Many of you loved the easy mapo tofu recipe I first posted in March 2008. Since then, I’ve taught the dish many times in cooking classes, which allowed me to revise it here and streamlined the process. After all these years, it’s still a crowd-pleaser. Make it for one of those nights when you want a quick main dish that’s packed with flavor! And if you’re looking for a similar dish with noodles, try my Mapo Tofu Ramen.
(P.S. The original post is still here for posterity’s sake, but I no longer live in China.)
If I had to make a list of my top favorite comfort foods of all time, mapo tofu would be among the top 10. I almost always order it at Sichuan restaurants, despite that voice in my head pushing me to try something new. But the craving is too hard to resist. Thinking about the spicy thick sauce that wraps sublimely around white rice, and the soft tofu contrasting with the slightly crispy pork, makes me surrender to the tried-and-true.
Fortunately, mapo tofu also very easy to make at home. The recipe I’ve developed after countless times of making mapo tofu has a hearty chili sauce perfumed with sesame. (For an extremely spicy recipe, try the one from Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking
I made this earlier today for lunch, about 3 hours before my apartment ran out of electricity. Yes, ran out of electricity. One of the wonderful things about living in China is that often you must buy electricity beforehand. So if you’re completely absentminded like I am and don’t realize that your electricity meter is running awfully low, you may end up all of a sudden wondering why the lights, TV, and most importantly, Wifi, all suddenly turned off. And I can’t buy more electricity until morning.
So since I didn’t feel like spending the entire night in the dark with only tealights for guidance, I headed to a café in a nearby hutong. However, after I settled down, plugged in my computer, got ready for some coffee and dinner, I am told that the kitchen is being renovated, so no food service tonight.
And now I remember that fridges run on electricity. I should get home soon and reheat this delicious mapo tofu, while it’s still being preserved by what’s left of the refrigerator’s coldness.
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Mapo Tofu
Serves 4 to 5 as part of a multi-course meal
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon fermented black beans (or substitute black bean sauce)
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 1/2 tablespoons chili bean paste
- 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper
Other ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
- ½ pound ground pork or beef
- 2 leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced at an angle
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 block soft or medium-firm tofu (about 1 pound), drained and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
- 1 scallion, green part only, chopped for garnish
- Prepare the sauce: Rinse the black beans to remove any grit. In a small bowl, mash the black beans with the back of a spoon. Combine the black beans with the chicken stock, chili bean paste, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and Sichuan pepper. Set aside.
- Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates on contact. Add the peanut oil and swirl to coat the base. Add the pork and stir-fry until crispy and starting to brown but not yet dry, about 2 minutes, breaking up the pork with a spatula. Reduce the heat to medium, then add leeks, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Pour in the sauce and bring the liquid to a boil, the reduce to a simmer. The liquid should now have a nice red color. Gently add the tofu cubes, being careful to not move them around too much or else they will break up. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 2 to 3 minutes so the tofu can cook and absorb the the sauce.
- Carefully push the tofu to the sides and create a small well in the middle. Stir in the cornstarch mixture in the center. Allow the liquid to simmer for another minute, until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Transfer to a deep plate or wide bowl, sprinkle scallions on top, and serve hot.
Recipe first posted March 12, 2008. Updated May 6, 2013.
I always order the same dishes when dining in restaurants too. And mapo toufu is one of the must order dish in the sichuan restaurant. Hope you get your electricity back soon.
Looks delicious! I was just thinking about making this dish, but I needed to find a good recipe… problem solved. Thanks for sharing!
This looks fantastic. I love the smell of sichuan peppercorns in my kitchen when I’m tempering them in a wok, it fills the whole room. That ‘mala’ taste is so comforting, indeed a perfect dish for when you’re stuck with no electricity!
That book is on my wish list, and I’ve really got to buy it now! Your mapo tofu looks terrifically good (the restaurants always make it too bland for me). Crazy story about the electricity, though. We really take some things for granted in the US, huh?
Fortunately my electricity is back up now. I did realize that I had become so dependent on electricity that I didn’t know how to pass the time. Watch TV? No. Go online? No. Bake? I finally settled on reading M.F.K. Fisher by flashlight.
That looks scrumptious. I must try it soon; it does sound easy to make. Perhaps if I don’t tell my husband it’s tofu in there . . . he’d like the pork, anyway!
