China Live Signature Chili Bean Sauce

China Live’s Signature Chili Bean Sauce, a Good Food Award winner, uses three types of beans and a handful of natural ingredients to achieve its deep flavor. Doubanjiang, or spicy bean paste, is a base ingredient for several Chinese dishes and stir-fries, as well as a popular condiment; this one has a complex, earthy flavor (with a slight funk from the fermented soybeans) and a balanced saltiness. The versatile sauce has a paste-like texture, which helps add body to dishes, and its lingering heat comes from “facing heaven” chili peppers, which are known for moderate heat. This was the first sauce Chef George Chen started bottling, and it remains China Live’s bestselling pantry staple to this day. A little bit of this sauce will go a long way!

Ingredients

Ingredients: Broad Beans, Facing Heaven Chili Pepper, Salt, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Fermented Soybeans, Onion, Wheat Flour, Distilled Vinegar
Allergens: None
Specifications

Net Weight: 4 ounces
Place of Origin: California, USA
How to use

Beans are a Chinese cooking staple.

Although many people don’t commonly associate legumes other than peanuts with certain styles of Chinese cooking, fava beans, soybeans and black soybeans are used commonly across regional cuisines to impart distinct flavor, umami and body to dishes. Fava beans, or broad beans, are particularly common in the cuisines of northeast China. They’re used as the base for sauces—like doubanjiang—or to make noodles. Fermenting or toasting beans is an extra step that can amplify the flavors of a bean-based sauce, making it more robust, pungent or mildly sweet.

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HOW TO USE

A little bit of this sauce goes a long way. Use this chili bean sauce in our recipe for Spicy Broccolini with Seared Tofu and Sesame Oil (Vegetables), which calls for doubanjiang as an ingredient. Try replacing the chili flakes in our Sweet-and-Spicy Ginger Green Beans and Skillet-Charred Brussel Sprouts with Garlic, Anchovy and Chili with the sauce.

Kitchen Notes

China Live, a San-Francisco-based company by Chef George Chen, produces small batches of artisanal Chinese sauces and condiments. China Live combines modern interpretations of ancient Chinese cooking with Bay Area sensibilities: They organically grow or sustainably source traditional ingredients, including Chinese flavoring staples like hawthorn berries and bay leaves.

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