Chief Five Spice Powder

Five-spice powder is a mixture of five spices endemic to Chinese cuisine, but also used in other Asian cookery as well. It is made by grinding star anise and fennel and pepper and cloves and cinnamon. Five spice is used well with fatty meats like pork and duck. It is used in stir fried vegetables and as a spice rub for chicken, duck, pork and seafood. 

Five spice is used in recipes for Cantonese roasted duck, as well as beef stew. It is used as a marinade for Vietnamese broiled chicken. Although this mixture is used in restaurant cooking, many Chinese households do not use it in day-to-day cooking. A versatile seasoned salt can be easily made by stir-frying common salt with Five-spice powder under low heat in a dry pan until the spice and salt are well mixed.

The five-spice powder mixture has followed the Chinese diaspora and has been incorporated into other national cuisines throughout Asia. This aromatic, licorice-scented seasoning has become a defining flavouring for Chinese and Vietnamese cooking.