My favourite Chinese restaurant treat made at home – with step by step photos! Wonderfully crisp on the outside, chewy, flaky and salty on the inside. Authentic and easy! I love scallion pancakes so much I used to stockpile frozen ones from the Asian grocery store, then cook them up at home. I swear they are the best midnight snack after a few too many vinos – and they take minutes to cook straight from the freezer. I was inspired to try to make them myself because I bought a whole bunch of shallots just so I could use one piece for a recipe and I had to find a recipe that used a lot of shallots!
YES this is easy! Of course it is easy – every recipe on my blog is easy. I promise you this is worth trying. The smell when the pancake hits the pan, the shallots sizzling…..I’m lost for words to describe how good it is. It is a great make ahead dish – you can keep the ready-to-cook pancakes in the fridge or the freezer – and you can cook them in their frozen state, it just takes a 3 minutes instead of 2 minutes on the stove.
The recipe is really easy (full recipe provided below). All you do is combine flour, salt and water to make a dough, set it aside for 10 minutes, divide into two, then roll each ball out thinly into about 1.5ft/50cm x 8″/20cm. Then spray lightly with oil, then roll it up starting from the wide end. Then coil it into a snail shape, push down with your hand and roll out again into the same shape. Repeat with the other ball.
Roll them out again. This time after you spray it with oil, scatter over the chopped scallions and a pinch of salt. Then roll it up again, starting from the wide end. After rolling it up, cut the dough in half, then coil again. You will end up with 4 coils. Push down with your hand and roll out into a round pancake about 1/3 ” / 0.5 cm thick. Then you simply pan fry.
The spraying of oil, coiling them re-rolling is what creates the flaky layers which you can see in this photo.
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
Scallion Pancakes (Shallot Pancakes)
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups chopped shallots (aka green onions, shallots) (half a large bunch)
- Oil spray (any is fine, except olive oil)
- 4 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
Dipping Sauce
- Soy sauce
- Black vinegar (or substitute with white vinegar)
- Chilli paste (optional)
Instructions
- Combine flour and 1 tsp salt in a bowl, add water in 3 batches, mixing in between with a spoon (see notes for tips on getting the dough right).
- Knead for a minute, either in the bowl or on a flour dusted surface, then cover with cling wrap and rest for 10 minutes.
- Divide dough into 2 pieces.
- Roll out dough thinly into a rectangle should about 1.5ft/50cm x 8"/20cm.
- Spray lightly with oil (any oil is fine - except perhaps olive oil), then roll it up starting from the wide end so you have a long roll.
- Coil it into a snail shape, push down with your hand and roll out again into the same shape.
- Spray again with oil, scatter over the chopped scallions and a pinch of salt. Then roll it up again, starting from the wide end.
- Cut the roll in half, and coil each roll.
- Repeat with the other ball of dough. You will end up with 4 coils.
- Flatten each coil, then roll out into round shapes about 1/3 " / 0.5 cm thick.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in pan, pan fry for 1 1/2 minutes on the first side, then 1 minute on the other side, pushing down with a spatula if necessary to get it to cook the surface evenly. It should be a dark golden brown colour.
- Combine equal parts of soy sauce and black vinegar into a small sauce dish, and add a dollop of Asian chilli paste.
Recipe Notes:
2. You can refrigerate or freeze the rolled out ready-to-cook pancakes. You do not even need to defrost them to cook them, just pop them straight into the pan, though it will take a minute or so longer to cook.
Oh dear – nearly dribbled into my keyboard when I saw this – can’t wait to make it/them
My pancakes came out hard, not flaky. Followed recipe, left flour 20 minutes instead of 10min. Would this make dough touch?
I too would appreciate an answer as to why mine turned out hard, not flaky?
This was my first time making these pancakes. I did struggle with flattening them out as much as possible and the end results weren’t perfect, but they taste amazing as does that sauce! Will be attempting these again in the future!
Woo hoo!! That’s great Maegan! I am happy they tasted amazing!! N x
I have seen a couple of recipes that use boiling water for the dough. Have you heard of that method Nagi? I have been looking at different recipes to try and choose the easiest 🙂
Hi to Dozer.
I made these at the request of my son. I have tried other similar recipes. This one works best! I do, however, find the 50×20 pretty long to flatten n roll. So I divided the dough into 4 portions right from the start before rolling. Then roll it into 25x20cm for each dough. It came up perfect. Also added some 5-spice powder for a tweak! Nagi, your website has been my Go-to since I discovered it! TQVM!
Thanks, I took your tip and they were easy to manage! Mine were a bit doughy in the middle still so I think I’ll do lower heat and longer next time
I made these at the request of my son. I have tried other similar recipes. This one works best! I do, however, find the 50×20 pretty long to flatten n roll. So I divided the dough into 4 portions right from the start before rolling. Then roll it into 25x30cm for each dough. It came up perfect. Also added some 5-spice powder for a tweak! Nagi, your website has been my Go-to since I discovered it! TQVM!
