Xinjiang Cumin Lamb Stir Fry

Name: Xinjiang Cumin Lamb Stir Fry
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 23 min
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 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/kosher salt; 1 1/4 tsp baking soda (, sifted if lumpy (Note 3)); 2 tbsp cornflour / cornstarch; 2 tbsp cumin powder; 1/2 tsp white sugar; 1/2 tsp ground Sichuan pepper ((Note 4 to grind your own)); 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)

Instructions

Prep:15minCook:8min

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!

Updated at: Thu, 11 Dec 2025 06:29:00 GMT