Jiachang Wei

While the numbing-spicy málà flavor profile is the gateway into Sichuan cuisine for most of the world (and much of China), jiācháng is the flavor that defines everyday life inside the province. Jiācháng (家常), often translated as “homestyle,” is built around doubanjiang, soy sauce and salt. It’s a flavor combination you’ll find used daily in kitchens all across Sichuan for go-to stir-fries and braises.

Iconic dishes in this style include the famous twice-cooked pork (huíguō ròu, 回锅肉) and home-style tofu (jiācháng dòufu, 家常豆腐). This flavor also shows up in a variety of home-cooked dishes like braised duck with konjac (móyù shāoyā, 魔芋烧鸭) and stir-fried chicken with green peppers (xiǎo jiānjī, 小煎鸡). Some might even include mapo tofu in the jiachang flavor profile, though it is equally at home in mala wei; dishes can sometimes be a combination of more than one fuhe wei.

Jiachang wei is described as “savory, umami and slightly spicy” (xiánxiān wēilà, 咸鲜微辣), a combination that comes from a mix of Sichuan pantry ingredients (follow the links for more information on each ingredient and how to cook with it):

• Core ingredients: doubanjiang, soy sauce, salt
• Frequent ingredients: douchi (fermented soybeans), tian mian jiang (sweet wheat paste), pickled er jing tiao chilies, Shaoxing wine, black vinegar, msg
• Aromatics such as ginger, scallion, garlic and garlic greens are also often added

For example, salt-fried pork adds douchi to the core ingredients, which builds savoriness. Twice-cooked pork adds tian mian jiang, to add sweetness, and sometimes douchi as well; and braised fish dishes made with this flavor profile usually include pickled chilies, which bring some brightness. 

The defining flavor of all these dishes, however, is always Pixian doubanjiang. This is the ingredient that gives these foods their depth, saltiness and signature red hue. Cooks use 3-year-aged doubanjiang to take advantage of its deeper, funkier, lightly caramelized flavor and a red-oil version (hóngyóu dòubàn, 红油豆瓣), which is young doubanjiang with added oil, for brighter color and sharper heat. Or they sometimes combine both versions in one dish.

Learn more about jiachang wei on its new index page, which includes additional recipes featuring this complex flavor. 
 

Jiachang Beef With Celery

Contributor Xueci Cheng has eaten many a jiachang dish in her life, mainly in her Sichuan childhood home. Here she explores how this particular flavor became synonymous with Sichuan home-cooking. 

"Jiācháng (家常), often translated as “homestyle,” is one of Sichuan cooking's foundational complex flavor profiles and is an important part of daily cooking across the province. While twice-cooked pork is the most famous jiachang dish, made in Sichuan restaurants the world over, when I think about this flavor profile—built around doubanjiang, soy sauce and salt—the first things that come to my mind are the stir-fried meat slivers, chǎo ròu si (炒肉丝), made by my grandmothers and my mom. 

"I grew up eating countless versions of these dishes, improvised from whatever was on hand: mostly pork, but sometimes beef and chicken, stir-fried with seasonal vegetables such as young ginger, garlic stems and celtuce flavored with the rich, umami-packed notes of Pixian doubanjiang. When the meat is slicked with that red oil, I know it’s going to be a 'rice thief'—a dish so rich and flavorful that it encourages the eater to add lots of rice to the bowl. 

"One classic version of this simple combination, which I’ve been eager to recreate in my Berlin kitchen, is stir-fried beef and celery, qíncài niúròusī (芹菜牛肉丝)....

"This dish (also known as jiācháng niúròusī, 家常牛肉丝) is a good example of the way that the phrase jiachang, or homestyle, can refer either to dishes that are rooted in homestyle cooking or to dishes defined by the flavors of douban and soy sauce, because it meets both definitions: It is made in home kitchens all across the province with inexpensive, seasonal ingredients (with the meat used sparingly), and it is also seasoned with doubanjiang and soy sauce."

Once you understand the flavor profile, you won't really even need a recipe for chao rousi dishes. Just follow the general instructions on our new Jiachang Wei page. 

Iconic Jiachang Wei: Twice-Cooked Pork

For this huiguo rou redux, I revisited my original recipe from 2014 and gave it a thorough update as we celebrate Sichuan's homestyle flavor profile. This dish is now "hundred-times cooked pork" for me, so I've added a lot more tips for perfecting it and altered the recipe slightly to reflect that. 

It's actually an easy stir-fry, but finding the right cut of pork belly and prepping it properly are what guarantee success. Plus, of course, having the best of Sichuan's fermented sauces, which are what make homestyle homestyle: 3-year Pixian doubanjiang, red-oil doubanjiang, Zhongba soy sauce, sweet wheat paste and fermented soybeans.