For my first go, these turned out very well. I just need to balance my rolling thickness to stickiness ratio.
Flavour was delicious.
Thank you for your entire website – such inspiration and I am so happy to try new things (which I know will be delicious!!)
I just made these – what an excellent breakfast! They’re delicious! They are so filling – I’m going to freeze the rest and air fry them later. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Greetings all the way from Toronto, Canada! I grew up eating my mom’s delicious Chinese food – but she didn’t teach me or my sisters how to cook…so I’m really happy to have found RecipeTinEats! I love the easy to follow instructions (and the substitutions)! I’m just a novice cook but I’ve been trying new recipes because of the lockdown. Thanks for this recipe Nagi – it reminds me of my childhood! (I’m going to try all your Chinese recipes – one recipe at a time!)
Error in ingredients. States shallots and should be scallions
Hi Barbara, same thing – they are called shallots here 🙂 N x
Tend to agree with other commenters.
Shallots are like little onions – they have a brown skin that you peel off; opposed to scallions and spring onions which are the same… Long green stalks, white at the base.
I’m in WA so perhaps things have a different name on the other side of the country.
Those are eshalots – erroneously called shallots in parts of Australia 😉
http://thefamilykitchen.com.au/green-onion-or-spring-onion-shallot-or-eschalot/
These look so good! I’m in Aus too though; I think you might mean spring onions rather than shallots. They’re pretty different looks/flavours.
I think she means in the brackets of the ingredient list? It lists shallots a second time
Would gluten free flour work for these??
I have the same question!
I haven’t tried Sophia but would love to know if it works! N x
Another perfect recipe! Like the carnitas, these pancakes will also be a freezer staple. Ready when the cravings kick in!
Excellent Maria!! N x
Served these up over the weekend alongside your char siu pork making its second appearance! Rice and a reasonably basic bok choy stir fry also starred!
My daughter’s friends think I’m a bloody work of art, hahahaha.
Thanks Nagi xx
YUM! Sounds great Alimak! N x
These look good. I have never had scallion pancakes before, this should be interesting.
I hope you love them Heather!
Omg I made this tonight and it was soo good! I added some fresh ground pepper to the dough as well for extra flavour. My partner was skeptical but he woofed it down and asked for more. I made extra and froze so I have them on hand now. This was such an easy recipe to follow – thank you!
I added some minced garlic and ginger to soy sauce, sesame oil and chilli sauce as a dipping sauce. Yum!
Sounds amazing Martin, I’m so glad you loved it!
Nagi,
You’re a bloody legend!
🙂 xx
Oh shucks!!! 😍
Ugh…I totally messed this up and I don’t know how or where, I cut the recipe in half cause there is only two of us. So I took 1 1/4 cut flour with 1/2 cup after but the water was not nearly enough to make dough …it was more like dry flakes ! So I added more water the get more the consistency of dough .let it sit for 20 minutes but I found the dough so tough I could barely roll it out without really putting some muscle into it. By the time I got the final roll out….everything was kind of falling out and I ended up massaging it down by hand so it wouldn’t be so thick. Anyway, flavor is good but I wouldn’t call what I made light and fluffy . The texture was more like a heavy bread …I am determined to try this again. But I have to figure out where I went wrong with the dough ! Any ideas ?
How odd! So it was kneadable pre rest then tough post rest?? 🤔
Well, it was kneadable preset but even then it was tough. I make Indian roti/chapati everyday so I was sure not to make this dough as soft…so maybe I just didn’t go soft enough.? But at the beginning, 1/2 cup water to 1 1/4 cup flour just didn’t seem to be enough? Beginning to wonder if I used the wrong measuring cup?
I’ll try it again in a few days.
Just made these tonight and used a pasta machine to roll out the dough thinly enough! Apart from the great ratios in the recipe I think this could be the reason they came out so delicious and crispy. They are the best version I have made and even beat my local takeaway shop! Thanks for this great recipe!
THAT IS GENIUS!!!
I am finally ready to make these but I see scallions in the pics and not shallots. Did that get lost in translation?
Hi Tamara! We call scallions shallot here in Australia!
I have not made these in forever. The first time I ate them, I asked my Chinese co-worker for the recipe. I though he had to be wrong. They were so fluffy that I knew he had omitted the leavening agent. I called his wife. She assured me to make them as I was told and they would be light and fluffy. I made them thinking that It couldn’t possibly work, but I was wrong. I love them. I think I need to make some tonight.
Oooh! I hope you do try these Patti! I am OBSESSED with Chinese pancakes!!
Forget the dipping sauce…we’ve been known to wrap them around grilled meat and devour them. Especially good with teriyaki chicken. Just don’t tell my Buddhist co-worker. He would probably be upset we were corrupting his recipe with meat.
BA HA HA! You crack me up Patti!