Egg Foo Young is a Chinese egg omelette dish made with carrots, peas, bean sprouts, onion and bell peppers with an easy gravy topping.
We love easy Chinese recipes including Classic Chinese Chow Mein, Chicken Lo Mein and Easy Mongolian Beef,and this Egg Foo Young is the perfect, easy recipe to round out your favorite Chinese takeout meal made at home.
Egg Foo Young is sort of the classic leftovers meal made into a restaurant favorite. At your local Chinese restaurant you might find the classic egg version of the dish comes out with a different assortment of ingredients mixed in every time.
This is the perfect recipe to make when you need to use up odds and ends of vegetables left over from other recipes you’ve made during the week, if you didn’t use an entire onion or whole package of carrots for example. A server at a Chinese restaurant once even explained that Egg Foo Young is a leftovers recipe, and that when they have more or less of certain vegetables they just adjust the filling to what they have.
So if you’re asking yourself what makes this Chinese omelette dish stand out? The fillings, the slight umami flavor from the soy sauce in the mixture and the sesame oil the egg mixture is cooked with. You don’t need a lot of ingredients to take a classic omelette from a breakfast dish to this Chinese restaurant favorite.
It also seems that the fillings can be regional just as the name is. There are various fillings and styles for creating the dish, and even name variations for Egg Foo Young (just like Moo Shu Pork) including Egg fooyung, egg foo yong, egg foo yung, and egg fu yung.
Long story short, don’t skip this recipe if you don’t have one of the vegetables in the list. Simply swap it out. Serve Egg Foo Young with your favorite Chinese food recipes like Hot and Sour Soup, Orange Chicken, and Chinese Steamed Rice.
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Frequently Asked Questions
You can use any assortment of your favorite vegetables including mushrooms, green onion, peas, carrots, bell pepper, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, or bean sprouts.
On top of the wide options of vegetable mix-ins, you can mix in any leftover meats you have as well. Just made sure the meat is cooked ahead of time. This dish cooks so quickly raw meat would stay raw by the time the eggs were cooked. You can make Egg Foo Young with chicken, Chinese sausage, roast pork, shrimp, beef, ham, lobster.
Here’s a classic and incredibly easy gravy to add to the top of your dish.
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Add everything to a small sauce pan and whisk well before the liquid heats up.
Cook and whisk until thickened.
How to Store Egg Foo Young
- Serve: Don’t leave Egg Foo Young at room temperature longer than 2 hours before refrigerating.
- Store: Sealed in an airtight container, Egg Foo Young will keep in the refrigerator up to 4 days.
- Freeze: Freeze Egg Foo Young in a freezer safe plastic bag for up to 4 months, with individual pieces separated by parchment. Let thaw in the refrigerator and reheat on a skillet.
Ingredients
- 8 large eggs
- 1/2 yellow onion , chopped
- 1/2 cup carrots , chopped into chunks and steamed
- 1/4 cup green peas
- 1/2 cup green bell pepper , chopped
- 1/4 cup bean sprouts , cut in half
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons sesame oil , divided
Instructions
- Add the eggs, onion, carrots, peas, bell pepper, bean sprouts and soy sauce together in a bowl and whisk to combine.
- In a large skillet heat 1 teaspoon of sesame oil at a time for each pancake you cook on medium heat.
- Add about ⅓ cup of mixture per pancake and cook for 3-4 minutes on the first side and 1-2 minutes on the second side.
Video
Notes
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 tablespoon cornstarch Add everything to a small sauce pan and whisk well before the liquid heats up.
Cook and whisk until thickened.
Nutrition
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Photos used in a previous version of this post.
Tried this and Basically it’s an omelette with soya sauce in it.
This is excellent. I didn’t mKe the gravy, just added a bit more tamari sauce to serve. Now I have to make a whole Chinese (keto) dinner to go with it. Thank you Sabrina and I look fwd to more recipes.
This is a great recipe. Simple and easy to change things in and out and still have a great meal. Only problem is how do you get a white gravy? Once you add the soy sauce it’s brown. Did I miss something ?
Looks super yum!
Sabrina. Thank you for another great recipe. Will make it again and again. The only changes I made was added minced garlic and 6 eggs. It made 9 small pancakes. How do I make them thicker?
My husband loves egg foo young…made this recipe this week for his birthday…he LOVED them! So did I…thank you for this recipe!
This looks so yummy but what can I substitute for the dry sherry in the gravy, since I never have that or use?
Thank u, I love any recipe of yours I have made so far!!
Sabrina,
Can you please send me a link to your Chinese Veg fried rice. There is some ingredient(s) in this that has a distinct flavor and I don’t know for the life of me what it is. And the restaurant Ling Garden here in NW Portland (OR) used to make it…the father retired and it’s not same??
This Veg egg fu yung recipe with the gravy was exactly what I have been looking for. Thanks to Sabrina Snyder.
I’ll look up her website for Chinese Veg fried rice.
Wow, this recipe is super easy and my husband LOVED it!!! 5 stars!!! Unfortunately I used regular soy sauce and was looking for tamari but Walmart didn’t have it. Yes, regular Soy sauce is too salty; but light soy sauce would be best (as listed on the recipe). Thank you for sharing it. Oh, seems that with 8 eggs I need to add more vegetables because the egg was runny in the pan. The gravy is delicious and perfect recipe. This one is a keeper!!
I was wondering if I could use leftover chicken chow mein? It has a protein and veggies, I was just thinking of draining off excess liquid before adding it to the eggs. Do you think this would work? I’m not planning on making the gravy just using some soy sauce after it’s all cooked if I need more seasoning.
