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A hujiao bing covered in white sesame seeds and browned, broken open to show steam rising from the pork and scallion filling
Prep1 hr 15 min
Cook20 min
Serves6 buns
CuisineTaiwanese
East Asia

Hujiao Bing: Taiwan's Night Market Pepper Pork Buns with Sesame

A recipe for hujiao bing, the pepper pork buns that draw lines at Taiwan's night markets: pork seasoned with black pepper, white pepper, and Sichuan pepper, lots of scallions, and a sesame-crusted dough. Origins in Fuzhou, the wall-baked oven, home oven temperatures, and sealing in the juices.

Total: 13 hr 35 minLevel: Intermediate

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 7

Mix the meat and rest it overnight

Mixing ground pork with pepper and soy sauce in one direction in a bowl until sticky
Stir in one direction for 2–3 minutes until pasty, then refrigerate overnight

In a large bowl, put all the meat filling ingredients except the scallions. With chopsticks or a spatula, keep stirring in one direction for 2–3 minutes until the meat is broken down, sticky, and holds together as a paste. Stirring in one direction links the meat fibers so the juices are less likely to escape after wrapping. Flatten the mixture in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and rest in the refrigerator for 8–12 hours.

STEP 22 / 7

Knead the dough and let it rise

Smoothly kneaded dough risen to about double in a bowl
Knead 10 minutes until smooth. It doubles in 30–45 minutes

In a bowl, mix the bread flour, dry yeast, sugar, and salt, then add the lard. Add the lukewarm water a little at a time while mixing, and when it comes together, turn it onto the counter and knead by hand for about 10 minutes. It is kneaded enough when the surface is smooth and no longer sticks to your hands. Return it to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place for 30–45 minutes until about double in size.

STEP 33 / 7

Chop the scallions and warm the oven

Scallions sliced and set out in 6 portions separate from the meat mixture
Slice 3–5 mm wide and wipe off the water well

While the dough rises, slice 120 g scallions into 3–5 mm rounds. Leftover water makes the dough likely to tear, so after washing, pat them dry with paper towels before chopping. If you mix them into the filling for the home version, add them here to the meat mixture taken from the refrigerator and mix evenly. If placing them separately in the traditional way, divide them into 6 portions. Start preheating the oven to 200 °C.

STEP 44 / 7

Divide the dough and roll it round

Rolling bread dough into a circle 15 to 18 cm in diameter with a rolling pin
15–18 cm across, slightly thicker in the center and thinner at the edge

Press the risen dough lightly to release the gas and divide it into 6 pieces (about 75 g each). Cover the dough you are not using with plastic wrap so it does not dry out. Flatten each piece by hand, then roll it with a rolling pin into a circle 15–18 cm in diameter, keeping the surface smooth. Rolling slightly thicker in the center and thinner at the edge keeps the seam from becoming thick when wrapped and makes the bottom less likely to tear. Allow about 1 minute per piece.

STEP 55 / 7

Add the filling and wrap

Placing meat mixture and scallions in the center of the dough and pleating the edge closed
Pinch the edge into pleats, close firmly in the center, and set seam side down

Put one of the 6 portions of meat mixture in the center of a rolled-out circle. If keeping the scallions separate, mound 1/6 of them on the meat. Pinch the edge of the dough little by little, pleating as you lift, and finally pinch firmly in the center, pressing with your fingers until the seam sets and will not open. The traditional wrap with scallions on top is bulky and hard to close, so take 1–2 minutes per bun, holding the scallions lightly with your hand. Place them seam side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spaced apart.

STEP 66 / 7

Brush with honey water and coat with sesame

Pressing the honey-brushed top of the dough into white sesame seeds spread on a plate
Coat densely with white sesame until the top cannot be seen

Dissolve 1 tsp honey in 1 tsp water and brush it thinly on the top of each wrapped bun. Spread white sesame seeds on a flat plate, press the top of the dough into them to coat densely, and return it to the baking sheet. Too few sesame seeds lack toasty flavor, so the guide is to coat until you can no longer see the surface. The work for 6 buns takes about 5 minutes.

