Egg Foo Young – One of Our Favorite Egg Recipes

Raising backyard chickens has peeked in popularity recently. Quarentine times have brought out the inner homesteader in many people. Chickens are a great addition to any household. Besides providing hours of entertainment, they also provide eggs! Egg Foo Young is one of our favorite egg recipes and a great way to use all those fresh eggs you’ll now be collecting. Not raising chickens? That’s ok! Pick up a dozen at the store and try out this simple, delicious recipe.

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Recipe History

If you follow my blog, you’ll remember me mentioning my high school Home Ec class. I wrote about it in my 2 part Home Canning Basics series. I have a cherished binder of recipes I’ve gathered through the years that began with the ones from that class.

One of the recipes from the class was an Egg Foo Young recipe. I’d never had Egg Foo Young before then but it quickly became a favorite! I’m not really an “egg person”. I have to really be in the mood to have an egg for breakfast. When anyone asks, “How do you want your eggs?” I usually reply with “In a chocolate cake.” So I don’t have a lot of egg recipes. If you’re like me and not really an egg fan, you’re going to love this recipe. Trust me!

Egg Foo Young is basically a Cantonese egg omelet cooked like a pancake. There’s usually a thick, sweet sauce poured over top as well. Most of these “egg pancakes” contain both meat & vegetables. This recipe uses pork, but you can also use chicken or shrimp. You can make a vegetarian version by omitting the meat and adding more vegetables. This recipe can be made gluten free by substituting Kikkoman’s Gluten Free Soy Sauce for their regular soy sauce.

Want to use something other than chicken eggs? How about an Ostrich egg? Ostrich eggs don’t contain any sodium so they make a great alternative for people on a low sodium diet. You can even blow out the shell to use as an Easter decoration like we did. Check out my post about making Ostrich Omelets to see the video on how we did it.

Can Do How To

I like to make the sauce first. It needs to have time to cool in order to thicken to the correct consistency. You can just leave it in the pot you cooked it in to cool. It will have plenty of time to cool while you’re cooking the Egg Foo Young.

This recipe is very simple. Put all the ingredients for the “egg pancakes” into a large bowl and mix together by hand. I know slimy eggs can feel gross to some people but using a spoon or other utensil doesn’t work for this recipe. You need the eggs to be partially stirred and mixing by hand is the best way to get that. Try wearing a pair of disposable gloves if you don’t want to touch the raw egg. There are many egg recipes out there, but not too many that tell you to mix it by hand. Be sure not to over mix it.

Egg Foo Young is cooked in a skillet just like a pancake. Eggs are more runny than pancake batter and will sometimes run off one side. Just take your spatula and push the egg back towards the pancake. Once one side is cooked, and the edges are no longer shiny, flip the pancake over and cook the other side.

Once one side is cooked, and the edges are no longer shiny, flip the pancake over and cook the other side.

I like to keep a 9×13 pan nearby with foil over top to put the cooked pancakes in. The foil helps keep them warm while I finish cooking the rest.

To serve, just place one pancake on a plate and drizzle the sauce over top. It’s that easy! We love to serve our Egg Foo Young with steamed rice but its also good eaten alone. Enjoy!