CNY Perfect Cantonese Steamed Fish in Superior Soy Sauce 港式清蒸鱼Chinese Fish Recipe | Hong Kong Style

Celebrate Chinese New Year with this classic steamed whole fish in superior soy sauce, a symbolic dish representing abundance, prosperity and good fortune. In this video, we’ll show you a clear, reliable method to achieve tender, flaky fish with beautifully fragrant aromatics and a glossy soy-based finish, using simple ingredients and traditional techniques suitable for home cooks. To make things even easier, we’ve included a helpful table below showing the correct steaming time based on the weight of your whole fish, so you can get perfect results every time whether you’re cooking for family or hosting a festive reunion dinner. Try making this dish at home and happy cooking!
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Serves 3-4 (in a multi-dish meal)

Ingredients

Preparing the fish for steaming
1 spring onion (white stem part only), to be used as a base for the fish
500g (17.64 oz) whole fish (such as grouper, coral trout, sea bass or pomfret), descaled, butterflied and thoroughly cleaned until all traces of blood are removed, with the flesh lightly scored
4–5 slices young ginger

For the sauce
5g (0.18 oz) young ginger, julienned
4 tbsp water
4 tbsp light soy sauce
⅓ tsp chicken stock powder
½ tsp sugar (or to taste - we added 1 tsp in total)
½ tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing Huatiao wine)

For the garnish
Some spring onions, shredded and curled 1-1½ tbsp cooking oil, heated until smoking hot

Steaming time by fish weight (whole fish) and serving size cheat sheet

Fish Weight | Non-Butterflied Steaming | Butterflied Steaming | Serves*
500g | 8–9 min | 6–7 min | 3–4
600g | 9–10 min | 7–8 min | 3–4
700g | 10–11 min | 8–9 min | 4
800g | 11–12 min | 9–10 min | 4
900g | 12–13 min | 10–11 min | 4–5
1.0kg | 13–14 min | 11–12 min | 4–5
1.2kg | 15–16 min | 13–14 min | 5–6
1.5kg | 18–20 min | 15–17 min | 6–7
2.0kg | 22–25 min | 18–20 min | 7–8

*Notes
Servings assume the fish is served with 3–4 other dishes. If serving more or fewer dishes, adjust the fish weight accordingly.
Edible meat assumes ~50–60% of the whole fish weight.
If it’s part of a multi-dish meal, each person usually eats ~60–80 g of fish.
If the fish is the main protein, you might allow 100 g per person.
For thicker-bodied fish (grouper, sea bass), lean toward the longer end of the timing.

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