STEP 77 / 7

Bake in a 200 °C oven

Golden brown hujiao bing baked and set on a rack to cool
200 °C for 20 minutes, until the sesame and dough are golden

Place on the third rack from the top (upper side) of the preheated 200 °C oven and bake 20 minutes. They are done when the sesame and dough on the surface are a toasty golden brown. Break one open and insert a thermometer in the center of the filling to check that it has reached 75 °C or more and that no red meat remains. Set on a rack to cool slightly and eat while warm.

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Ingredients

Ingredients

1 / 3

Meat filling

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Ground pork 250g With a moderate amount of fat
Black pepper (ground) 1 tsp Coarse-ground is fine
White pepper (ground) 1/2 tsp —
Sichuan pepper (ground) 1/4 tsp Grinding whole peppercorns gives a stronger aroma
Salt 1/2 tsp —
Soy sauce 2 tbsp —
Sugar 1 tsp —
Sesame oil 1 tsp —
Cornstarch 1 tsp Potato starch also works
Scallions 120g (about 7) Spring onions or the green part of long onions. Sliced thin
2 / 3

Dough

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Bread flour 270g —
Instant dry yeast 1 tsp —
Salt 1/2 tsp —
Sugar 1 tbsp —
Lard 15g Vegetable oil or soft coconut oil also work
Lukewarm water 170ml 35–40 °C
3 / 3

To finish

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Honey 1 tsp Dissolve in the same amount of water
Water 1 tsp —
White sesame seeds 80ml (about 50g) Raw or toasted sesame is fine
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In a corner of a night market, a crowd gathers around a tall cylindrical oven. The vendor picks up a round of dough coated in white sesame, reaches an arm into the mouth of the oven, and slaps it against the inner wall. Charcoal glows red at the bottom, and before long a toasty smell spreads down the street. When they are done, he scrapes them off the wall with a flat spatula, catches them in a strainer below, and bags them. Bite in, and black pepper fragrance and hot juices pour out: this is a Taiwanese night market classic, hujiao bing (pepper buns).

A baked meat bun that crossed the sea from Fuzhou

A night market stall in Taiwan baking hujiao bing stuck to the inner wall of a cylindrical charcoal oven

Hujiao bing's hometown is Fuzhou, capital of China's Fujian province. Who invented it is not known, but Taiwanese stalls still hang "Fuzhou hujiao bing" signs and say the flavor was brought by migrants from Fuzhou. Many longtime sellers have roots in Fuzhou. Pork and scallions seasoned with plenty of pepper are wrapped in sesame-coated dough and stuck to the inner wall of an oven to bake. This distinctive method produces a crisp outside and a fluffy inside.

In Taiwan it is now a standard of night markets and small street-corner stalls, seen all over the island. It has also been featured on overseas travel shows, which has spread its popularity among travelers, and waiting 30 minutes or more at busy hours is not unusual. Many customers buy in bulk, and at many stalls when they sell out, the stall closes for the day.

Did you know?

Fuzhou Lin Ji Hujiao Bing in Ruifang, New Taipei City, is said to have opened in 1988 as the first hujiao bing stall in town. It bakes on the wall of a 350-degree charcoal oven, and its dough, made with laomian (a fermented dough starter), is described as crisp outside and chewy inside. It is now counted among Ruifang's local specialties.

For the pork filling, some stalls use ground pork and others use thin slices. Ground pork yields more juice. The base seasoning is pepper, soy sauce, sugar, and wine, and some stalls add five-spice powder or curry powder. The other star is the scallion, which in the traditional method is not mixed into the meat but placed separately on top of it when wrapping. This keeps the fresh scallion aroma distinct.

What to know before baking in a home oven

Ground pork, scallions, black pepper, white pepper, Sichuan pepper, white sesame, and bread flour

The stall's oven is a special baking oven whose walls get hot from the charcoal. A home oven cannot bake the same way, so this article is based on the home sheet-pan recipe that the cook Marvellina shares on her site What To Cook Today. Baked at 200 °C for 20 minutes, the bottom comes out flat, but you still get plenty of toasty sesame and a filling that holds in the juices.

Three kinds of pepper are used. Black pepper is the pillar of aroma and heat, white pepper gives the sharp fragrance of Taiwanese stalls, and a little Sichuan pepper leaves a faint tingle on the tongue. Ground versions are fine for all of them, but freshly grinding black pepper and Sichuan pepper brings out more aroma.

