厅).
It is pan-fried rather than deep-fried. We make it with a mixture of eggs, char siu roast pork, shrimp, Chinese chives, and bean sprouts, though the ingredients can vary.
Sarah created this original Hong Kong-style Furong Omelet recipe for our cookbook, The Woks of Life: Recipes to Know and Love from a Chinese American Family. I can vouch for it; it’s extremely tasty. If you have the book, check it out! If you haven’t, grab a copy. It’s one of our favorite recipes from our cookbook!
Can I Make Egg Foo Young without Deep Frying?
If you don’t want the hassle of deep frying and dealing with leftover oil, you can make a pan-fried egg foo young in a wok, cast-iron skillet or nonstick frying pan!
Less oil and fewer calories make a pan-fried egg foo young a bit healthier, but it doesn’t come without compromise. The deep fried egg foo young will always come out noticeably fluffier, thicker and crispier.
The high and quick heat of deep frying expands the egg foo young omelet with hot steam while frying. Check out our video on this page for a taste comparison of deep fried and pan-fried egg foo young. Then you decide how you want to make it!
Shrimp Egg Foo Young Recipe Instructions
1. Velvet the shrimp
Combine the chopped shrimp with ⅛ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon sugar, and ½ teaspoon cornstarch. Set aside.
2. Make the Egg Foo Young Gravy
In a medium pot or saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour to make a roux, along with the turmeric and paprika. Cook for 15-20 seconds.
Add the minced garlic and onion. Whisk for another 30 seconds.
Whisk in the 3 cups of the low-sodium chicken stock.
Bring the mixture to a simmer, and add the light soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper. The roux should thicken the gravy slightly.
Dissolve the 3 tablespoons of cornstarch in the remaining ¼ cup of chicken stock to make a slurry. Slowly stir in two-thirds of the mixture.
Let cook for 30 seconds, until the gravy is thick enough to coat a spoon. Add more of the cornstarch slurry if needed. Add more salt or soy sauce to your taste, but be careful not to over-salt the gravy. Cover and set aside. You can find more photos and details on egg foo young gravy in our post on How to Make Egg Foo Young Gravy.
3. Make the Egg Foo Young Batter
In a wok or deep pot, preheat 6 cups of frying oil to 335-350°F (170-175°C). Use a digital instant-read or candy thermometer to check the temperature––too high a temperature will result in burned Egg Foo Young patties, and too low a temperature will cause extra greasy patties or ones that fall apart!
Don’t jump ahead to mixing the batter until your oil is close to the target temperature. Beating the eggs at the last minute will help form nice patties.
Our recommended instant read thermometer
The Thermoworks Thermapen® ONE instant read thermometer is a staple in our kitchen. It gives a temperature reading in one second and is accurate to ±0.5°F (±0.3°C). Note: we are a Thermoworks affiliate partner, and we do earn a small commission if you purchase through the affiliate link above.)
It makes monitoring oil temperature, baked goods, and internal meat temperatures a breeze for recipes like our chili oil, our egg rolls, shrimp egg foo young (or pork egg foo young), and notoriously finicky Chinese sesame balls (where accuracy is key to good results and safe frying!).
Now for the batter. Place the velveted shrimp into a mixing bowl with the diced onions, bean sprouts, eggs, sesame oil, scallions, and the remaining 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. Do not add any salt or seasonings to this mixture, or your Egg Foo Young patties may not hold together when frying!
Use a large soup ladle or hoak (a Chinese ladle that’s often used together with a Chinese spatula) to fold the mixture together until just combined. The eggs should look like they are slightly beaten and only just mixed with the rest of the ingredients. If you over-mix the eggs or mix the eggs too early, the whole mixture will become too watery, and will not form a patty during frying.
4. Fry the Egg Foo Young Omelets
This recipe makes 6 patties. Using your ladle, carefully drop three separate scoops (about ¾ cup) of the mixture into the wok for the first batch (you can also work in batches of 2 if your wok is smaller).
NOTE:
We have a very large wok, so I cooked all 6 patties at once!
The correct technique is to tilt your ladle close to the oil, and pour the mixture starting from the edge where the oil meets the wok. Pour it slowly, so the ladle barely touches the oil. If the ladle does touch the hot oil, the egg will cook while it’s still in the ladle, and it will stick. You won’t have a smooth drop for the next Egg Foo Young patty.
If you notice that any of your patties are smaller than the others, you can quickly ladle on additional egg!
Let the patties fry for about 2 minutes, making sure the oil stays at 335-350°F (170-175°C). To speed up the cooking time, you can also use your wok spatula to gently spoon some hot oil on top of the uncooked patty. When each patty is solid and turning golden brown around the edges, use your wok spatula to turn them over in the same order that you dropped them into the oil.
Here’s how the patties should look after flipping:
After another 1-2 minutes, scoop out each patty with a wire strainer or Chinese spider, giving it a few gentle taps to remove excess oil. Place each patty on a wire rack over a sheet pan to drain. Repeat until all of your patties are cooked.