I love your site, which I discovered recently. I made this mapo tofu last night for my family and it was a big hit! Thanks!
this is my comfort meal!
I always thought ma-po tofu one of those dishes I could never make at home. Looking at the recipe, it seems that I can manage it. Thanks for sharing — and will be bookmarking this one to try real soon.
Mapo Doufu look like very delicious.
I see this recipe contains pork, and you mentioned it is a strong flavor component to the dish. Do you have any suggestions for modifying it so it’s vegetarian without losing any major flavor? I feel like I answered my own question, but thanks in advance for any insight you can lend.
marguerite – You can use smoked tofu if it’s available where you live. This vegan blogger had a lot of success doing a meatless version of this dish:
http://avegancalledbacon/2008/05/pockmarked-old-woman/
Omg I’ve been messing up mapo tofu every time I attempt to cooking this dish (I use a premix every time) and I’m too cheap to order this in the restaurants. Will try your recipe over the weekends. :)
Oh. Shut. Up.
This recipe is crazy mad good. Vegetarians, use SoyRizo instead of pork. It’s delish! No one will miss eating animal.
Thanks a bunch for a recipe I will impress people with for the rest of my life. ;-)
I saw someone do an amazing vegan meat substitution for Chinese food once… It basically involved marinating soybeans in some kind of dark brown sauce that gave it the same flavor as meat, then crushing the soybeans lightly and deep-frying them. It looked exactly the same as the tiny slivers of ground pork you see in Mapo Tofu. Maybe someone can figure out how it was done…?
Best way is to use Dehydrated Soy Protein…hydrate it add a little salt, drain very well and make sure its dry, then fry it up a bit to make crispy….exact texture of ground pork, yum yum
I will have to try this out. It looks very good from the pictures. There are only a handfull of restaurants here in Virginia that can actually make this dish right. I’ve ordered it may times and have been let down just about everytime. =(. Oh well, thanks for the recipe!!
By chili bean paste, do you mean doubanjiang, or something else? I think I need to go to my local Asian grocery with somebody who can translate the labels.
Noah – Yup, you can use doubanjiang. Another kind that works well for me is Korean chili paste (gochujang)…you can find it in jars or plastic tubs. It gives mapo doufu a vibrant red color and a slightly sweet taste.
I just made this tonight and it was fantastic!!! Didn’t have the Sichuan pepper at home though and had to substitute with ground black pepper instead. Thanks for sharing this recipe! =)
I visited china recently for ten weeks and returned home with 1 lb each of green and red szechuan pepper.
its not about any of the other ingredients. pork, chilis and chili oil, black bean paste, tofu, and pepper. if your lip are not totally numb its not szechuan mapo tofu
I made this dish without the pork and with less heat. It was so good. Tasted just like the resturant I went to with my Chinese friend. My family loved it. Thanks for a great recipe!
I have looked for Chili Bean Paste to give my Shanghai Noodles that authentic colour and taste. The sauce aisle at T&T is admirable. =)
I didn’t know which was the right sauce to use. Any suggestions?
So many choices, there’s chili bean sauce, bean sauce with chili, bean paste in oil, etc. etc.
Melissa – Chili bean sauce would work if it has a thick, not too watery consistency. For the most part, apart from soy sauce, the "sauce" or "paste" part of Chinese condiments are interchangeable. (For example, hoisin sauce and bottled chili sauces could easily be called pastes.)
I’ve only had the Australian-ised version of Mapo Tofu at restaurants, which is hardly spicy at all. Unfortunately I don’t have fermented black beans or doubanjiang… might try it with the closest I do have for tonight; Chilli paste in soybean oil (thai – nam prik pow) and fermented soybean paste in place of the beans.
I’m going to have to find the proper ingredients! This just looks and sounds too amazing not to try! Glad I found your blog, I think I’ll have to go through trying recipe after recipe each night until I get to the end!
Avsky – That’s a shame. It can hardly be mapo tofu if it’s not spicy. Try it with the fermended soybean paste and chili paste and let me know how it goes.
That’s funny. My Chinese friends always protested when I ordered this plus rice. Not only was it the cheapest thing on the menu, they also usually didn’t order rice, as it was viewed as a ‘filler’ if there wasn’t enough food. But I had to explain every time that it was my favorite dish.
