Chinese Curry Beef Buns

Chinese Curry Beef Buns are a popular baked bun stuffed with a curry ground beef filling with aromatic onions! Many Chinese bakeries will sell this baked good along with many other varieties.

The taste of the curried minced meat with the soft onions and that tender milk egg bun is pure heaven! These actually taste better the second day as the curry flavors absorb into the bun.

This Chinese beef bun recipe is my mother's. It takes back to memories of my mother and I. We would walk over to Chinese bakery that was only 10 minutes away from our home.

Then my mom and I would pick a variety of sweet and savory buns and we always got curry beef buns.

Afterward, we would sit down at the café to enjoy the warm buns with a hot beverage, like hot milk tea or horlick and we would talk about our day. Such good memories!

Ingredients & Substitutes

Please scroll down to below recipe card for exact measurements. 

• Large egg: for the egg wash
• Sesame seeds: to garnish the buns.

Bread Dough

• All purpose flour: a general-use white wheat flour. Avoid using whole wheat flour or the buns will be too dense. I don't recommend using gluten-free baking flour for this recipe unfortunately or the buns will become chewy and dense.
• White Granulated Sugar
• Salt
• Dry Active Yeast
• Melted butter: ideally unsalted butter
• Warm water: it needs to be warm to activate the yeast.
• Milk: or substitute with plain oat milk or almond milk if you're dairy-free.
• Large Egg

Curry Beef Filling

• Extra-lean Ground beef: Avoid using fatty ground beef or it'll render out too much fat in the cooking process. Or substitute with ground pork or chicken. Avoid using ground turkey as it tastes too gamey for this bun.
• Onion
• Cornstarch: or substitute with potato starch or tapioca starch. This binds the ground beef mixture so it's easier to stuff the buns without it falling apart.
• White Granulated Sugar
• Salt
• Curry powder:I like using a more mild curry powder like Japanese curry powder but Indian or Jamaican curry powder works fine too.
• Turmeric powder: to give the curry beef that yellow color.
• Neutral oil: like avocado oil, sunflower oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil or canola oil with a high smoke point. Avoid olive oil that has a low smoke point.

Instructions

Below are step-by-step instructions on how to make curry beef buns:

Prepare Dough

1. To make our dough: whisk together all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, dry active yeast in a large mixing bowl. Then add wet ingredients: melted butter, egg, water, and milk. Using a whisk, stir in one direction until your dough has come together in one ball. Cover with a clean damp towel or lid and let this rest for 10 minutes.
2. Dust the dough with extra all-purpose flour. Knead the dough until it is no longer sticky inside the bowl. Place the dough back into the bowl. Cover with a clean damp towel or lid and rest for 45 minutes until fluffy and airy, in a warm environment.
3. Roll the dough on a well-floured surface into a long tube. Divide into 10 equal pieces. Roll each piece into balls.
4. Then cover the dough balls with a damp clean towel and rest for another 60 minutes until they are fluffy and airy.

Make Curry Beef Filling

1. Heat ½ tablespoon or 15 ml vegetable oil in a large pan on medium heat and fry finely diced onions. Cook until translucent.
2. Next add in minced beef and break it apart. Allow this to cook until meat is brown.
3. Season with turmeric, salt, sugar, curry powder and mix well. Reduce heat to low setting. Finally add in cornstarch and mix well until combined.
4. Remove off heat and transfer filling onto a large plate. Allow beef to cool down completely.

Assemble Buns

1. Preheat your oven to 360 degrees F. Once the dough balls have rested, flatten them into 1-cm thick pancakes and fill the centers with 1.5 tablespoon of the curry beef filling. Then wash your hands of the yellow coloring so it doesn't stain the dough.
2. Pull up the edges of the dough and seal them into buns ensuring no holes.
3. Place the filled buns onto a lined baking sheet with parchment paper giving each bun enough space.
4. Lightly brush egg wash over the buns and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake

Then bake the buns in the middle rack for 20-24 minutes until golden brown on top. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.

Storage

• Leftover buns will last up to 4-5 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge. To reheat, microwave each bun for 20-30 seconds until hot.
• Freezer friendly? These can be frozen for up 2 months or until freezer burn. Let the buns cool down completely and store them into freezer-safe bags and squeeze out any air. To reheat, microwave until hot through out.

Pairing Suggestions

Curry beef buns serve well on their own but can be served with:

• hot milk tea, coffee, ovaltine or horlick.
• other Chinese buns like hot dog buns, pineapple buns, custard buns and more.
• milk bread or toast.
• sweet pastries like custard tarts, danishes, cakes, or cookies.

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