In the restaurant, we actually would stack and then squeeze the patties together between our hoak and wok spatula (or using the side of the wok) to remove excess oil quickly and efficiently. But if you’re not confident, this can be risky with all that hot oil!
Alternative cooking method: Pan-frying!
If you’d rather not deep-fry the patties, you can pan-fry them. Heat a large cast iron skillet or non-stick pan over medium-high heat. If using cast iron, heat the pan just until it starts to smoke. This will create a non-stick surface after you add the oil.
Spread 1-3 tablespoons of oil to the pan (1 tablespoon per patty), and spoon the batter into the pan as if you were making pancakes—1-3 patties, depending on how many you can fit in your pan. Reduce the heat to medium, and flip after 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown. Cook for another 1-2 minutes, depending on how well done you like your eggs.
Repeat with the remaining patties (you can still get 6 large patties, or you can make them smaller if you like, to make flipping easier).
5. Serve!
Transfer the egg foo young patties from the cooling rack to a serving plate. (Ideally these are served individually, rather than on a big family-style platter, but either works so long as you dig in right away!)
Pour some of the gravy over the top, and serve with additional gravy on the side. You can also optionally sprinkle some additional scallions/and or sesame seeds over the top.
Serve…
And enjoy immediately!
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Recipe
Shrimp Egg Foo Young
Ingredients
For the egg foo young patties:
- 10 ounces peeled, deveined shrimp (medium to large size; roughly chopped)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch (divided)
- 4-6 cups neutral oil (for frying, such as canola or peanut oil)
- 1 medium onion (diced)
- 2 cups mung bean sprouts
- 6 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 scallion (chopped)
For the gravy:
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1 teaspoon shallot or red onion (minced)
- 3 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken stock (divided)
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
Velvet the Shrimp:
- Combine the chopped shrimp with ⅛ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon sugar, and ½ teaspoon cornstarch. Set aside.
Make the Egg Foo Young Gravy:
- In a medium pot or saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour to make a roux, along with the turmeric and paprika. Cook for 15-20 seconds.
- Add the minced garlic and onion. Whisk for another 30 seconds. Whisk in the 3 cups (700ml) of the low-sodium chicken stock.
- Bring the mixture to a simmer, and add the oyster sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper. The gravy should be slightly thickened from the roux.
- Dissolve the 3 tablespoons of cornstarch in the remaining ¼ cup (60ml) of chicken stock to make a slurry. Slowly stir in two-thirds of the mixture. Let cook for 30 seconds, until the gravy is thick enough to coat a spoon. Add more of the cornstarch slurry if needed. Add more salt or soy sauce to your taste, but be careful not to over-salt the gravy. Cover and set aside.
Make the Egg Foo Young Batter:
- In a wok or deep pot, preheat 6 cups of frying oil to 335-350°F (170-175°C). Use a digital read or candy thermometer to check the temperature––too high a temperature will result in burned Egg Foo Young patties, and too low a temperature will cause extra greasy patties or ones that fall apart! Don’t jump ahead to mixing the batter until your oil is close to the target temperature. Beating the eggs at the last minute will help form nice patties.
- Now for the batter. Place the velveted shrimp into a mixing bowl with the diced onions, bean sprouts, eggs, sesame oil, scallions, and the remaining 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. Do not add any salt or seasonings to this mixture, or your Egg Foo Young patties may not hold together when frying!
- Use a large soup ladle or hoak (a Chinese ladle that’s often used together with a Chinese spatula) to fold the mixture together until just combined. The eggs should look like they are slightly beaten and only just mixed with the rest of the ingredients. If you over-mix the eggs or mix the eggs too early, the whole mixture will become too watery, and will not form a patty during frying.
Cook the Egg Foo Young Omelets:
- This recipe makes 6 patties. Using your ladle, carefully drop 2-3 separate scoops (about ¾ cup) of the mixture into the wok for the first batch (depending on how many you can fit in your wok). The correct technique is to tilt your ladle close to the oil, and pour the mixture starting from the edge where the oil meets the wok. Pour it slowly, so the ladle barely touches the oil. If the ladle does touch the hot oil, the egg will cook while it’s still in the ladle, and it will stick. You won’t have a smooth drop for the next Egg Foo Young patty.
- Let the patties fry for about 2 minutes, making sure the oil stays at 335-350°F (170-175°C). To speed up the cooking time, you can also use your wok spatula to gently spoon some hot oil on top of the uncooked patty. When each patty is solid and turning golden brown around the edges, use your wok spatula to turn them over in the same order that you dropped them into the oil.
- After another 1-2 minutes, scoop out each patty with a wire strainer or Chinese spider, giving it a few gentle taps to remove excess oil. Place each patty on a wire rack over a sheet pan to drain. Repeat until all of your patties are cooked.
Serve!
- Transfer the egg foo young patties from the cooling rack to a serving plate. (Ideally these are served individually, rather than on a big family-style platter, but either works so long as you dig in right away!) Pour some of the gravy over the top, and serve with steamed rice and additional gravy on the side.
