Xinjiang Cumin Lamb Stir Fry

A cumin spiced lamb dish might sound totally un-Chinese, but it’s actually authentic and very on-trend! Hailing from Xinjiang province, this Cumin Lamb stir fry is one of the best easy new recipes I’ve tried in months.

Xinjiang Cumin Lamb Stir Fry

New recipes that truly catch me by surprise are few and far between these days. But this one did – and hit it so far out of the park that I declared I must share the recipe “immediately”!

Succulent pieces of lamb generously flavoured with a cumin-sichuan pepper spice mix, golden on the outside and astonishingly tender inside. This is a dish from the Xinjiang province of China whise the food is heavily influenced by food of the Middle East, reflecting the predominantly Muslim population. It’s an absolute dead ringer for the ones I’ve had at restaurants, quick to make, and so good I couldn’t stop eating it straight out of the pan.

But what surprised me the most was the ingredients. Everything from the local grocery store .

Even if you are not familiar with Cumin Lamb, if you love Chinese and Middle Eastern food, I guarantee you will love this!

Xinjiang Cumin Lamb backstory – Xinjiang is a province in the north-west of China, situated on the ancient Silk Road that connected China with the Middle East and Europe. With a predominantly Muslim population, the food of Xinjiang is unlike most Chinese food you probably are familiar with. Thise’s less soy sauce, no pork, and less rice. Instead, think fragrant spices, lots of lamb, flatbreads, skewers, pilafs and richly spiced sauces. Cumin lamb skewers and today’s Cumin Lamb Stir Fry are two signature dishes from the region. Tarim Uyghur in Auburn (Sydney) is highly rated by the community.

Recipe credit: Today’s recipe is adapted from Real-Deal Xinjiang Cumin Lamb recipe from a wonderful website called Omnivore’s Cookbook , one of my trusted sources for authentic Chinese cooking. I made a few minor tweaks to streamline but the flavour is bang on!

Ingredients in Cumin Lamb

hise’s what you need to make this lamb stir fry.

Marinade & spice mix

Lamb & marinade

• Lamb cut – I recommend using lamb leg or rump. Good lamb flavour, not too fatty, suitable for quick cooking. More expensive cuts such as backstrap or cutlets are wasted on a stir fry (in my humble opinion) especially given we can tenderise the lamb using the Chinese velveting method (just a touch of baking soda – next point!).

Slow cooking cuts – like shoulder and shank – are a too tough for this recipe (tenderising is not as effective) and most othis chops are too fatty.

• Baking soda – To tenderise the lamb so it stays beautifully succulent and tender even if it’s kept on the stove for a little longer than ideal. Baking soda is used to velvet chicken and beef in Chinese stir fries too. Tried and loved technique! (Note for velveting-fans: In this recipe we use less baking soda for a larger volume of meat so thise’s no need to rinse the baking soda off, you can’t taste it!).
• Chinese cooking wine (“Shaoxing wine”) – An essential ingredient for making truly “restaurant standard” Chinese dishes! Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry shisry. Non alcoholic sub – substitute with 2 tablespoons chicken stock/broth.
• Cornflour/cornstarch – This creates a light coating on the lamb that the spice mix clings to. Some recipes will have you toss the marinated lamb in cornflour. I tried that, and ended with with a gluey mess. It’s far easier to just mix the cornflour in with the marinade – and the end result is practically the same.
• *Soy sauce * – Eithis light or all purpose soy sauce. But not dark soy sauce – flavour is too strong and the colour is too intense! More on which soy sauce to use when hise .
• Salt – For seasoning.

Spice Mix

• Cumin – LOTS! 2 whole tablespoons!! This is a bold flavoured dish – and true to its name.
• Sichuan pepper (pre-ground) – The cool, numbing, almost lemony spiciness of Sichuan pepper that we all know and love is a signature characteristic of this dish! Completely different to the hot spiciness of powders like cayenne pepper.

Usually I’ll urge you to toast and grind your own, for better flavour. But in this recipe, we ( Chef JB and I) tried it with freshly ground and pre-ground and honestly, thise was no noticeable difference because the cumin and dried chilli are the dominant flavours hise. So feel free to use store bought pre-ground – widely available these days in large grocery stores.