Tip

Preparing the meat mixture the day before is recommended. Resting the pepper- and soy-seasoned meat in the refrigerator for 8–12 hours lets the flavors blend and makes it hold together better when wrapping. The next day you only have to make the dough, wrap, and bake.

The fat for the dough in the original recipe is lard. It gives the aroma of pork fat and a flaky texture, but if you cannot get it, vegetable oil or soft coconut oil at room temperature also works. Scallions can be thin spring onions or the green part of long onions, and a generous 120 g is used.

Ingredients (makes 6)

Ingredients for hujiao bing: bread flour, dry yeast, lard, ground pork, peppers, Sichuan pepper, soy sauce, scallions, white sesame, and honey

Amounts follow the What To Cook Today recipe (six large buns).

Caution

This dish contains wheat, soy (soy sauce), and sesame. Do not give the honey used for finishing to infants under 1 year old (per advisory from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). If an infant may eat them, brushing with water alone instead of honey will still hold the sesame seeds.

How to make hujiao bing

If the meat mixture is prepared the day before, the work on the day takes about 1 hour 30 minutes from making the dough to baking. In total, allow about 13 and a half hours including the time the meat mixture rests.

Caution

The juices inside a freshly baked hujiao bing are very hot. When biting in, first break open an end a little to let the steam out. Cook ground pork thoroughly through the center; Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare urges heating pork to 75 °C at the center for at least 1 minute.

Tip

If time passes between wrapping and baking, the dough slackens and the seams tend to open. Start preheating the oven early and plan so you can bake right after wrapping all 6.

Eating it hot, the night market way

Biting into a hujiao bing taken from a paper bag, showing a cross section with juices and scallions
Put it in a paper bag and bite in from the end while hot

At night markets, the standard is to have it put in a paper bag fresh from the oven and bite into it standing on the spot. The first bite brings toasty sesame, then the heat of black pepper, and finally the juices and the sweetness of scallions follow. At home too, wrapping it in a paper towel and holding it in your hand gets closer to the piping-hot feel of a street stall than putting it on a plate.

For drinks, unsweetened Taiwanese oolong tea or warm soy milk goes well. To gather a few more street-stall flavors, set it beside night-market fried chicken yan su ji, sweet-savory pork over rice lu rou fan, or the breakfast egg crepe danbing.

Did you know?

Because Taiwanese stall hujiao bing bake on the oven wall, the bottom puffs slightly rounded. In a home oven the bottom comes out flat, but because it bakes on a sheet pan, the bottom also takes on a toasty color.

Ways to vary it

A plate with hujiao bing made with ground beef and hujiao bing coated in black sesame

Instead of ground pork, you can use ground beef or chicken with some fat. Marvellina writes that lean ground turkey is not suitable because the filling turns watery. In Taiwan too, some shops serve beef hujiao bing, where the heat of pepper pairs well with the rich flavor of beef.

Some Taiwanese stalls add five-spice powder or curry powder to the seasoning. About 1/4 tsp five-spice powder brings out the sweet fragrance of star anise and cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp curry powder brings spice forward. Halving the pepper makes it milder and easier for children to eat.

Frequently asked questions

Baked hujiao bing wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in a freezer bag

Can I make them ahead?

Baked hujiao bing can be frozen. Arrange them on a tray lined with parchment paper, freeze about 1 hour, and when firm, move them to a freezer bag. What To Cook Today says they keep up to 3 months, but in a home freezer it is best to finish them sooner.

How do I reheat frozen ones?

Wrap them still frozen in aluminum foil and heat in an oven or toaster oven preheated to about 180 °C for 10–15 minutes. The center can stay cold, so break one open to check it is hot through, and add a few minutes at a time if needed. If thawed in the refrigerator first, the time shortens to about 8–10 minutes.

Do I need lard?

You can also use vegetable oil, shortening, or soft coconut oil. Lard adds the aroma of pork fat and makes the crust flaky.

What if I do not have Sichuan pepper?

You can leave it out. Sichuan pepper is there for a faint tingle on the tongue, so without it the taste is still recognizably hujiao bing. In that case, increase the black pepper slightly.

Sources