Fu Qi Fei Pian, or Sichuan Sliced beef in Chili Sauce, is one of the most underrated dishes outside of China. The tender beef slices are served in a rich, spicy hot sauce and topped with peanut flakes and cilantro. Every bite is bursting with flavor. You need to try this one out if you’re into real-deal Sichuan food. {Gluten-Free adaptable}
Why is this dish not very well-known outside the Chinese community?
A dish with a weird name
Well, it has a weird enough name to scare anyone away, like the famous saliva chicken. Fu Qi Fei Pian can be translated literally as “Husband and Wife Lung Slices”. You can read a bit more about the story of this strange name on Wikipedia. Just so you know, the dish doesn’t usually contain lung.
In reality, the dish is usually made with the cheapest cuts of the beef available, such as brisket, plus some offal, such as tripe, heart, or tongue. Not only are these offal parts cheaper, but they also create a mixed texture of tender and crunchy, which adds a nice touch to the cheap beef cuts.
Traditionally, the beef cuts are braised for 6 to 7 hours in a savory broth, then thinly sliced and served in a scrumptious sauce made with chili oil, some braising liquid, and plenty of aromatics. And guess what? It’s only an appetizer.
Seems like some intensive labor just to make an appetizer, right? That’s why I rarely make it at home, at least, until recently. I found out it was a favorite dish of a close friend. So I decided to develop this shortcut version that yields perfect results, just like you’d get in China.
Cooking notes
1. Which cut to use
My favorite combinations are – beef brisket and beef tongue, or beef chuck and beef tongue. I would be sure to have at least two types of meat, so that the texture of the dish is more interesting. If you prefer to cook the dish the super authentic way, use beef tripe and beef brisket. However, if you prefer lean meat, you could use brisket or chuck without any offal.
2. Be sure to cook it in a big batch
I usually cook about 3 to 3.5 lbs (1.4 to 1.5 kg) of meat in my 6-quart Instant Pot. I cut the meat into big chunks so it fits into the pot in one layer. This way, the cooking liquid will just cover the meat once the cooking is done. If you have a larger Instant Pot, you probably can cook more beef in one batch without doubling the sauce.
I would not recommend cooking this dish in a small batch. First of all, you will need exactly the same amount of time to cook a small batch. Plus, you will end up using more water if cooking it on the stovetop, or need to double the braising seasoning if cooking in a pressure cooker. It will dilute the broth and result in a taste that isn’t as rich.
3. Homemade ingredients are key
Yes, it takes a lot of time to make chili oil and flavored sweet soy sauce from scratch, but it is totally worth the effort. These two ingredients stay well in the fridge for months, and you can use them to make many other dishes. For example, Sichuan Wontons in Red Oil, Lanzhou Beef Ramen, Sichuan Chicken in Red Oil, and Vegetarian Chow Mein. These two ingredients will make your dishes taste like the real-deal Sichuan food in China.
To make the best Sichuan food, I highly recommend getting some premium Sichuan peppercorns and chili flakes from The Mala Market. Their products are some of the freshest available and are imported directly from Sichuan.
4. Cooking in advance is a great idea
This dish is perfect for meal-prep or hosting an impressive Chinese dinner. You can make the beef and the sauce a day in advance and assemble it a couple hours before serving. The beef will soak up the sauce and taste so good. When I make this dish for my friend, I always save some for myself and serve it on top of rice. So irresistible!
After my friend tasted my dish, she loved it so much and demanded more. She told me that it tasted even better than the restaurant version, because my dish had a fresher taste, plus all the seasonings were on point!
More real-deal Sichuan recipes
- Real-Deal Kung Pao Tofu
- Sichuan Dry Fried Green Beans
- Dan Dan Noodles
- Sichuan Eggplant Stir Fry (Yu Xiang Qie Zi)
- Addictive Sichuan Mala Chicken (La Zi Ji)
- Suan Cai Yu (Sichuan Fish with Pickled Mustard Greens)
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Fu Qi Fei Pian (Sichuan Sliced Beef in Chili Sauce, 夫妻肺片)
Ingredients
- 3 to 3.5 lbs (1.3 to 1.5 kg) beef brisket , chuck, tongue, and/or tripe (I used a mixture of brisket and tongue) (*Footnote 1)
Braising
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 4 dried chili peppers
- 3 green onions , halved lengthwise
- 2 large slices ginger
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
Sauce
- 4 tablespoons homemade chili oil with 2 tablespoons chili flake residue (or to taste)
- 3 tablespoons braising liquid (*Footnote 2)
- 2 tablespoons homemade flavored sweet soy sauce (*Footnote 3)
- 2 teaspoons Chinkiang vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground toasted Sichuan peppercorns (or to taste)
- 3 cloves garlic , grated
- 2 green onions , chopped
- 1 teaspoon ginger , grated
Topping options
- Chopped cilantro , toasted sesame seeds, and/or chopped toasted peanuts for garnish
Instructions
Braise
- (Option 1 - stovetop) Place the beef in a big pot and add water to cover by 1 inch. Cook over medium-high heat until boiling. Turn to medium heat and boil for 10 minutes. Skim the surface using a fine mesh strainer and discard the foam until the broth turns clear. Add all the braising ingredients. Turn to medium-low heat. Simmer, covered, until the beef turns tender but not tender enough to fall apart, 2 hours or so.