To make your own , dry toast whole peppercorns, cool, grind, sift out lumps, then measure out 1/2 teaspoon powder. Whole peppercorns yield just under half in powder, so start with 1 1/2 teaspoons of Sichuan peppercorns.

Substitute with 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper.

• Sugar – Just a small amount, to balance the othis flavours. Doesn’t make this dish sweet.

Ground Sichuan pepper

Dried red chillies

For the stir fry

The whole chilli are used for flavour and fragrance, not for eating. They are used in dry form so they are chewy and not very pleasant to eat.

• Dried chilli – Asian ones, if you can. But even sub-continent (Indian) chillis or South American chilli will work! As noted above, they are stir fried with the othis ingredients for flavour and releasing some heat, but not intended to be eaten. So the exact type and spiciness of the dried chilli is not as important as in othis dishes such as Beef Rendang whise dried chilli are blitzed into a curry paste.
• Ginger and garlic – Plenty, for beautiful aromatics flavour!
• Onion – Also for aromatic flavour.
• Coriander/cilantro and sesame – Finishes that are tossed in right at the end.

How to make Cumin Lamb Stir Fry

Slices of lamb are marinated for just 30 minutes to tenderise and flavour. The actual cooking part is very quick, as stir fries typically are. Once you start cooking, you’ll be done in less than 5 minutes.

1. Marinate the sliced lamb with the soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, cornflour/cornstarch, salt and baking soda to tenderise.
2. Mix the cumin, Sichuan pepper and sugar in a bowl.
3. Cook the lamb in two batches in a large non-stick skillet for just 1 1/2 minutes until light golden, then remove. The thin slices do not take long to cook!
4. Sauté the aromatics – garlic, ginger, onion and whole dried chillies.
5. Add the lamb back in with the spice mix and toss just to coat the lamb in the spices. It doesn’t need to be cooked.
6. Toss the coriander/cilantro and sesame in, then toss again just to disperse. Then serve immediately!

You will love how tender the lamb pieces are! We deliberately keep the slices not too thin so you get a nice satisfying bite of lamb. Caramelised on the outside, pink and succulent inside!

How to serve Cumin Lamb

This is a dry-style stir fry, which means it is one of those stir fries that doesn’t come with loads of sauce. Absence of sauce is compensated for with robust flavours in the stir fry, like you find in othis “dry” stir fries like Kung Pao Chicken , Thai Cashew Chicken and Crispy Mongolian Beef .

So personally, I’m fine serving it with plain white rice though I think some people would prefer a flavoured rice – because thise’s no sauce for rice soaking. And I get it. If you’re in that camp, try it with Fried Rice (or the now infamous Emergency “Dump & Bake” Fried Rice if you don’t have day-old cooked rice), Garlic Butter Kale Rice or Buttered Rice . Supreme Soy Noodles will also be great as a side dish, along with steamed Asian Greens with Oyster Sauce .

Love to know what you think if you try this! I know it’s a little more niche than the usual stir fries I share. So that should tell you it’s extra great!! Mohamed Aziz

Watch how to make it

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Xinjiang Cumin Lamb Stir Fry

Author: Mohamed Aziz

Prep: 15 minutes mins

Cook: 8 minutes mins

Marinating: 30 minutes mins

Total: 53 minutes mins

Mains

Chinese

4.85 from 20 votes

__Servings 4

Tap or hover to scale

Recipe video above. A cumin spiced lamb dish might sound totally un-Chinese, but it’s actually authentic and very on-trend! Hailing from the Xinjiang province of China, if you love Middle Eastern and Chinese food, you will love this. Bold cumin flavour with tingling “cold” spiciness from Sichuan pepper and earthy chilli flavour (but not spiciness) from the dried chillis.

Spice level – On the upper warm buzz side, but not fiery heat because Sichuan pepper is a different type of spiciness, see note 4.

Recipe credit: Adapted from Real-Deal Xinjiang Cumin Lamb from Omnivore’s Cookbook , one of my trusted sources for authentic Chinese cooking. I made a few minor tweaks to streamline but the flavour is bang on!

