Hand-Eaten Pilaf 手抓饭
Hand-Eaten Pilaf is featured among the local specialties of Xinjiang.
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Hand-Eaten Pilaf (手抓饭) is a rice dish documented in Urumqi (乌鲁木齐). One lamb-based recipe published by the regional government combines lamb, carrots and onion, with raisins and dried apricots added before the rice finishes cooking.
How it is made
The lamb is cut into cubes and fried in oil until golden. Carrot strips and chopped onion are added, followed by water, cooking wine, salt and pepper, with Sichuan pepper (花椒) and ginger peel held in a cloth bag. After simmering, rice goes into the boiling liquid until the broth just covers it. Dried fruit is scattered over the rice, then the covered pot finishes on low heat.
Where it comes from
A 2023 cooking competition at Shiren Farm (石人农场) in Urumqi brought together fifty cooks from across China. They made versions with dried meat, horse sausage, chickpeas and preserved fruit.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-30. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.