- (Option 2) Place the beef in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot. Add all the braising ingredients and 1 cup water. Close and seal the lid. If using a pressure cooker, cook over medium heat until the pressure is achieved, then turn to medium-low heat. Cook at high pressure for 35 minutes. Use natural release once done.
- Once the beef is done, transfer to a plate to cool enough to handle. Slice the beef against the grain into 1/8-inch (4-cm) pieces. (*Footnote 4) Now you can serve the beef or store it in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days before serving.
Sauce
- Mix all the sauce ingredients in a bowl. For an even better result, mix the sauce in advance and let sit for a couple hours before serving.
Serve
- Cut the beef into thin slices. Transfer to a deep plate. Drizzle with plenty of sauce, top with cilantro, sesame seeds, and peanuts.
- Serve at room temperature as an appetizer or a main dish. (*Footnote 5)
Notes
- The real-deal Fu Qi Fei Pian served in China is usually a mixture of cheap cuts of beef and innards, such as tripe or heart. If you are not comfortable using innards, simply use a large cut of beef, such as brisket, chuck, pot roast, or eye round roast. My favorite combination is brisket and beef tongue.
- Get the braising liquid from the pot once you’re done cooking the beef.
- If you do not have this ingredient, you can also use 2 tablespoons soy sauce plus 2 teaspoons sugar as a substitution, though your sauce will lose its thick consistency.
- If using beef tongue, do remember to remove and discard the tough skin once you finish braising.
- The beef will taste best when it’s fresh and still a bit warm. If you store it in the fridge, you can gently heat it up in the microwave before serving. It will revive the beef, making the texture tender and bringing out its flavor, which helps it soak up more sauce.
Hi!
I tried to make this last night and I had a few questions:
1) I did did 35 mins on my instant pot in high pressure for tripe and beef shank, however, it seemed like the beef shank fell apart and was more like stewed meat. Is that the texture we’re looking for?
2) Pressure cooking the tripe seems to have produced a stench that was emitted in the air and also in the braising liquid. Is that normal?
3) I’ve some braising liquid left and I was wondering if you had any suggestions on what I could do with it.
Thank you!
Ben
This dish looks fabulous. I am interested in trying this recipe with beef heart. Should I cook the beef heart for the same length of time in the Instant Pot as for brisket or shank??
Hi Christine, I’ve never cooked beef heart in Instant Pot but I think 30 to 35 minutes is a good place to start.
Hi Maggie,
I have made this dish last evening with a chunk of beef shoulder and it turned out fantastic, everybody was raving about it enthusiastically. I tried not to deviate from your instructions but had to skip the cilantro at the end since I had none, but sprinkled everything with some green onions. Also, I love the homemade flavored sweet soy sauce and will include it in my staples.
Thank you for this great recipe — and all the other ones I have found on your website!
Made this for dinner yesterday and it was a huge hit with hubby! Only thing I changed was adding more broth and soy to the sause as I didnt realize how much heat the schezwan peppercorns had! It was a first for me using them. I also used top sirloin because it is hubbys favorite cut. Your recipe for the chili oil is fantasic as well, love it, and cant wait to use it in other dishes. It was actually fun watching the hot oil cook the spices, and so easy to make! Hubby said this recipe is a keeper, best compliment I can get! Thank you Maggie!
So happy to hear it Rhonda! The taste of Sichuan peppercorn can be a surprise if you never had it before, but I’m glad that you enjoyed the taste 🙂
I made this a couple of times. It is a big hit with both my wife and my stepdaughter, I’m a white guy and they are both Chinese. Even more amazing, they are from Guangzhou so don’t like spicy food…but they love this.
Hi Paul, thanks for leaving a comment and I’m glad to hear you gave this dish a try! It’s rather a less-known dish but I like it a lot 🙂 So happy to hear that your family enjoy it as well!
If I wanted to use beef hearts, how long would I cook it for? I plan on using the instant pot
Do you think venison will work with this recipe?
I think you definitely can, but I’d make sure to use a pressure cooker to make the meat tender. Venison is quite lean and the meat can turn quite tough.
I have literally never commented on a recipe blog before but I just had to for this recipe. This was simply one of the most delicious things I have ever cooked. I didn’t want to leave home to buy a couple of the ingredients so I made the following swaps and the dish came out utterly amazing:
– mirin for shaoxing wine,
– dark soy sauce diluted with a little water for the light soy sauce,
– kecap manis for the homemade sweetened soy sauce, and
– Marion Grasby’s homemade chilli oil recipe.
I look forward to trying a lot more recipes from your site now =]