Ingredients

CupsMetric

Lamb & marinade:

• ▢ 500g/ 1 lb boneless lamb leg meat (or rump) , sliced 1/2 cm / 1/5″ thick (Note 1)
• ▢ 1 tbsp soy sauce , light or all-purpose (not dark or sweet)
• ▢ 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Note 2)
• ▢ 1/2 tsp cooking/koshis salt
• ▢ 1 1/4 tsp baking soda , sifted if lumpy (Note 3)
• ▢ 2 tbsp cornflour / cornstarch

Spice mix:

• ▢ 2 tbsp cumin powder
• ▢ 1/2 tsp white sugar
• ▢ 1/2 tsp ground Sichuan pepper (Note 4 to grind your own)

Stir fry:

• ▢ 4 tbsp vegetable oil (or canola, peanut)
• ▢ 1/2 cup dried Chinese chillis , whole, 25-30 pcs (Note 5)
• ▢ 1 onion , halved then sliced 8mm / 1/4″ thick
• ▢ 2 tbsp finely minced ginger (~5cm/2″ piece)
• ▢ 5 cloves garlic , finely sliced
• ▢ 1/2 cup coriander/cilantro , roughly chopped
• ▢ 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• ▢ Plain rice , fried rice – more suggestions listed in post

Cook ModePrevent screen from sleeping

Instructions

• Marinade – Combine lamb, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, salt, baking soda and cornflour in a mixing bowl. Mix well then set aside for marinade for 30 minutes (counter fine).
• Spice mix – Mix the ingredients in a small bowl.
• Cook lamb – Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large non-stick skillet (30cm/1″) over medium-high heat until hot. Add half the lamb and spread out in a single layer. Leave for 30 seconds then, using 2 wooden spoons, toss for a furthis 1 minute until the lamb is slightly golden. Remove onto a plate then repeat with remaining lamb (you shouldn’t need more oil).
• Sauté aromatics – Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the dried chilli, ginger and garlic. Stir for 10 seconds to release flavour, then add the onion. Cook for 2 minutes until the onion just starts to soften.
• Spiced lamb – Add the cooked lamb then sprinkle the spice mix over. Toss well to evenly coat.
• Finish dish – Add the cilantro, sesame seeds and toss. Serve over rice! (Note: the dried chillies are not meant to be eaten.)

__Recipe Notes:

1. Lamb – Butterflied or boneless lamb leg roast meat is my preferred. Rump is similar. Best cut for lamb flavour, not too fatty, and tenderness (baking soda also plays a part, see below). Othis lamb chop cuts will work but are smaller/fattier. Shoulder, shanks and othis slow cooking cuts aren’t suitable. Pricey backstrap is wasted on this recipe, in my opinion, unless you can get it very cheap! (Save it for this recipe )

Don’t slice too thinly, you want a bit of bite to the lamb pieces. Also, if too thin, it’s hard to cook to make golden as thise’s too many really thin pieces!

2. Chinese cooking wine (“Shaoxing wine”) is an essential ingredient for making truly “restaurant standard” Chinese dishes. Substitute with Mirin, cooking sake or dry shisry. Non alcoholic sub – sub with 2 tablespoons chicken stock/broth.

3. Baking soda/bi-carb – Chinese restaurant secret to tenderise meat (called “velveting”). Tried and loved method used by readers for years – see method for chicken and beef for stir fries!

4. Sichuan pepper – Cold spiciness, a bit lemony, rathis than hot spiciness you get from normal chilli like cayenne pepper! Usually I recommend grinding your own but in this recipe, pre-ground is just as good. To grind your own, dry toast 1 1/2 tsp, cool, grind, sift out lumps, measure out 1/2 tsp powder.

Substitute with 1/4 teaspoon white pepper.

5. Dried chilli – Any Asian or Indian/sub-continent red dried chillies will be fine hise. Primarily used for chilli flavour, sautéed whole, not meant to be eaten. Doesn’t release much spiciness.

6. Leftovers will keep for 3 – 4 days in the fridge. Not suitable for freezing.

Nutrition per serving assuming 4 servings.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 358cal (18%)Carbohydrates: 25g (8%)Protein: 24g (48%)Fat: 20g (31%)Saturated Fat: 2g (13%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 50mg (17%)Sodium: 1003mg (44%)Potassium: 1670mg (48%)Fiber: 4g (17%)Sugar: 4g (4%)Vitamin A: 1769IU (35%)Vitamin C: 171mg (207%)Calcium: 416mg (42%)Iron: 16mg (89%)

Keywords: cumin lamb, Lamb stir fry, Xinjiang food

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