Three-Delicacy Casserole 三鲜煲

How it is made

The Hubei Chu Cuisine Research Institute (湖北楚菜研究院) sets out the method. Minced pork is mixed with chopped youtiao (fried dough stick), diced water chestnut and salt and worked until it binds, then spread about half a centimetre thick on a sheet of tofu skin brushed with starch water. The slab is deep-fried golden on both sides, cooled and cut into triangles. Eggs are made into egg dumplings, soaked shiitake are blanched, baby cabbage is stir-fried and slices of braised pork are simmered with oyster sauce and soy sauce.

The cabbage and mushrooms line the warming pot. The meat-cake pieces, egg dumplings, braised pork and bujiangdou balls (卜豇豆圆子), made with cowpeas, go in on top in turn. Chicken stock is poured over and the pot is steamed for about five minutes, then finished with seasoned vegetable hearts.

Where it comes from

A writer from Jingming (净明) in Sui County (随县), in a 2019 essay for the Suizhou Daily, describes Suizhou sanxian as really a fried meat cake whose 'three delicacies' change from family to family. The writer's family chopped pork leg with water chestnut, bujiangdou, lotus root, ginger and spring onion, seasoned it with cooking wine, soy sauce and salt, spread it between two sheets of tofu skin and pressed it under a weight. The whole slab was fried until golden and floating, then cut up and either steamed or cooked in a hotpot.

Hubei Daily reported in September 2025 that Suizhou's public vote for its ten famous dishes put the three-delicacy warming pot on the list, alongside Marquis Yi of Zeng beef (曾侯乙牛肉).

Flavour and texture

The Chu Cuisine Research Institute describes the finished pot as strongly aromatic, fresh and tender.