Chinese Five Spice is a potent combination of spices that bring a savory and sweet element to dishes. Notoriously, the five spice are not necessarily the same across recipes, and some chinese five-spice blends use more than five spices. The Chinese five spice typically found in India contains cinnamon, star anise, cumin seeds, cloves and black pepper. Make your own Homemade Chinese Five Spice powder for a seasoning mix that is bursting with fresh, authentic flavor!
Our Five Spice Powder Recipe
We were introduced to this powder in one of the Television show and then without knowing the original recipe, we store bought our very own first Indian version of Chinese Five Spice powder. Like I said earlier, the blend consists of Cinnamon, star anise, cumin seeds, cloves and black pepper and all our chinese dishes were incomplete without this powder.
We roasted our whole spices and used blender to combine everything into a fine powder. If you own one, you can also use a spice grinder or just buy the individual powders and combine them. (The fresher the better.)
How to use five spice powder
Some of our favorite recipes rely on five spice powder!
There are weeknight favourite stir fries for example. There are also authentic classics like Indian version of Fried Rice and Noodles.
Do experiment at home and share your favorite five spice powder recipe with us in comments.
What can I substitute for Szechuan Peppercorns?
One of the key ingredients which makes this Five Spice Powder incredibly unique, bringing more of a sensation of numbness instead of a flavor is Szechuan Peppercorns.
Like I said! Store-bought Chinese Five Spice mixes leave the Szechuan peppercorn out of their blend because one they are expensive and two not easily available. I have observed in Southern part of India this spice is common, but not other.
You can typically find Szechuan Peppercorns at Amazon.in or at your local Grocery store (if you are staying in Southern part of India).
If you really need to substitute this awesome spice, then we would suggest just leaving it out. You will still get the general flavor of chinese five spice, you just won’t find the spiciness of the peppercorn. Substitute is Black peper (but a bad choice, and we dont recommend it).
How to Make Five Spice Powder
Ingredients
- 6 whole star anise
- 1 Tbsp whole Szechuan peppercorn
- 1 Tbsp whole fennel seeds
- 1 1/2 sticks cinnamon broken into small pieces
- 15 whole cloves
Instructions
- Gather your Five Spice (cinnamon, fennel seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, cloves and star anise). Take any of the whole spices you have and toast them in a dry pan over low heat until fragrant.1 Tbsp whole Szechuan peppercorn, 1 Tbsp whole fennel seeds, 1 1/2 sticks cinnamon, 15 whole cloves, 6 whole star anise
- Once cooled, place Five spices in a grinder (can also use spice grinder, coffee grinder, or food processor) and pulse until fine.
- Store in an air-tight container.
Notes
- We found that 1.5 Tbsp of Chinese Five Spice powder is perfect for seasoning of 4 servings fried rice (if you like spicy taste).