Hello Tracy, I’m sure the chicken chow mein will work. I don’t see it making a difference 🙂
Out of curiosity I wanted to know what goes into egg foo young. I’d never thought it was authentically Chinese, because of the gravy; which is a north American or European item. The recipe at this web-site confirms my suspicions. While I don’t myself like gravy, I don’t object if others do. Although I’m not a vegetarian, I’ve cut back on meat. For my part, it’s easy to overdo on. It is a flavor food: not the main course. I eat meat a couple times a week, because of its high B12 and complete protein. Contrary to the idea that Mexican cuisine with its rice and beans provide complete protein, historically its been those two plus corn and squash. (I most times use frozen.) I am not only happy, but also pleased to have found this recipe and to learn about its history too.
I love that you are not only cooking non-traditional foods but you are also learning about where they come from as well! This is awesome, Thank you Roger!
I think your recipe is an excellent one. To me it’s very clear that there are many mix and match (or not) options as to ingredients – you shouldn’t have to apologize to those who don’t realize this. I put a little toasted sesame oil in the egg mixture and in the gravy mixture then fry in a neutral oil (avocado). Yum!
Does this recipe serve 4?
And when do the carrots and the sprouts go in – the carrots surely with the other veg in the main mix, and the sprouts towards the end.
Unless I’m missing something they were left out?
The recipe looks great otherwise, but it would be much easier to follow if all the ingredients were listed right at the top of the page – so many descriptions and so much discussion before you actually find the ingredients list!
This recipe yields 6 servings. Enjoy!
Mushrooms? Not in ingredients list yet step one said to mix in mushrooms?
Thanks for catching that. I’ve edited it to read correctly. I didn’t end up using mushrooms in this recipe.
Hi! I am just starting a low carb diet. Are you certain about the carb count? Is it with the sauce?
If you are on a strict diet, I would suggest using your own calculator for nutritional information. The one in the recipe card is a plug in that calculates based on the ingredient list.
How many does this recipe cook for
This yields 6 servings. Enjoy!
Can I make the gravy without the dry sherry?
Yes, you can substitute with white wine, brandy or dry vermouth. Even vinegars would work although any substitute might adjust the original flavor a bit. Good luck!
I’ll usually mix in a large can of drained albacore tuna to the egg mixture, so easy, super fast and delicious!
Wow I just made Egg Drop Soup in less than 10 minutes! Amazing taste!!!All your recipies are spot on in directions and your comments! Winner!
Thanks, Eileen.
Just proves there is no magic in cooking only magic people who show you how easy it is
Thank you
If you really want to up your gravy game, try 1-2 tbsp of oyster sauce.
Thanks
Can the patties be frozen?
Certainly. You can freeze them after they are cooked for up to a month. Reheat in the oven. Hope this helps!
Great it’s in my grocery shopping list budget
Yay! Love to hear that!
I have always made my egg foo yung with mushrooms. I always precook them so they do not liquify the eggs by going watery. As noted by another comment made this recipe needs seasoning.. 1 grated garlic clove and 1/4-1/2 tsp grated ginger along with black pepper to your taste.
Thanks for the feedback.
Do I have to use sesame oil?
It will greatly change the flavor if you leave it out.
You can always add oyster sauce to the eggs.
I’m trying this recipe for dinner tonight. Just one question, what measurement amount is it for the mushrooms?
I’m so sorry, my final testing of the recipe didn’t include mushrooms and it looks like I forgot to take it out in the instructions portion. Feel free to leave them out too or if you want to use them, inlcude 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms. I just found that they released too much water in the 2nd to last testing that’s why I decided not to use them. Hope this helps!
I am going to try this recipe it looks great. I have been so disappointed with the egg foo young in the south west it is so different than what I grew up with on the north east. The egg foo young in the south west is awfully it has a bread/muffin like consistency without any indication of eggs at all. My husband and I are longing for some good Chinese food.
I hope you enjoy it!
Sabrina,
I tried making your gravy from this recipe. I whisked and cooked this for at least 20min, and it would never thicken. It only turned brown, the color of tea. You instructions kept me wondering! Should it come to a boil, first? How high should the heat be? How long should it take?
Can you give further instructions, on how to cook this gravy?
It sounds like your heat might have been too low. You’ll want to have it over medium heat and it should take about 10 minutes to make. Hope this helps!
If it doesn’t thicken, you can add 1 tsp. of cornstarch and 1 tsp. of water mixed into slurry, then added to the sauce.
This recipe was not too badd in my opinion you need an extra half a cup of bean sprouts, some seasoning added to to egg mixture 1/2t garlic powder and 1/4t ground black pepper. All in all this was a great recipe, tysm for sharing it here.
Egg Foo Young is our FAVORITE! I am definitely going to try this!
I hope you enjoy it Cathy!
Looks like something my kids will love! I can’t wait to give this a try!
Enjoy!
Sabrina, you are my hero(ine)!!! I cannot tell you how long I have been looking for an Egg Foo Young recipe-especially without napa cabbage or bok choy-as it is served in Central GA at EVERY restaurant, as they claim that it “Can’t be made without it” although I grew up without ever having it served with cabbage in the Midwest!!! Anyhoo, I am beyond thrilled to try this recipe “House style”!!!! Thanks SO MUCH for this and all of your fabu recipes!! Will let you know how this turns out!
You just made my day! I hope you enjoy it!
This looks so good! I have to give it a try!
I hope you enjoy it Krista!
Never had this before – will need to try!
It’s fun trying new things! Enjoy!!
This is seriously making me hungry!
I’ve never had egg foo young. I need to make your recipe soon! Love this idea for leftovers!
Amazing job with this recipe, so easy to follow and delicious!
Thanks Amanda!