Brilliant! I first had this in Taipei in 1998 and simply feel in love with it, heading back there again next week and i am like a child waiting for Santa Claus. Thanks for the recipe. It is my favourite dish ever and i am a chef by trade…Happy Cooking !!
and chili paste is just 1 tablespn of chili powder, 1 tablespn of water and 1 teaspoon of flour.
This dish is, by far, my favorite Chinese dish. I’ve never been to China, but I’ve had it at hundreds of restaurants in the US. The fit to my taste varies from so-so to sublime. It’s a bit rare to get it with much of the Sichuan peppercorns, unfortunately. I also like it with lots of sliced ginger. My favorite treat is to have a fresh jalapeno or two thinly sliced over the top. It definitely has to go over steamed, sticky rice. I can’t even write about it without my mouth watering…
This sounds just great! Looks great too!. My SO doesn’t eat pork, and I often sub ground beef. Do you think that would work here? Also, when you say ‘chili garlic sause’, what’s in it? We use LanChi chili garlic sause all the time, and that’s what’s in it – nothing but HOT chilies and garlic, and I think a little oil. I can’t imagine using as much as 2 1/2 T of it in anything that serves 2-3 people, even chili-heads, so you are probably using a different kind of sauce. We like hot, but want to be able to talk the next day
Savvy – Yes, you can substitute ground beef. The chili garlic sauce I use is made out of sweet chilis, so it’s rather mild. If you are using anything very hot (or even anything with lots of white chilis seeds inside the jar), feel free to use half the amount. It’s always easier to adjust later on by adding more chili sauce than subtracting. :)
Thanks! The LanChi Chili Garlic paste is Korean, and might powerful stuff, but I recommend it highly. Not so easy to find in the States, or at least in the Northeast. We get a case at a time and stash it. We also use the Mae Ploy sweet chili garlic sauce. Maybe that’s more like what you mention.
Savvy
I use the Union Foods broad bean paste found at the local asian grocery (northern virginia). They call it “Hot Broad Bean Sauce.”
http://www.ufunionfood.com/en/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=214
I ate at an excellent Sichuan restaurant in manhattan that set the bar for this dish. Only using authentic broad bean paste can I get mine to taste the same. Anyone having trouble finding the correct ingredients might want to look into this brand.
Initially I used the types found in my regular grocer’s asian section. Looking back, the flavors I ended up with were unfortunately not close to authentic. What you really want is the find with only a few ingredients: Broad beans, chilis, salt, water, etc.
Great recipe. Do you think could add the Chinese names in the future? Makes looking for the sauces and condiments easier for some of us.
I am so excited to make this recipe. I have a friend from the Szechuan region of China who introduced me to truly authentic Szechuan cooking! There is a restaurant here in Lansdale, PA that serves a really good (and according to her, authentic) Mapo Tofu and I am hoping yours mimics the excellent flavor and tongue-numbing deliciousness that is Mapo Tofu!
Thanks for posting. :)
oops. Sichuan. Forgive my American Naivete.
I just love spicy food and this dish look delicious! If it’s really true that this sichuan pepper will make your lips/mouth go numb I must try it! Thanks for the recipe.
Greetings from Sweden!
awesome recipe, cooked it today!
this was the first time my gf liked doufu :D
thanks alot!
I’m in the middle of making this for tonight. I really do appreciate that you have updated this recipe.
I’ve never made this entirely from scratch as I am doing now and I am really looking forward to it. :)
It would be helpful if you post a photo of the ingredients used as well. Even a section on your site dedicated to common ingredients used w/ photos and such. It is sometimes overwhelming to shop @ the oriental store w/ so many similar things and which brands to choose, etc. Example: fermented black beans (or subsitute black bean sauce), chili bean paste. And 2 leeks mean 2 whole ones or just 2 stems, same thing w/ the scallion?
AH HAH! Crispy pork! This is my husband favorite go-to meal… the crispy twist is something I’ll have to try… sounds even more crazy good!
Ma Po Tofu was my first introduction to Sichuan food and now I’m hooked.
Thanks for the recipe and reminder .
Made this tonight for the first time and it was EXACTLY what I was looking for. I had seen a bunch of recipes for mapo tofu that didn’t use the fermented beans and I knew that my boyfriend’s parents put the beans in their version.
It was much easier to make than I thought it would be and it tasted so so good. This one is going in the regular rotation.
Can’t wait to try the mapo ramen!
This is perfection! Better than any restaurant in the US. Thank you.