Chives Pancake

One of my favorite greens to buy is Chinese chives. They are typically used in Asian dumplings and spring rolls, Korean chive pancakes, as garnish (sort of like how we use scallions), in Chinese stir-fried flat rice noodles, in Indonesian perkedel, and of course, in this lovely Chinese chives pancake.

Whenever I make dumplings, I usually will be left with a surplus of Chinese chives and the best and quickest way to use them all up is to make these pancakes. I make double or triple batches just to use up all my extra chives, and these pancakes never last long in my home.

One batch is enough for 4 adults if served as a side dish, though on occasions, I have devoured the whole pancake by myself when I’m super hungry. So it’s never a bad idea to make extra batches, especially when the recipe is this easy. 😁

What are Chinese chives?

Chinese chives (or garlic chives) and regular chives (or onion chives) both belong to the same family, and at a glance, both look almost the same. But be sure to grab the right one when you do your shopping since they have very different flavors.

Though both are most commonly used in savory dishes, the flavor profile cannot be more different. Chinese (garlic) chives have a strong garlicky flavor, while regular (onion) chives have a subtle onion flavor. Shocker right?

Unlike regular (onion) chives where one can use the whole plant, for Chinese (garlic) chives, we only use the top green blade portion. And the most typical way to use Chinese chives is to thinly slice them just like scallions.

What's in Chinese chives pancake?

As I said, this is a really simple recipe with very basic Chinese pantry ingredients.

We will need eggs, Chinese (garlic) chives, oyster sauce, fish sauce, salt, and ground white pepper.

We’ll need a frying pan to fry the pancakes. For a thinner pancake, a 10-inch frying pan is perfect. If you want a thicker pancake, you can go with an 8-inch pan.

The pancake shown in the photos is fried with a 10-inch pan, so hopefully, you can get an idea of how thick the pancake will be. 😁

Frying the chives pancake

First, heat a frying pan over medium-high heat.

Next, lightly beat the eggs with water, oyster sauce, fish sauce, salt, and pepper. Toss in sliced chives into the egg mixture.

Reduce the heat to a medium, add 2 tablespoons of oil, then swirl to coat the frying pan.

Pour the eggs and chives mixture to the frying pan. Once the bottom is browned and set, flip and cook the other side until set.

Remove the pancake from the pan, cut into wedges and serve immediately.