Chinese Fish Head Soup

This Chinese Fish Head Soup is a simple recipe you can make in just one hour. I am using one giant fish head (about 3 pounds) that I got at my local Asian market. I didn't have any fish bones, so I added some fish sauce to amp up the oceany flavors. The broth is so rich and flavorful and the meat is tender and soft.

Can't get enough of Chinese Soups? Try my Black Bean Soup next!

🍲 About This Recipe

Most people do not know this but the fish head is one of the most flavorful parts of the fish. It is filled with lots of fat and gelatin which will melt into your soup and give it creaminess and richness.

My wife absolutely loves fish head. Whenever we order steamed fish at the restaurant, she is always the first one to start picking at the head meat. I personally do not enjoy it as much as the flesh but it might be because I just don't like spending the time to pick at the little meat that is there.

Despite that, I love their taste in a soup. The head has a lot of oceanic, briny umami flavor, and it makes the broth super rich.

🧂 Ingredients

• Fish Head: I usually get whatever fish is on sale at my Asian grocery store. Salmon heads, grass carp heads, and bass grouper heads are all excellent choices.
• Aromatics: Ginger and scallions are all you need. This is the same combination I use for making chicken stock, and it works equally well here. Since we are only cooking the soup for 45 minutes, try to slice the ginger as thin as possible to extract more of its flavor in the short amount of time.
• Seasonings: Fish sauce, shaoxing wine, chicken bouillon powder, salt, and sugar.
• Oil for frying: Just a small amount is needed to fry the fish.

🔪 Instructions

For this recipe, I used both my wok and a large soup pot. I use the wok for frying the fish but then use the pot for simmering. The only reason I do this is because I find that my wok's seasoning tends to dissolve when food is boiled in it for a long time.

STEP 1: Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat and fry the fish head until golden brown and crispy, about 2 minutes per side.

If your butcher cut your fish head into two pieces, you'll have to do this in two batches.

STEP 2: Deglaze the pan by pouring in the Shaoxing wine. Use a spatula to scrape off any meat or skin stuck to the wok. Transfer the fish head and any leftover liquid to a large soup pot. Add ginger, green onions, chicken bouillon powder, fish sauce, salt, sugar, and 6-8 cups of water (depending on your head's size).

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting and simmer for 45 minutes. Once the time is up, you can optionally remove the fish heads and pick off the meat and edible parts (like the eyeballs and cartilage). The bones should be discarded but the others can be added back to the soup.

STEP 3: In a small bowl, combine one tablespoon of cornstarch with one tablespoon of water. Stir it into the soup and heat it up to thicken. If you want it thicker, make more cornstarch slurry. Add the white pepper and then do a taste test for seasoning. Add extra salt, sugar, or fish sauce as needed. Enjoy!

To make it look prettier, you can remove the green onion sticks and add freshly sliced green onions. You can also add ingredients such as tofu, wolfberries, or Chinese greens. The soup will stay fresh in the fridge for about 3 days.

📋 Recipe

Chinese Fish Head Soup

This Chinese Fish Head Soup is a simple recipe you can make in just one hour. I am using one giant fish head (about 3 pounds) that I got at my local Asian market. I didn't have any fish bones, so I added some fish sauce to amp up the oceany flavors. The broth is so rich and flavorful and the meat is tender and soft.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Soup

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 4 people

Calories 325 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ▢ 2 tablespoons neutral oil
• ▢ 1 large fish head (about 3 lbs; grass carp, salmon, or bass grouper)
• ▢ ¼ cup shaoxing wine
• ▢ 5 slices ginger
• ▢ 2 scallions
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• ▢ 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• ▢ ½ teaspoon sugar
• ▢ 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper

Instructions

 

• Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat and fry the fish head until golden brown and crispy, about 2 minutes per side. If your butcher cut your fish head into two pieces, you'll have to do this in two batches.
• Deglaze the pan by pouring in the Shaoxing wine. Use a spatula to scrape off any meat or skin stuck to the wok. Add the ginger, green onions, chicken bouillon powder, fish sauce, salt, sugar, and 6-8 cups of water. The fish head should be almost completely submerged in the water.
• Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting and simmer for 45 minutes. Once the time is up, you can optionally remove the fish heads and pick off the meat and edible parts (like the eyeballs and cartilage). The bones should be discarded but the others can be added back to the soup.
• In a small bowl, combine one tablespoon of cornstarch with one tablespoon of water. Stir it into the soup and heat it up to thicken. If you want it thicker, make more cornstarch slurry.
• Add the white pepper and then do a taste test for seasoning. Add extra salt, sugar, or fish sauce as needed. Enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 325kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 47gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0.03gCholesterol: 123mgSodium: 1514mgPotassium: 1121mgFiber: 0.3gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 227IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 25mgIron: 1mg

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.

Did you make this?Let me know how it was!

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